Mod Plan fuel mileage concerns

Rogue Leader · February 2, 2014

Have some questions on my mod plan ideas on my 08 Silverado 2500 HD 6.0. My truck is used mainly for towing my race car, and while I do want to mod it to be more powerful/sound cooler etc, if the mods are going to negatively affect fuel mileage I'd rather stay stock to keep my fuel costs down. The truck IMO is powerful enough as is, so to spend money only to increase fuel costs is dumb to me for my situation.

Anyway I am looking to install a MBRP exhaust (going custom on the piping to make it dual outlet out the back), I also want to get some sort of CAI. Both claim MPG increases, is this BS or true? I realize it would be like 1 or 2 mpg but over a 34 gallon tank thats pretty nice. Or are the claims BS and I'm better off stock or even with some different mods. Any other suggestions? Truck is dead stock with stock size 245 tires.

oldscsc · February 2, 2014

I doubt that, with both an intake and an exhaust, you'd see a full mile per gallon gain. Even if you did, it would take a long time to pay off the $500+ you spent trying to increase efficiency.

I'd have someone tune the pickup for you if you do anything at all. You'll spend less than buying an intake and exhaust and, in my opinion, have a better running and driving truck for cheaper..and you may even gain one or two MPGs while you're at it.

KMGZ400 · February 2, 2014

It's all BS, they have to give you a reason to justify paying for the part.. Don't bother throwing money away on useless mods to try and gain MPG... IMO

kstruckcountry · February 2, 2014

Do it cause you like it, not for mileage.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Rogue Leader · February 3, 2014

Thanks for the replies. The exhaust really was more for the looks and sound.

My concern was actually more so that these mods could make the mileage worse, if it will be the same or maybe better than I want to do them. I realize in reality the only real benefit of the exhaust is to look/sound cool, and the CAI will maybe give a crisper throttle response. I will look into doing a tune as well to maybe squeeze a bit more out of it mpg wise.

kstruckcountry · February 3, 2014

I think I gained about a 1/4 of an MPG with my Magnaflow. No change in mileage with the tune either, but it's a whole new truck with it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chris · February 3, 2014

MBRP makes a good system. I only had mine fir 6 months and then gave it to a friend

Rogue Leader · February 5, 2014

How do you guys feel about the Superchips Flashpaq 2842 tuner? I like How I can tune different modes, like fuel mileage 87 for when I need to use this for the commute to work in the winter, and Tow, for when I have the race car hooked up.

I also see a Superchips Cortex 2950, any advantage to that one over the 2842? They both run around the same price on ebay.

tmaj1865 · February 12, 2014

Rogue, I was in the same boat several years ago. I have an 01 6.0 2500HD 4X4 that I pulled an enclosed 24ft with my race car.

It was stock when I bought it and normally I would only get around 9-11 mpg, towing about 8-9. So I went on the hunt for more mpg. I went with a CAI first, tried K&N first didn't see any change. Then I bought a Hypertech programmer, mind you this was over 10 years ago, so they were popular back then..lol. I seen a change, I picked up 1-2 mpg, but my truck would ping like crazy, I called Hypertech and they blamed it on the CAI, and K&N blamed it on the program..go figure. Any way, pulled the program and the CAI and went back to stock. I did this with several combos, and I ended up with a wait4me computer, a TrueFlow CAI and Gibson exhaust, now I average 13 mpg normally and 10-11 towing. Also I live in central Florida so it's fairly flat and I don't tow an enclosed trailer, but the seat of your pants feel and the mileage is good enough for me. I'm sure there are probably better tunes and CAI's out now, do some research, but If I would do it again I would get a tune first and then add to that....just my opinion

Mike

kstruckcountry · February 12, 2014

Canned tune = bad. Custom tune = awesome.

Mods first, then tune so the guy doing the tune can optimize the tune for the mods...

barky · February 13, 2014

^{Yea my MBRP exhaust was awesome until it rusted to sheet in about 6 months. Was not true 304 SS IMO....}

Rogue Leader · February 13, 2014

Rogue, I was in the same boat several years ago. I have an 01 6.0 2500HD 4X4 that I pulled an enclosed 24ft with my race car.

It was stock when I bought it and normally I would only get around 9-11 mpg, towing about 8-9. So I went on the hunt for more mpg. I went with a CAI first, tried K&N first didn't see any change. Then I bought a Hypertech programmer, mind you this was over 10 years ago, so they were popular back then..lol. I seen a change, I picked up 1-2 mpg, but my truck would ping like crazy, I called Hypertech and they blamed it on the CAI, and K&N blamed it on the program..go figure. Any way, pulled the program and the CAI and went back to stock. I did this with several combos, and I ended up with a wait4me computer, a TrueFlow CAI and Gibson exhaust, now I average 13 mpg normally and 10-11 towing. Also I live in central Florida so it's fairly flat and I don't tow an enclosed trailer, but the seat of your pants feel and the mileage is good enough for me. I'm sure there are probably better tunes and CAI's out now, do some research, but If I would do it again I would get a tune first and then add to that....just my opinion

Mike

Where would I find a wait4me computer? I pull a 17 foot open trailer, but could def still use the MPGs.

Canned tune = bad. Custom tune = awesome.

Mods first, then tune so the guy doing the tune can optimize the tune for the mods...

Only problem I see is I like the adjust-ability of the tune computers, Nice to have choices as my truck plays different roles. I can't imagine 1 custom tune could be perfect for every role?

^{Yea my MBRP exhaust was awesome until it rusted to sheet in about 6 months. Was not true 304 SS IMO....}

The Muffler as well or just the pipes? I will be doing all custom pipes since it seems noone offers an exhaust for the Ext cab long bed.

Chris · February 13, 2014

The Autocal that Black Bear offers can hold 4 different custom tunes

tmaj1865 · February 14, 2014

Where would I find a wait4me computer? I pull a 17 foot open trailer, but could def still use the MPGs

wait4me was all over the forums about 10 or so years ago...give or take a few years, I went with them cause they were cheap. I bought a new computer for under $200 and it's still in the truck, I do still have the factory computer. But do a search on Google and on other forums and read what other people are using. I think once I'm done painting my truck I'm going to ask around for someone to do a custom tune to see if I can gain a couple more mpg's