Gas mileage question

[pilotcld]

I just bought my truck and am overall fine with the gas mileage I’m getting, but quick question.
I have a 2008 Ram 1500 6-speed 4.7L truck with 81,000 miles on it.
I’ve been getting 13 mpg with 90% of that being freeway driving.
I just changed the oil and oil filter. The old oil was pitch black.
I bought 16 spark plugs. 8 copper and gapped them for the tops and 8 iridium for the bottom. I’m going to take out one set of plugs and if they are nasty I’ll change em, if they look find I’m getting my money back.
Anywho, any ideas on what I can do to bring gas mileage closer to 15-17 the truck is “supposed” to get?
If there’s nothing I can do, oh well. Like I said, love my truck and expected to get less than 15 mpg.

Also, when it comes to cold air intakes, worth it or not? If worth it, K&N (I can get a new one for $288), S&B? Others?

 

[PoMansRam]

I don't think cold air intakes or K&N's are worth anything on a stock setup other than giving you a custom look, making you feel good and changing the intake sound of your engine.

Main thing is to keep stock ride height and tire size. Run normal passenger/street tires aired up a few pounds above door sticker specs. This is just a few things to help maximize MPG.

 

[Karlsweg]

Winter gas will cause a drop.

 

[Marley]

You may want to run a bottle of fuel injector cleaner through the tank.

Fresh plugs will help but will age you getting the old ones out and new in, especially the 5.7.

Aftermarket products like CAI, TBS , K&N air filters and dual exhausts do little UNLESS you tune it with tuner.....that's when they show some merit and better fuel economy.

 

[pilotcld]

I don't think cold air intakes or K&N's are worth anything on a stock setup other than giving you a custom look, making you feel good and changing the intake sound of your engine.

Main thing is to keep stock ride height and tire size. Run normal passenger/street tires aired up a few pounds above door sticker specs. This is just a few things to help maximize MPG.

Thanks for the answers.
Decided against changing spark plugs. Took out one of the intake ones and one of the exhaust, each were still pretty clean and not worth changing.
Cleaned out and re-oiled the rectangle K&N filter I already have in the truck.
I know for sure the truck has a leveling kit installed. Currently have KO2 285\70R17’s.

 

[Karlsweg]

The tires may be hurting mpg a little also. From what I found they weigh 55 lbs. the heavier the tire is more rotational mass which kills mpg.

 

[pilotcld]

The tires may be hurting mpg a little also. From what I found they weigh 55 lbs. the heavier the tire is more rotational mass which kills mpg.

Alrighty, that figures. They’re definitely better than the tires I had on here (they were bigger muddling tires), just felt like the smaller KO2’s would’ve looked funny with the leveling kit on there. Thanks for the info!

 

[joecal]

I wish I was getting that kind of mileage. I'm getting about 7.6 mpg right now with a 2003 with a 4.7. I bought it about 6 months ago and I'm still trying to track down a P0172 engine code. It has a K&N cold air intake installed that was on it when I bought it. I think it was tuned, it has partial sticker left on the back window that I think said Superchips. I changed the spark plugs and several sensors including the O2 sensors and the CEL light's still on. The truck only has 66K miles on it, it runs fine but the gas mileage is terrible.

 

[pilotcld]

I wish I was getting that kind of mileage. I'm getting about 7.6 mpg right now with a 2003 with a 4.7. I bought it about 6 months ago and I'm still trying to track down a P0172 engine code. It has a K&N cold air intake installed that was on it when I bought it. I think it was tuned, it has partial sticker left on the back window that I think said Superchips. I changed the spark plugs and several sensors including the O2 sensors and the CEL light's still on. The truck only has 66K miles on it, it runs fine but the gas mileage is terrible.

Wow!! That’s crazy! Just so you know, I had a check engine light on a while ago after I filled up once and it was because my gas cap wasn’t screwed on all the way. I had turned the cap when filling until it felt tight, but it didn’t feel like it was going to click. So I turned it harder, finally it clicked. Drove for another 40-50 miles and the light went away.
Have you cleaned out the filter and checked the MAP sensor for crud on it? I just used a K&N filter cleaning kit yesterday.
I wonder if there’s a way to take the truck to a dealer and have whatever it was chipped to do set back to factory settings

 

[HemiLonestar]

You won't get the same mileage as a same year automatic because the RFE has two overdrive gears, whereas your 6sp only has one. The more you can drop the RPM (especially with highway driving) the more fuel you save.

 

[pilotcld]

You won't get the same mileage as a same year automatic because the RFE has two overdrive gears, whereas your 6sp only has one. The more you can drop the RPM (especially with highway driving) the more fuel you save.

Oh I had no idea about that! That explains why the credit union program dropped the value of the truck by $300 for having stick shift

 

[HemiLonestar]

Oh I had no idea about that! That explains why the credit union program dropped the value of the truck by $300 for having stick shift

That probably has less to do with mileage and more to do with the increased requirement of driver attention a manual transmission requires.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[LoneWolf3574]

I just bought my truck and am overall fine with the gas mileage I’m getting, but quick question.
I have a 2008 Ram 1500 6-speed 4.7L truck with 81,000 miles on it.
I’ve been getting 13 mpg with 90% of that being freeway driving.
I just changed the oil and oil filter. The old oil was pitch black.
I bought 16 spark plugs. 8 copper and gapped them for the tops and 8 iridium for the bottom. I’m going to take out one set of plugs and if they are nasty I’ll change em, if they look find I’m getting my money back.
Anywho, any ideas on what I can do to bring gas mileage closer to 15-17 the truck is “supposed” to get?
If there’s nothing I can do, oh well. Like I said, love my truck and expected to get less than 15 mpg.

Also, when it comes to cold air intakes, worth it or not? If worth it, K&N (I can get a new one for $288), S&B? Others?

I'd run a bottle of injector cleaner through like Marley suggested and go from there. Are you getting any codes (pending or otherwise)?

I wish I was getting that kind of mileage. I'm getting about 7.6 mpg right now with a 2003 with a 4.7. I bought it about 6 months ago and I'm still trying to track down a P0172 engine code. It has a K&N cold air intake installed that was on it when I bought it. I think it was tuned, it has partial sticker left on the back window that I think said Superchips. I changed the spark plugs and several sensors including the O2 sensors and the CEL light's still on. The truck only has 66K miles on it, it runs fine but the gas mileage is terrible.

You're running rich on Bank 1 (Left side of the engine). Since it's limited to the left only (no P0175) it might be an injector or a bad O2 sensor. You could try running injector/fuel system cleaner through a tank or two and see what happens. I had an injector stick open on another vehicle, scared the hell out of me when I thought it was dieseling, a couple of tanks of injector cleaner and it was a good as new. You have a MAP sensor, the oiled K&N isn't likely to affect it since it measures air pressure and not air flow. I know a couple of parts stores in my area that flash the PCM, but I don't know how that would work if you suspect it was changed by a tuner.

https://www.obd-codes.com/p0172

 

[pilotcld]

Update: after changing my pitch black oil and oil filter I drove around for 17 gallons of fuel I got 14.5 mpg. I don’t know if changing the oil did the truck, but I also cleaned out my rectangular K&N filter, so we’ll see if that helps too.
Like I mentioned above, I figured I would be getting 13-16 when I bought the truck. I was just hoping to be closer to the 16 range .

 

[LoneWolf3574]

We all hope for that ever evasive upper end mpg, some of us are luckier than others in that respect, but we do have trucks after all. I'm glad your mpg went up after your oil change, use a high quality synthetic and after a few oil changes you'll probably see an improvement in you overall mpg, I know I have.

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

 

[HemiLonestar]

We all hope for that ever evasive upper end mpg, some of us are luckier than others in that respect, but we do have trucks after all. I'm glad your mpg went up after your oil change, use a high quality synthetic and after a few oil changes you'll probably see an improvement in you overall mpg, I know I have.

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

And longevity of the engine, fun things 4.7's can be (at least you got the upgraded one)

 

[adamh3844]

I wish I was getting that kind of mileage. I'm getting about 7.6 mpg right now with a 2003 with a 4.7. I bought it about 6 months ago and I'm still trying to track down a P0172 engine code. It has a K&N cold air intake installed that was on it when I bought it. I think it was tuned, it has partial sticker left on the back window that I think said Superchips. I changed the spark plugs and several sensors including the O2 sensors and the CEL light's still on. The truck only has 66K miles on it, it runs fine but the gas mileage is terrible.

I do a good mix of city and highway with AT Tires getting 14mpg on average.

 

[joecal]

Wow!! That’s crazy! Just so you know, I had a check engine light on a while ago after I filled up once and it was because my gas cap wasn’t screwed on all the way. I had turned the cap when filling until it felt tight, but it didn’t feel like it was going to click. So I turned it harder, finally it clicked. Drove for another 40-50 miles and the light went away.
Have you cleaned out the filter and checked the MAP sensor for crud on it? I just used a K&N filter cleaning kit yesterday.
I wonder if there’s a way to take the truck to a dealer and have whatever it was chipped to do set back to factory settings

I actually changed the MAP sensor and it made no difference and it has a new gas cap, the filter looks clean. I called Superchips and I was told a dealer could re-flash it back to stock. I have it at a local repair shop right now and I will see what they say about the P0172 code. I'll post their results if they can figure it out.

 

[joecal]

I'd run a bottle of injector cleaner through like Marley suggested and go from there. Are you getting any codes (pending or otherwise)?



You're running rich on Bank 1 (Left side of the engine). Since it's limited to the left only (no P0175) it might be an injector or a bad O2 sensor. You could try running injector/fuel system cleaner through a tank or two and see what happens. I had an injector stick open on another vehicle, scared the hell out of me when I thought it was dieseling, a couple of tanks of injector cleaner and it was a good as new. You have a MAP sensor, the oiled K&N isn't likely to affect it since it measures air pressure and not air flow. I know a couple of parts stores in my area that flash the PCM, but I don't know how that would work if you suspect it was changed by a tuner.

https://www.obd-codes.com/p0172

Thanks for the reply, I changed the O2 sensors months ago and there's no change. I did use a bottle of fuel injector cleaner, but maybe it needs more. The trucks at a local repair shop, so I'm hoping they can figure it out today.

 

[pilotcld]

I think I'm going to run mine over to the Dodge dealership as well and ask them if they can check to see if my truck has been chipped or not.