Now, let me guess . . . all of you guys are running 9.0 1/4 mile trucks that weigh 5,000lbs. Then, on alternate weekends the 38" mud tires go on and the same trucks are used in truck pulls. Oh, and of course the 8" lift kits for those river fording on the way to work carrying 1200lbs of hay. I'm sure that is the typical user here.

Almost anybody can add on power and decrease mileage. I want to hear from the ones who have increased power, mileage and maintained emissions. Let me hear from the smart ones, not the smart-a$$ ones. Oh, and none of those "I heard of one guy . . . blah, blah, blah." replies.

 

Well, I'm not a smart ***. I increased mileage through tuning and increased power. IMO the 160* stat didn't really help in mileage, but the a/c did function better this summer with the cooler stat. The K&N FIPK increased mileage and power. My longtubes increased power, but I didn't really see much of a change in my mpg's. Overall, I get about 2 mpg better than stock. When I stomp on it the truck sucks gas like crazy though. Mostly due to the huge changes in the tune. Stock, our trucks don't enter PE until early 2nd gear on the 1/4. Also, the timing in the stock tune sucks and my stock tune was REALLY fat under PE. It was commanding a 12.0 or somethin when in PE.

 

Cool, thanks for the info.

See, what I'm considering is a Magnacharger as I want to do some car trailer towing and don't want to struggle on the highway. Magnacharger includes an exchanged and tuned ECM with their blower package. However, they disable the cylinder deactivation.

As of my last conversation with the Magnacharger people, they are not yet ready to release performance and mileage numbers on the '07 trucks.

I've picked up a reliable 1/2 mile a gallon and some pep by adding three degrees of advance in both he high and low octane tables. The change holds true when using regular or E85 fuel. The only adverse effect was one degree of knock retard during the switchover from V8 to V4 mode.

 

I gotcha. The magnacharger is a great product, especially if you want to retain some kind of warranty lol. I don't know how the mileage is with your exact truck, but I'd like to say you'd be getting maybe 13-15mpg with the radix on your truck? I dunno.

 

I reliably get 16.5 city and 20.5 highway after playing with tuning. My E85 numbers are off by two miles for both city and highway.

Magnacharger still doesn't offer a unit for '07 trucks, but they have told me the ECM will be modified to disable the V8 -> V4 cylinder deactivation. They don't have any mileage numbers.

The STS folks don't have a working model for the '07 trucks either. Same goes for Livernois and Procharger. Thus, I ask current '06 and earlier users what their mileage is.

My options are:
#1 An LS2 402. This will give me another 100hp and I can sell the 5.3 for $2500.00, but the swap is a hassle. However, my experience is that mileage won't change.
#2 A Magnacharger. This should give me 120hp, but it is about $6,000.00 and the mileage is unknown. This change is probably the most straight forward.
#3 A camshaft, header and under drive pulley change. This will give me about 50hp and will cost about $2000.00. If anything, I suspect my mileage will decrease slightly as the power band usually increases several hundred RPM.

And, as you've mentioned, warranty. Whatever I do, the truck must be reliable and good for another four years when I trade it in. So, what to do? That's what I exploring.

 

well, if you're wanting to easily sell your truck after several years I'd go with the magnacharger. Their product is awesome, and you get what you pay for. Heads/cam/exhaust will do a lot more than 50 hp my friend, maybe up to 100hp at least depending on what you get

 

We had a chance to dyno a 2003 5.3L Silverado with our front mount turbo kit and the base GT-37 turbo. The truck was fairly stock with the only mods being a Gibson Catback and 4.56 gear. I wish we could have baselined it, but the kit was installed by the customer. I've seen similar stock 5.3L trucks make 225 rwhp / 285 rwtq (some may make a little more, some less). It made 379 rwhp and 450 rwtq at approximately 6 lbs of boost.

Regards,

Rick LeBlanc
Livernois Motorsports

 

in sales.. I am pretty sure there is nothing I would want to sell you because it seems your a little to picky .. 6,000 lbs and getting 20mpg.. I think thats pretty tough to beat Sir.. Why dont u try some Fiberglass parts... Ditch the spare.... You could allways install a 600.00 Nitrous Kit it wouldnt kill your fuel economy... I cannot think of a thing that would give you 50-100hp and 4mpg that would make you happy...Sounds to me like you have a decent package already !..

 

Remember, this is a truck for towing, not racing. I have a 550+ hp GTO that gets 18 city/26 highway at 3,900 lbs, so I'm sure there's a way. Maybe its a matter of getting an overdrive transmission. I'm sure there's more mileage in it somewhere.

Consider this: My co-worker has a big Dodge dualie crew cab turbo diesel and he gets 17 mpg on the highway towing a 23,000 lb fifth wheel car trailer. So, he gets three mpg less than me towing 11.5 tons. I would guess the base truck is of comparable weight. He gets 17/21 without the trailer. I'm thinking his advantage is torque.

Hey, nobody has mentioned the Turbonator route. If one is worth 10hp, could seven be worth 70hp?

 

theres no way that dodge could get 17mpg pulling a 23,000 pound trailer unless its all downhill, and weight isnt comparible. that dually weighs about 1500-2000 pounds more.