Time to get that almighty MPG up!

I've read a few of you managing to get 20 mpg out of your 4.7L, what route did you take to accomplish this? I'm clocking at about 15 mpg right now.

 

The short answer is keep your foot out of it. But that's sort of like living your entire life on nothing but veggies in order to eek out an extra month on the planet. The usual techniques apply. Keep your air filter clean, and your tire pressures up. Avoid big gnarly tires and lifts, use cruise control when possible. In short, don't drive it like the truck it is.

 

Colorado TJ... ;-)

 

Ive noticed that if i drive hoghway with my larger tires i get killer mileage. Larger tires, engine spins slower to go the same speed. On the contrary, in town im only getting 15 15.5 or so

 

I've got the 5.7L, and I swear it gets better MPG at 76mph than 72mph. Around town there might as well be a hole in the bottom of the tank.

 

Check with your muffler shop to see what they say. Your exhaust system has something to do with mpg. But I seriously doubt that you will get up to 20 like you wish. I had a Flowmaster installed and I got a bump of 1 mpg. I installed the Flowmaster for the sound not the mpg. I big truck needs to sound like a big truck. lol Before I retired I drove 25 mile each way on a country road and that is what I saw. But it may not be worth the price of muffler over the cost of getting 1 mpg. This was my experience as I am not an expert.

 

an extra 1 mpg is about $100 per year

 

Heck, why stop there? Might as well buy a motorcycle. Cheaper to buy up front and cheaper on gas.

Cliff notes: You buy a truck to have a truck.

 

No, I meant for the average driver driving 10k a year. Yeah, $260 a year starts adding up. For me, it's like $40 a year, I only drove my truck 4k this year.

 

I think so.....lol.

 

On several 400 - 500 mile trips with mostly interstate driving, I get 17 MPG or maybe a little more with my 2002 4.7 Limited. All around driving, I get an honest 15 MPG. To date, I have 200,000 miles plus on my Tundra. In the Winter with snow and stop and go driving, I get 13 MPG or less.

I used to have a 1983 Ford E150 Club Wagon XLT with the 300 CID inline six and a 4 speed manual trans with overdrive on 4th gear. The truck weighed around 5600 pounds and it held 42 gallons of fuel in two tanks. I put over 330,000 miles on it. For the first 100,000 or so miles, it had a 3.0 rear end and I could get 20 MPG on long trips using cruse control. I pull a 2500 # bass boat and I had trouble pulling it out of the lake so I changed to a 3.5 rear end. My gas mileage dropped to 12 - 15 MPG in town and on the road. However, I could pull the boat up any ramp and acceleration was better. That old 300 CID inline six with a 1 bbl carb was rated at only 120 HP and but it developed 240 foot pounds of torque at 1800 RPM. I wish that they still made engines like that.

With gasoline now 30 - 40 % less than at its peak a few years ago, 15 MPG is not all that bad. Plus, the 4.7 V8 runs real smooth and has good acceleration and pulling power.

A well tuned engine, properly inflated tires and conservative driving will help you maximize MPG. I think, once you reach 55 MPH, you loose MPG the faster you go as you are pushing more air out of the way. Streamlined automobile shapes low to the ground are more efficient cutting through the air than a wide and tall pick up truck.

 

My ultra gauge reads 16.4 average. I drive 30 miles one way to work every day. Mostly highway but about 5-7 miles. City driving probably 50 miles a week. Stock everything

 

I have 03 limited 4.7l v8 with headers and flow master muffler 285/75/16 kn&n intake and I get 8 miles to 9 mpg that's it no matter what I do and there's no check engine codes I only get 240-250 a tank that's 26 gallons

 

I did but the mileage didn't change and the power got noticeable less I'm in the middle of diy hack on head unit adding a aux cable but can't find the thread again

 

No no sry I got bigger tires and mpg didn't change. Off topic a lil is I'm attempting the diy aux wire hack to the stock radio

 

I have an '03 Tundra with 87k on the odometer and my scan gauge typically reads 21.2mpg on the highway holding at 60mph and 15.5-16.2mpg while driving around in the city. Both scenarios driving modestly and not being heavy on the gas when accelerating. They few times I've really gotten on the gas my scan gauge reads 4.4-5.5mpg.

 

The more frontal mass you are forcing through the air, the less fuel efficient it is above 50 MPH or so. Suspension lifts & oversize tires make the MPG even worse. I roll at factory height on OEM size tires and the best my 4WD 4.7L can deliver is about 18 MPG. I didn't buy the truck for it's MPG, I bought it for it's power, ride height, reliability and practical use for work.

You could add an air dam to improve aerodynamics at speed, but it has it's drawbacks

 

Never had a dirty air filter affect MPGs. Also, read some articles on the subject.

 

Who ya' gonna believe? Me or the internet?? Hmmmm? True enough though, modern engine computers do compensate for restricted airflow, unlike those of yesteryear. But ya gotta wonder about all these claims that hi performance air-cleaners improve MPG (also found in numerous articles). It seems the internet is at war with itself.

 

As my hero, Dale Dribble, said,"There's no such thing as computer error, what they do, they do on purpose!"

 

They do! hahaha It's actually kind of cool but screw riding in below 30. K3 makes DOT approved dual sport tires *and yes i've seen people stretch them to sportbike applications.

 

Yep. Every computer error is really a programmer error. The computer just does what it toad. always.