that's the hard part!!!

 

holy crap, 16mpg!? i get around 11 in a 5.2 manual. i'm definately getting a tb. would m1 intake + headers also help mpg?

 

depending on your truck, an M1 would probably hurt (low end loss), any mod that is going to hurt your low end torque will affect your mpg. the TB however and intake are good mods and will add across the rpm range.

 

Funny thing is, when I started doing mods on my Ram, my goal was not mpg improvements, it was low end torque improvements. I figured I would lose mpg in the process, but so far, the mods I have selected improved my low end (and even a little on my top end), and improved my mileage. Sounds unbelievable, but the numbers at the pump don't lie, and I can tell a definite performace gain by my SOTP dyno and on how it has changed when hauling loads and on steep hills I climb on my daily drive to work.

Some of my next mods are probably going to have a negative impact on my mpg though.

 

dyno sheet on the M1... eye opener... have a look.

dyno sheet

 

Just curious. Did anyone calculate the amount of bucks it cost to increase mpg by just 4 mpg?

In otherwords, if you spent $1000 in perfomance upgrades to get 16 mpg from 13/12 mpg. Would take a long time to recoup the money, I'd think.

 

I spent about $400, and got about a 3 mpg increase.
So, I calculated that I could have also done nothing, and used my $400 to buy 186 gallons of gas (at $2.15/gal). If I was getting 12 mpg, 186 gallons of gas would have lasted me about 2232 miles. I drive about 210 miles per week, so I could have driven on my $400 for 10.62 weeks. That's less then 3 months. So, I think it was worth it. $1000 would take over twice as long to recoup, but it would eventually pay off I think.

 

Since your on the subject, while your at mods, the next best thing by far are the new Edelbrock Aluminum Performance magnum Heads as well.....

In short), they say these are the best Heads for street/strip LA small blocks PERIOD!! and that you would have to go full race head to beat them. Go here to see hughs engine comments. http://www.hughesengines.com/heads/edelbrock_magnum.asp

Not only will it flow more, and have a far less chance of pining, But these heads do slightly raise your compression upon installation, also It is wise to either use 1.7 higher ratio RRockers, or stock 1.6 lift with a more aggressive cam. This will make the entire compilation much more useful, and each modification will help the other resulting is Large HP gains. Easily (60 to even 100hp depending on the cam itself)..... (not to mention your taking away 40lbs