Let's start a "ways to get better MPG thread"

geordi · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:30 pm

Done, I would hope. Diesel is up to 4.29 here in South Floriduh today... Oh goody, another spike just before I'm driving back to Savannah. And it looks like I will be spending the summer in New Hampshire, and having to drag my trailer (with motorcycle) up there... Who knows how expensive it will be by then.

Wobbly · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:31 pm

retmil46 wrote:

PM sent to Wobbly on the subject. This is after all the LOST KJ CRD forum and the discussion was on ways to increase fuel mileage. It is NOT a forum on racism and xenophobia. As I said, the entire matter could have been handled via PM.

And now, if we're through attempting to publicly label gmctd as a racist and xenophobe (which I find even more offensive than some of you find his "middle eastern" comment) based on one off-hand comment and never having met the man, then let's end this disgusting hijack and get back to fuel mileage.

Thanks for your PM in which you share your credo about not criticizing in public. Try following your own advice. In case you didn't understand my post, I called the COMMENT racist, not the commenter. As far as hijacking the thread, you seem to a willing participant. Maybe someday you'll have your own forum to moderate.

crd liberty · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:42 pm

geordi wrote:

Done, I would hope. Diesel is up to 4.29 here in South Floriduh today... Oh goody, another spike just before I'm driving back to Savannah. And it looks like I will be spending the summer in New Hampshire, and having to drag my trailer (with motorcycle) up there... Who knows how expensive it will be by then.

We are still at 3.96 for diesel and the markets for crude are down today so
lets all hope the runups are finished for a bit, anyhow.

Steve

dieseldoesit · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:50 pm

Interesting post. For those of you that do the neutral thing when at a stop light, how long did it take you before you consistently remembered to put it back into drive? I tried this a bunch of times, but sometimes I space out and hit the go pedal, and feel like a tard because it is still in neutral. Where is a clutch when you need one?

mrkake · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:34 pm

I'm still trying to get the hang of the neutral idle thing. I forget to do it sometimes, and like you I have red lined it at a light with people behind me honking. :oops:

I do a lot of driving at or below 45mph so switching off the over drive is a little easier to remember. I don't know if that is saving fuel or not, but there is definitely a feeling of more power to the drive line which should equate to some savings. I make no claims to be an expert in the automotive field so I am just taking everyone's suggestions as a whole and monitoring the results.

Coal Cracker · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:50 pm

Ugggh Some People. :roll:

Anywho

retmil46 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:58 am

Another thing to look at is the route you use for commuting. A route that is slightly longer, but involves less stop and go driving or significant speed changes, or allows you to travel at a consistent lower speed (45 or 55 mph vice 65 or 70), can actually end up using less fuel than the shorter route.

Look at travel time for the different routes. If there's more than a few minutes difference between them, all other things being equal, the less time that engine is running the less fuel it burns. Quitting time at work, I wait 10 to 15 minutes before even walking out to the parking lot - otherwise I'd just be sitting in line burning fuel for no good reason.

Look at the terrain along different routes. Does one have several steep hills, another have several sharp curves that require you to slow down significantly?

Leaving for work 10 to 15 minutes earlier might give you a significantly different amount of traffic to deal with. In my case, if I leave 10 minutes later, I end up behind a county schoolbus for 5 miles of my commute, 35 to 40 mph stopping every few hundred yards.

Stopping by McDonalds on the way home? If there's more than one car ahead of you in the drive thru, you'll probably save time and fuel by parking and going inside to order. Lost count of how many times I've been stuck in line for 5 to 10 minutes behind just one car because they ordered enough food to feed an army and the attendant wouldn't bother to have them park at the side until it was ready.

Same thing for the bank. If you need to do anything other than just pull a few quick bucks out of the ATM, park and use the walk-up ATM or go inside and talk to a teller. At least that way they'll know your face when it comes time to talk to them about a loan or a problem with your account. It flat-out amazes me the number of people that try to carry out their entire monthly financial transactions from the window of an idling car.

honey_don't · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:35 am

Choose smooth concrete road surfaces over rough asphalt- significant difference in rolling resistance according to this Cummins fuel economy white paper for truckers:

http://www.everytime.cummins.com/every/ ... epaper.pdf

honey_don't · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:48 pm

here is a FUEL SAV'R I designed installed on the CRD:

dieseldoesit · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:49 pm

ha ha ha, post results on how it works. lol

just don't use one to save your brakes.......

mrkake · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:57 pm

Excellent suggestions on route and idle time. Since I am on the road running errands for the company most days of the week, one meal of the day is generally acquired at a drive through at which I am idling in line just so that I can hurry and get stuck in traffic while I eat. If I were to stop and go inside, eat my meal there and then head back to the other side of town I would eliminate at least 20 minutes a day of idling. I already try to plan my trips during non-peak hours as much as possible, but I need to look at my driving habits deeper. Not just MPG but the whole spectrum of driving. I bet if I carefully planned my routes and consolidated my trips, I may even be able to eliminate one a week. That alone could save me a lot of cash. This thread has been great. It has really got me thinking

mrkake · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:05 pm

honey_don't wrote:

here is a FUEL SAV'R I designed installed on the CRD:

That's awesome!!! It reminds me of an old Chevy 2 ton flat bed that my dad had for one of his construction crews. It had a governor on it so that if you had several tons of equipment on it, the thing would only go 45 mph with the pedal to the floor. Being the boss's son, I always felt like I should drive it since no one else wanted to and I got alot of folks honking and giving me a friendly wave of the middle finger. There are times when I could use a little "self control" like that in the CRD. It just too fun to mash that pedal sometimes

retmil46 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:10 pm

Finally got some data on MPG from tdiclub for the Topaz Syndiesel we were discussing on the GTL Diesel thread.

One gent went over to Houston and picked up 8 drums and a 15 gallon container. He loaded the 8 drums in his trailer and poured the 15 gallon container into the fuel tank of his Duramax.

On the way to pick up the fuel, running with an empty trailer on regular #2 diesel, he reported getting 16.5 MPG.

On the way home, with over 3000 lbs in the trailer running the Topaz Syndiesel, he got 17.2 MPG.

Depending on the year, that Duramax most likely had a near-identical Bosch HPCR system, CP3 pump, and vacuum fuel supply to our CRD's.

Towing an extra 1 1/2 tons and GAINED nearly 3/4 MPG. With some of our modded CRD's, we could probably push well past 35 MPG highway with some of this rocket fuel.

Hmm, a good nickname for it might be JP-35 (Jeep Propulsion, 35 MPG). :lol:

kcfoxie · **Joined:** Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:27 am **Posts:** 113

Looks like we got another 18.2MPG tank. We got 346 when the light came on and filled it up just under 360. The last tank was 366 or 368 and I put a full 20 gallons in it.

We didn't fill it all the way up this time. I am doing my floral deliveries in it tomorrow and topping it up with Biodiesel. Our coop just upped the price by a full dollar... putting it above diesel #2, again. UGH.

I may try that fuel sav'r ....

mcnaughb · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:29 am

I have been very dissapointed with my fuel economy until this week. I finally checked the odometer accuracy with my GPS and it turns out is is under by a whopping 13%. Here I thought I was only getting 22 MPG over a long highway trip and it turns out I'm really getting 27.

This means for our daily stop and go, I'm getting about 20. I can live with that.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:35 am

mcnaughb wrote:

This means for our daily stop and go, I'm getting about 20. I can live with that.

I can too but I WANT MORE :oops:

I'am also getting almost twice what I got from my past XJ's in town :shock:

I've noticed the few times I've towed our travel trailer I only loose about 1 to 2 MPG on the highway. I get 20 in round town driving but on a recent 250 mile trip at under 70 mph I only got 23. That's the part I find dissapointing. A similiar trip on one of my XJ's would have been 20-21 mpg :cry:

shoprat · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:29 am

[quote="honey_don't"]here is a FUEL SAV'R I designed installed on the CRD:

[img]http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh148/1494honeydew/P1010004.jpg[/img][/quote]
Hey! That looks GREAT!! Where can I get one of these for a V-10 Excursion? ARE THEY WIFE PROOF!! HA!HA! My wife always has her foot on one of the pedals at full extension!! Hard on gas hard on brakes.

honey_don't · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:23 am

shoprat wrote:

Hey! That looks GREAT!! Where can I get one of these for a V-10 Excursion? ARE THEY WIFE PROOF!! HA!HA! My wife always has her foot on one of the pedals at full extension!! Hard on gas hard on brakes.

__If there is enough interest I can put together a group buy, length of base stock TBD by level of interest
__WIFE PROOF requires use of special Grabber fasteners to hold the SAV'R to the floor. Requires a special device to remove (screwdriver)
__BRAKE SAV'R failed prototype testing.

007husky · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:17 am

When i got the jeep, was geting 24.

Did ORM, no change.

I started using Diesel Kleen (grey can) I got to 25-26
Then a TDI friend gave me a bottle of powerservie Diesel fuel suplement cetane boost ( white bottle) last 2 tanks, i got in betwen 27-28.

Nothing else changed, just the fuel aditive.
We r just getting out of winter here, so probably still using winterized fuel.
I m looking forward to install the inmotion thingie today or monday (freaking mailman) and see if it makes any difference.

retmil46 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:48 pm

If you're using a Scangauge II and have been experiencing the "tranny reboot" at speed every so often (ie, a sudden bang or lurch, tranny drops completely out of gear as the TCM decides to reboot itself), remove the SGII.

I know that's a painful desicion given the purchase price of these devices, but it may be that when the TCM resets itself in this way, it's losing all it's "memories" concerning shift patterns and is starting over from square one - and costing you fuel mileage in the process.

The past two weeks I've been driving the CRD to work, the MB being down for maintenance. This is the first significant driving I've done with it since disconnecting the SGII. Last week fuel mileage fairly well sucked by my standards - 260 miles, down to 5/8 tank, 11.5 gallons to top off. In fairness, the first 45 miles of that tank were some short weekend trips of 10 miles or so.

This past week, it was like a complete change in personality - 165 miles, fuel gauge still registering between 7/8 and 15/16. Same station and fuel, same pump even, same route. I'm wondering if perhaps the tranny finding it's "groove" again had something to do with it.

Another difference between last and this week - last week, I made religious use of OD Lockout any place the speed limit was less than 55 mph. This week, I let it shift normally and the Suncoast TC do it's thing.

I fully agree with Danoid - using OD lockout to engage the TC clutch does greatly improve drivetrain efficiency and allow greater use of deceleration fuel shutoff on the engine. When my CRD was still mostly stock and had the stock TC, using OD lockout noticeably increased my fuel mileage on my work commute.

But now, with the sum total of all the mods I've done - Suncoast TC, Inmotion tune, lift pump, SEGR, different filters, grille blockers and air tabs, etc - it appears that now, FOR MY PARTICULAR DRIVING STYLE, COMMUTE, AND VEHICLE SETUP (can't emphasis this part enough), it's more efficient to let the tranny shift normally. On level ground, the engine is only turning 1600 rpm to maintain 45 mph.

It may well be that the efficiency gain of a Suncoast TC vs a stock TC is more than that of a stock TC in normal mode vs a stock TC in OD lockout.

Let's start a "ways to get better MPG thread"

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