Tunning for Efficiency? (Coming from an EcoDiesel)

[McDale]

Hey All,

I'm Mike, from BC. (Canada). I used to own a Cummins back in the day (pre-kids) with my old 2002 5.9 HO 6 Speed.

Now, I have a 2016 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. I'm contemplating a switch back to the Cummins platform now that we have a little more money to spend.

I had the EcoDiesel motor blow up on me, turned a bearing, while towing our ~8000 lbs trailer this summer over the Coquihalla Highway. (The Highway Thru Hell on Discovery! ) Anyways... The high oil temps I regularly see when towing with that motor and the catastrophic failure don't really give me the warm and fuzzys about pulling the RV anymore. (A time when I should be relaxing, right?)

So, I'm contemplating coming back over to a newer 6.7 Cummins.

One of the things I'm not enthused about is the fuel mileage... the Eco is incredible in that respect. I'm wondering, of all the tunes that exist out there... is there one in particular who focused more around increased efficiency only, withouth substantial power adds? 800 ft/lbs and 383 HP is already a lot of power compared to my Eco, and comapared to the old 5.9L.

So I'm more interested in making the Cummins as efficient as I can to "soften the blow" so to speak of moving from the EcoDiesel.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Tune related or not.

And HELLO!

 0 Comment(s)

[McDale]

Sorry I should add, any other "Efficiency" ideas are appreciated, even not tuning related... air filters?

Exhaust? Do they make an impact on the 6.7?

 0 Comment(s)

[windsearcher]

I'm pretty new into my '17 with the 6.7L, and also wondering same.

Will follow and hope that maybe some of the guys here have found the "Holy Grail".

 0 Comment(s)

[JBoatright]

I came from 17 Ecodiesel my wife drives now to a 19 2500, but I average 22mpg unloaded and my best was 24mpg (I was running 55 following my wife pulling a trailer for the first time LOL).




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 0 Comment(s)

[McDale]

That’s pretty good but those new ones have an updated motor vs the 4th gen in the 2017 I think.

I would be ecstatic with that kind of mileage!

 0 Comment(s)

[BlackBart]

Hey All,

I'm Mike, from BC. (Canada). I used to own a Cummins back in the day (pre-kids) with my old 2002 5.9 HO 6 Speed.

Now, I have a 2016 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. I'm contemplating a switch back to the Cummins platform now that we have a little more money to spend.

I had the EcoDiesel motor blow up on me, turned a bearing, while towing our ~8000 lbs trailer this summer over the Coquihalla Highway. (The Highway Thru Hell on Discovery! ) Anyways... The high oil temps I regularly see when towing with that motor and the catastrophic failure don't really give me the warm and fuzzys about pulling the RV anymore. (A time when I should be relaxing, right?)

So, I'm contemplating coming back over to a newer 6.7 Cummins.

One of the things I'm not enthused about is the fuel mileage... the Eco is incredible in that respect. I'm wondering, of all the tunes that exist out there... is there one in particular who focused more around increased efficiency only, withouth substantial power adds? 800 ft/lbs and 383 HP is already a lot of power compared to my Eco, and comapared to the old 5.9L.

So I'm more interested in making the Cummins as efficient as I can to "soften the blow" so to speak of moving from the EcoDiesel.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Tune related or not.

And HELLO!

A 6.7 gonna be double the size of that Eco boat anchor, so itll drag yer trailer up the Coke no problem. Otherwise, keep yer hoofs out of it and itll be a fuel sipper in its own right.

At 3.0L them Eco things aint good for a whole heluva lot other than sippin fuel

 0 Comment(s)

[McDale]

A 6.7 gonna be double the size of that Eco boat anchor, so itll drag yer trailer up the Coke no problem. Otherwise, keep yer hoofs out of it and itll be a fuel sipper in its own right.

At 3.0L them Eco things aint good for a whole heluva lot other than sippin fuel

You bet! I feel like it's a great truck for people that do a little light towing with small 19ft RVs etc... Or lots of highway driving without a trailer. With 35's on I was easily hitting 27mpg on highway trips. Honestly, that's incredible for a full size truck. But, like you said, it isn't much for towing.

The EGTs jump way up pulling hills with the trailer and the worst part was the oil temps! Scary hot some times. On the Coq when we turned the bearing it hit 265F and derated the engine... (when I already couldn't keep up 80km/hr on the hill pulls even before the derate...) Really had to feather the throttle and manually shift it to keep the EGTs below 1350 or so... It would hit 1400+ sustained when pulling if I wasn't careful.

All that and I am well within Ram's so-called towing capacity limits for it... They must do that testing in the prairies. LOL

 0 Comment(s)

[John7821]

My 17 model is getting 24mpg on the highway.

21mpg average with all my driving.

It's bone stock.

 0 Comment(s)

[AKDoug]

My '19 3500HO CC LB SRW has never gotten better than just under 17mpg on an empty run for hundreds of miles with less than 1000' gain in elevation on the whole trip.

Towing 10K I get right at 11mpg.

Currently at 10.7 mpg average on the life of the truck, but idle times are pretty high.

I drive the speed limit, or just a couple mph over and don't drag race off the lights.

The only time my lie-o-meter says I'm getting 24mpg is running downhill.

Not impressed at this point. I will wait and see what summer brings.

 0 Comment(s)

[CaptainMal]

McDale,

I had an Ecodiesel for 5 1/2 years and 115,000 miles. It sure got hot with transmission heat also when towing.Recently went with the new Cummins motor in a 2500. Have yet to tow heavy with it but do have some comparisons with light towing (small trailer with quad or motorcycle) and not towing at all.

Without towing anything and running conservatively I have seen this:

DAA82242-29CB-4FF3-984A-5154E2565A33_1_201_a by Larry Malinoski, on Flickr

Now that does not hand calculate out because I have a second fuel tank and go lots of miles before fueling and hand calculating. If I show around 21 mpg I hand calculate about 19 mpg. My Ecodiesel would hand calculate around 26 mpg.

Now towing is different. I pulled that small trailer with stuff in it on a 400 mile run from Florida to Georgia often during the past hunting season. The Ecodiesel had 3:55's in the rear and running Interstate at 75 mph I often did a hand calculated 19 mpg. Running my 3:73's in the new Cummins I hand calculate 17-18 mpg running the same speeds. That tells me the percentage mpg loss is way less towing than running solo. Of course, this 2500 weighs a ton more or so and is of way higher profile.

Soon I will tow my toy hauler. It is the same one I often towed with my Ecodiesel. With that I got 12-14 mpg. My old 5.9 Cummins pulled the same old toy hauler in the same mpg range. That one had no emissions and my Ecodiesel had a GDE program so not emissions compliant. This new Cummins is stock for now. I will have a better idea after Daytona Bike Week when I finally get some pulling with the toy hauler. My expectations are it will be about the same as the Ecodiesel.

 0 Comment(s)