Hey Everyone,

I was reading through this forum a little bit while I was researching which diesel to purchase and I finally bought an 06 F250 crew cab 4x4 fx4 w/ 70k on it. Everything is stock minus a 4inch lift and some 35's. I love the truck but just went through my first tank and found that I had 8.9mpg's. This is hand calculated and I suspect my odometer is not reading correctly bc of the larger tires. I've checked the air filter and it's clean and have been looking into the SCT and the Edge tuners for getting an eco tune to help out. A couple questions;

Can I put any tuner on w/o putting in the ARP head studs?

What mods can be done on the stock truck that aren't inevitably going to grenade the engine?

Thanks for your help and I look forward to posting here!

Shelby

 

WELCOME

your odometer is off more than likely...

how long since fuel fiters, oil filter and oil have been changed??

first mods- egr delete, coolant filter, straight pipe...

 

1. OEM was 31.5, if you are on 35s (actually about 34.6) the rate of error is roughly 9%. Therefore, to hand calculate mileage, multiply the odometer by 1.09 to achieve actual miles traveled, then divide the gallons. If you are more interested in the bottomlline, just multiply your MPG by 1.09. Ex 8.9x1.09=9.7. Not earth shattering, but it is closer to what you are really doing.

2.Mod number 1: SERVICE YOUR TRUCK! Then get some gauges: Scan GuageII, Edge Insight, Bully Dog Watch Dog, Auto Meter, ISSPRO, but get some gauges! OBDII plug ins are a better bang for the buck, but you must weigh the price of EGT pick ups against an Auto Meter/ISSPRO EGT gauge. I ended up with a Scan GaugeII with and Auto Meter EGT and fuel psi. Without the gauges, you don't know the real condition of your 6.0.

3. After determining all is well with your 6.0, EGR cooler delete/coolant filter (and flush)followed by an SCT with custom tunes. In fact, some places sell the SCT with an exhaust and cold air intake in a package. Talk about Jekyl and Hyde change tuner/exhaust/intake would make all done in one weekend.

 

You guys are definitely a wealth of knowledge! Thanks for all the info and I will begin to check off the boxes one by one Coming back to the question about the head studs...how serious of an issue is this for the package of mods that Karls03 had mentioned? I'm not a drag racer but wouldn't mind to let her rip every here and there... Thanks!

 

I've seen stock trucks run race tunes daily and never need studs. I've seen stock trucks with no tune blow headgaskets, so it's a crap shoot really. Obviously the lower the power it stays, the less chance of headgasket failure, but I would put a mild street tune on with confidence, ESPECIALLY if you do the mods suggested already first. A coolant filter and an EGR delete will go a long way in keeping it together.

As for your gearing/tire size, it's probably off a little bit, but what size tires came on your truck factory? I know some of the special packages that had 20" wheels had almost a 35" tire factory. So it may not be terribly off.

When you say hand calculated... how are you filling the truck? Just pumping til it clicks off? Because that would be wrong as well. After it clicks off, you need to slowly keep filling and filling and filling until you have fuel sitting in the fuel filler neck. It's the only accurate way to put the same amount of fuel in each time.

Welcome!

 

Thanks! yes i noticed I needed to fill it til its FULL to get an accurate reading. I'm not sure if this would have affected my first reading or not :/ but for some reason it seems i'm getting better mileage on this second tank hah we'll have to see...

I was curious what the cost of the initial mods are for the EGR Delete and the Coolant filter?

Thanks!

 

Depends if you're doing the work yourself or not. Coolant filter anyone can put on, they run ~ $130. One of the best, least expensive mods, you can do for these. The EGR delete you can spend anywhere from $0.25 to $600, there are a few different ways to do this. The most popular kits are something like the RCD kit, or the Sinister MFG kit, and the knock-offs of those on ebay, these kits all run from $125 up to $299 for the Sinister. Depends on what you want it to look like with those kits basically. Lots of options there.

 

Cool, that helps start me out! I'll look up some DIY's on these two particular projects and see if I can get it all put in!

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

What are the benefits of a Coolant filter, I found a few DIY's on it and will likely put this in soon. Also what are the benefits of the EGR delete as well? Sorry for the amateur questions...

 

I really need to make a sticky/write-up of this, these are questions that I answer too often not to. Let me dig up a few links for you. There's a lot to explain this haha...

 

Any experiences with this kit? Seems like the end all to the groundwork for a modded 6L

Complete 6.0 Ford Powerstroke Solution with Sinister EGR Delete Kit, Oil Cooler and ARP Headstuds