travin69

Hello all. I am new here but not to reviewing the forum. Been planning a build for some time (last 9 months). Now that I am back from my deployment, it is time. My build is designed with one thought in mind: Miles Per Gallon. My initial goal is 30 MPG HWY at 60-70mph and 25 MPG CITY. I know, this is quite a feat and maybe not even doable, but I am going for it. My second goal is of asthetics, both inside and out.


Method of MGP Calculation: I have a Scan guage that will measure the CAN bus. After every upgrade, I will drive the same route (about 30-40 miles) and use the results for posting here. The city MPG will be a weeks worth of driving to work (I hit a lot of city traffic), again, using the scan guage as my method of MPG calculation.


I have a stock 2005 F150 5.4L 3V 4x4 Crewcab. Here are some photos:

travin69

For ease of the build, I will update this page with mileage results and comprehensive list of upgrades.

MGD

Hi & Welcome!

Some observations.

You'll need to consider (a quick l'il list in no particular order):

-shedding weight
-improving aeros (that means no lift/level, but rather lowering )
-decreasing rolling resistance
-decreasing driveline losses (e.g swap in a manual trans for the auto, ditching all the 4x4 apparatus, including the transfer case)
-decreasing static mass and rotational inertia of the running gear
-decreasing BSFC
-increasing volumetric efficiency
-increasing cylinder scavenging and exhaust flow velocity
-maximizing part-throttle torque
-minimizing / reducing parasitic losses (e.g efans instead of mech fan, electrical system loads, A/C usage, LED lighting, lol)
-gearing changes
-custom tuning
-mileage-specific trans shifting strategies (see custom tuning)
-torque converter lock/unlock strategies (see custom tuning)
-using highest octane fuel available (see custom tuning)
-exemplary maintenance ( e.g fresh front O2's, fresh plugs, alignment, etc)
-thinner / synthetic fluids
-whether or not you will be invoking hyper-miling techniques or not
-
-
-

What' s going to be one of yer largest concerns is velocity - drag increases with the square of velocity:

FAir = A/2 × Cd × D × v2

with

A being the frontal area of the truck in m2,
Cd being the drag coefficient,
D being the density of air (1.29 kg/m3) and
v being the velocity in m/sec.

In other words - the truck weighs almost 3 tons, is shaped like a brick, has a ~80+ horsepower driveline loss (thank the ****ty 4R75E in part for that), and you'll need to be going a lot slower than yer target velocity to even begin to approach yer stated goals. There is not going to be much you will be able to do to this truck to appreciably reduce drag (1-2 mpg at best, less as velocity increases), regardless of any other improvements you make. So - speed is going to be yer single largest fixed problem.

And all of this is going to take real money - so don't be surprised if the cost/benefit equation is suboptimal, other than to serve as a science project and/or hobby.

Oh yeah - and I do hope you'll avoid wasting yer time & money on those idiotic HHO generator scams. There's a feller whut posted very recently suggesting his l'il home-brew mason jar lashup bumped his 3-ton Yukon's mileage up by 7 mpg's. LMFAO !!! The **** people delude themselves into believing. Even when, clearly, the math confirms it's impossible. I reckon Glue-sniffing is back with a vengeance - or the feller is living the wacky-tabacky high life. And failed miserably at cipherin' in school

However - 2005 5.4L 3V's such as yours are in a high-risk demographic for injector failures - a toasted cat, bent rod or hydrolocked engine will quickly ruin yer project - remedy ASAP, regardless whether you are covered or not (mileage limit): http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/sd...229_r07m08.pdf

Looking forward to yer progress!

good luck!
MGD

tareed94

Interested to see this build. I've seen where performance mods (i.e. turbos) can boost mileage if babied. Not sure if the data is true or skewed but it could be worth looking in to. Good luck!

MGD

Turbos only increase mileage when they are not used.

MGD

tareed94

So in other words... No they don't increase mileage.

MGD

Hi.

Sorry fer not being clearer. My apologies.

Typically (but not universally) turbos are used to allow a smaller engine displacement to make power near-equivalent to a much larger one, when demanded. And provide more economy when not.

Hence - when driving under light load / light cruise conditions, you are not under boost as the demand for power is not there - ergo yer mileage will be fairy good given the smaller engine. Requires discipline though, lol.

Ask for power though (towing, high accel, climbing, headwinds, etc) and you dip into boost, which spikes fuel demand. Econ drops accordingly. The EB is a classic example. Power or econ - just not both at the same time.

This scenario does not apply in the OP's case as he's stuck with using the same 5.4. Adding any sort of forced induction will not improve economy - the opposite will occur, in fact, as boost will be accessed occasionally. Even MORE discipline


MGD

o6S1D9e

What ever came of this build?

Thanks for all the useful information as per your usual MGD!

[F2C]MaDMaXX

I suspect that after they never visited the forum again after posting this, they realised it was impossible to get that kind of efficiency from that shed of an engine.

jamzkurl

Interesting goals fs