Fuel Ecomony - Towing

thefivers wrote:
Hello all, this hasnt been mentioned so its probably not an option anymore. Years ago a friend changed the chip in his computer, he was running diesel and it increased mileage with both towing and unloaded. Is that still a thing, will "chipping" (I think they call it) increase the mileage of a diesel, or gasser too?

diesel yes, gas no for a simple answer. The reason being that a diesel engine is severely under tuned and increasing power increased efficiency a lot. A gas engine due to epa and other rules over the years is close to the max efficiency already and are lighter duty so you can lean out a diesel and make a lot more heat and power but if you do that with a gas engine you damage stuff. So, to get a significant amount of power from a gas engine you have to introduce more fuel. There is some to gain in a gas engine, but it will not get you the gains a diesel will when tuned. now you can get even more gains by deleting emissions but that is against the law ;)

for example, my 2014 f350, before I was tuned, I got about 18 to 19mpg us empty depending how I drove I might tickle 20. after tuning with a 100hp emissions on tune and a medium shift point high line pressure trans tune I got 22 mpg US empty. for towing the 5th wheel a couple weeks ago I put it down to a 35HP emissions on tune. towing to Alberta and back stock I get about 10 Mpg us. my trip two weeks ago I got 13 mpg US n that same 1000 mile trip driving the same way. apparently if I delete my DPF and EGR it will get even better but I haven't got to that point yet.