Amazing MPG gains... Magic fuel, or ???
I have driven 6975 miles since setting out on this cross-country trip back in early October, and I have recorded every single mile and each gallon of diesel fuel along the way (22 tankfulls so far) in...
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My best guess would be the quality and freshness of the fuel. I ran an 04 5.9 Cummins for 180k miles. Like you recorded just about every tank and had the fuel tank mod. After a few years, I would learn by the sound of the engine which stations in the area had the better/fresher fuel as they would always turn out better mpg numbers.
The other thing that has a good effect is the temperature of the air. Optimum air temp is about 65-70*. Hotter than that and the air is thinner which reduces the oxygen level which is not entirely compensated by the turbo. Colder and more energy is used to heat the air up during the combustion cycle.
There was once a boat company who had a great calculation program where you could see the projected speed of their boat with air temp as one of the variables. It was surprising to see a 10% difference in the top speed with changing nothing but the air temp.
On a side note, as soon as I saw your actual numbers and the lie-o-meter numbers, I knew you had a Dodge. :)
The other thing that has a good effect is the temperature of the air. Optimum air temp is about 65-70*. Hotter than that and the air is thinner which reduces the oxygen level which is not entirely compensated by the turbo. Colder and more energy is used to heat the air up during the combustion cycle.
There was once a boat company who had a great calculation program where you could see the projected speed of their boat with air temp as one of the variables. It was surprising to see a 10% difference in the top speed with changing nothing but the air temp.
On a side note, as soon as I saw your actual numbers and the lie-o-meter numbers, I knew you had a Dodge. :)
