Too much info!

[C&S]

I have a 2004 F250 CC 4x4 with a 6.0L. I have been searching for a desent "chip" for my truck to gain some respectable mileage. I have also been looking at putting on 4" stainless exhaust for a little bit of "out of the ordinary" sound from my diesel.

I was thinking of getting the edge juice with attitude platinum and a 409 stainless turbo back with cool duels exhaust kit.

After reading countless post for the past few months I'm am no more knowledgeable than when I began.

A lot of people say to go with SCT tuners. Tons of power with great shifting. Others say not to and go with the edge platinum. The platinum will shift fine.
Don't know what to do. I don't "need" more power, just want better mileage with some gauges, but don't want to put a new tranny in next week.

Now I'm reading that with the exhaust I will actually lose a couple MPG unless I put a different air filter system on the truck. More money to spend.

Where does it end?

Sorry just had to tell someone other than my wife. She's sick of hearing it!

 

[DiscountPowerParts]

Well you might of seen me say we have had customers loose mpg after adding an exhasut system. I think most of that is because even though your not trying to you automaticaly push the go button a little harder than before, just to hear your pipes. No one will ever admit to it, but I think its true to some extent. Also we where talking exhaust only. The Edge juice platinum with attitude is a great product, but it is very expensive. It has alot of great features, turbo timer, gauges, tracks times and neat stuff like that, but how often will you use all those features. A turbo time is a must have item no matter who makes it in my opinion. If you are looking for a tune for fuel savings, the juice will accomplish that as well, but for less money than that whole setup you can get a regular programmer. A fuel ecomony tune will add some HP to your truck, but not enough to NEED gauges. If you just want them thats cool too. Exhaust and a tuner you will not loose mpg If you drive exactly like you do now. Thats the trick. In most cases people are absolutely amazed at what happens when you add power to one of these trucks. I would say get the tuner you want and the exhaust....down the road a bit get an intake for it. The AEM is very nice and is half the money as the AFE and just as good. I run a custom burn that we sell and I still get the same mpg as before, BUT I beat it like a rented mule. Im sure if I could drive it normally I would get 2 or 3 mpg better. Actually a standard Edge Evolution, predator, SCT, Superchips, or Bullydog programmer will give you a good economy tune that you would be happy with. Please call if I have totally confused you.

 

[ralphinnj]

I posted this elsewhere, but it may help:

I agree that opening up the breathing is the way to go. It also depends on the gearing you use and your driving habits. If you are regularly on the highway unloaded, 3.73's is the only way to go for mileage. As you add weight and slower speeds with stop and go, taller gearing will help (sounds counterintuitive, but the stop and go is where you get pounded by 3.73's, so you need to make it easier for the motor to get up. It also depends on whether you are running a dually (DRW) or not. Those extra wheels have a lot of rolling resistance and unsprung weight. Duallies never get as good as SRW's. Probably 1-2mpg less.

As far as the tuner or chip to use, they all have their ups and downs. I happen to like SCT's Xcal2. It is very programmable by your authorized dealer. A lot of those dealers have multiple economy tunes (tunes written just for etting better mileage). The SCT is really the only product that I know of that also can interact with the tranny and better protect it. If you are never planning to add more power than stock, you may not be as concerned, but knowing it is there, whether with an Edge or SCT will eventually lead to trying it (both can add over 100RWHP to your rig, and it is a LOT of fun to drive it).

All of the above is really only important if you drive to get better mileage. These are heavy trucks, so any heavy pedal action just crushes your mileage. I often would get 17-19mpg when my truck (duallie) was new. That was when I really tried to take it easy. If I got on it at all, 15-16 was all there was. I really mean it. Your foot determines most of it. I bet if you go real light now with no changes, you can add 2-3 mpg. Its all in the physics...nothing magical. Beat on a heavy vehicle, expect low efficiency.

RL