Fuel Mileage

I just bought a new 05 6.0, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for getting better mileage out of it. Right now its totally stock I hope to get some head studs on at some point, but any pre head stud ideas?

4in turbo back (cat delete) and SCT tuner. Delete EGR system ASAP

I have a 2005 6.0l I average 16+ / - mpg city/hwy and 18-20 mpg long distance hwy.

I don't do anything special other than basic service and once in awhile a fuel additive.

I got a Scan Gauge II to read data mileage and use an APP like fuelmileage.com to data your fuel usage.
I just drive slow and don't jack rabbit it. I'm the guy everyone is cursing doing 55 mph while they all herd up to the next red light.

Seabass said:

4in turbo back (cat delete) and SCT tuner. Delete EGR system ASAP

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Is the SCT tuner safe without having studs, and how much would it cost to get an EGR delete?

I have a 2005 6.0l I average 16+ / - mpg city/hwy and 18-20 mpg long distance hwy.

I don't do anything special other than basic service and once in awhile a fuel additive.

I got a Scan Gauge II to read data mileage and use an APP like fuelmileage.com to data your fuel usage.
I just drive slow and don't jack rabbit it. I'm the guy everyone is cursing doing 55 mph while they all herd up to the next red light.

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Ya I drive it super mellow. The truck MPG says I am getting about 14 but hand calculated its more like 16. Does the truck gauge have a tendency to be wrong, or were my calculations just off?

The factory gauge tracks mpg from the last time it is reset. It might be close but it will not give to the minute fuel economy. If you reset it while driving it will be more accurate but if you are going down hill with no throttle it will saw 99mpg or going up hill will say 3mpg etc. Reset it set the cruse and watch it for a few minutes. It will settle after a few miles and give a approx of what your getting. I would not rely on it though. I use the distance to empty if anything in the cluster. Your mpgs is going to tank for the next few months though as we move from summer blend diesel to winter blend which will have other additives to reduce the gel point of the fuel. It happens every year and starts a why have I lost mpgs threads. When I lived where I did more stop light to stop light driving I would see 13-14mpg consistantly. I live in a larger city and now most of my travels is more hiway into and out of town and I see more in the range of 15-16. I normally get 16 to almost 17 driving normal on long trips but I tend to drive 80+. If I try I can get close to 20 but it requires me to drive 55-60 and watch my acceleration. I don't normally subscribe to the under 2000rpms on acceleration and more prefer a normal acceleration and it works for me. If your looking for things to do to get mpgs here is my advice. Maintain the filters and practice driving. Adding a tuner might gain you 1mpg. the only real gain I've seen mpg wise that was consistent was towing. Unloaded to teeters on a improvement to a loss. A tuner is not a magic mpg increase as it is advertised. It will amaze you in power not doubt but the mpg gain is not worth the purchase. The 4" exhaust will not give you a gain. There will be 5 people that swear ion their first born it will and 5 that swear it did nothing then. One guy will be here telling you about how he has less power after the 4" and the rest will say it is a mod supporting more power etc. Deleteing the egr will reduce mpg but the gain is reliability. Adding arp studs also is a neutral mpg mod but it will increase the durability and reliability of the truck. These trucks don't typically get 20mpg. There are a handful that claim that. They may be bad at math or have some freak calibration, or combination that allows that. They seem to get 12-15 city and 15-17 on the highway. I would say if you are out of those windows you may have a problem. Keep in mind that idling to "warm up" will drastically reduce your calculated mpgs.

Is the SCT tuner safe without having studs, and how much would it cost to get an EGR delete?


I have a stock truck as well.. My 03 CCLB dually gets 17-18mpg's all around driving.. As far as adding power with a tuner to a truck without doing studs is not something I would consider.. There are plenty of stock trucks that blow gaskets without adding power to them, you do the math..

The sct can be run without studs. It would be wise to not do as I do and run a race tune with out studs. Deleting the egr would improve the odds and arps will vastly improve the odds of a hg failure.

custom tunes can shut the egr off. not completely but will limit the times it opens a great amount from stock. run custom tunes see how you like them and dont haul a$$ everywhere to see pretty good mileage and dont tow in a hot tune and you should be fine. I run gearhead and love it SRL + for non studded trucks about 14 in town and 19-20ish on the hwy. but there is also innovative, elite and i know im missing a couple, check out the sponsors.

Vivian at Quick Tricks as well as Innovative and almost every other tuner will have tunes for non-studded trucks. I will say that on a normal tune I only got a 1-2 mpg increase, the best mpg increase came with my high hp tunes. Don't buy a $450 tuner and then buy custom tunes expecting it pay for itself in saved fuel. Get the studs and get a tuner to enjoy the power. At that point the extra mpg's are just icing on the cake.

Sweet thanks for all the help guys, I think I am going to leave it stock for now until I get the head studs and what not. I am thinking about some gauges though. I am looking at the edge insight CTS and CS, is the CTS really that much better then the CS and are there any other ones I should look at?

my CS lasted just about a year before it took a crap on me

and for the record my truck is hot tuned and never been studded, just make sure your oil cooler is good and ditch the egr. Also look to make sure you have the updated degas bottle cap from motorcraft and that your tank is at the correct fill mark.

Vermonter said:

Sweet thanks for all the help guys, I think I am going to leave it stock for now until I get the head studs and what not. I am thinking about some gauges though. I am looking at the edge insight CTS and CS, is the CTS really that much better then the CS and are there any other ones I should look at?

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CTS has a bigger screen and its touch screen. It really comes in handy when you add a back up camera.

I have a CTS and I love it, the screen is great, and its awesome that you can hook a backup camera to it. Talk to dozers diesels, they got mine to me with an egt probe in two days for a killer price, I'm sure they can set you up with an egr delete as well.

As far as the tuning is concerned, as long as the engine is in good shape you can run custom tuning and be fairly safe, I run the SRL from Matt at Gearhead, it is a tune specifically for non studded trucks and I have had no problems with it and many others run it with no studs. I have no plans on studding before I need to, I'm sure one day I will pop a hg but until then I'm using that money for other things. You can do it how you want, just don't think that you HAVE to have studs to run a tune.

How hard is it to delete the egr, obviously you can tune it to shut pretty much turn it off, but to get the whole thing pulled?

Most kits require pulling the intake manifold or loosing a few of the bolts on it

A hand calculated 16 is not bad at all man. I get a hand calculated 15-16 in my 04. I don't always drive it soft either and I let it idle for 5 minutes or more every morning before I head to work. I have hand calculated just over 20 on a highway trip. Having well inflated stock sized tires on it will help keep fuel milage the best. A bed cover will also help fuel milage. Driving habits are a key factor tho. But it seems that you are doing pretty good now.

Vermonter said:

I just bought a new 05 6.0, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for getting better mileage out of it. Right now its totally stock I hope to get some head studs on at some point, but any pre head stud ideas?

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Visit rudys diesel performance and they will walk you through what your options are. I was in your shoes about 3 months ago and didnt know sh*t from shynolla when it came to diesel performance mods and Ben at Rudys hooked me up...Good people and a straight shooter. I also recom H&S for a tuner bc its super user friendly and a nice product.

Ok well I would like to chime in here and give my $.02. IMO a custom tune designed for a non-studded truck should be just fine. You stand a greater chance at having your HGs blow due to egr or oil coolers failing.

Deleting the EGR isnt always the best thing to do IMO. I say that because I think it made my truck run just a little bit worse and by that I mean not as efficient. While I cant really say that I lost a bunch of power I can say that I run higher boost numbers than before translating to worse fuel economy. I still get about 17-18 mpg on the hwy but use to get about 20. If you could I would recommend upgrading the cooler and that be it. That way you can still pass emissions if you have to and you dont have to worry about your cooler failing.

The CTS is a great tool and IMO is the only way to go for monitoring whatever you want to on your truck. Yes it is expensive but even after paying for the egt probe and setting it up to monitor fuel pressure, it is still cheaper than buying gauges to monitor it all and it is VERY easy to install as compared to installing each gauge for what you want to monitor and finding some way to mount it. JMOs Hope this helps.