stock block
double roller timing chain

programer:
hypertech programmer set to 93 program running 91 gas

Intake manifold
fuel injector rails wrapped with insulating tape
fuel cooler <- this was good for 6% increase in milage... (do at your own risk)
Aluminum plenum plate
Runners currently cut .25" and edges smoothed out for smooth transition from plenum into the runner
Injector bores opened up
TB bores cleaned up

Ignition:
MSD off-road 6a box
MSD off-road coil
MSD 8.5 superconductor wires
Accell Cap & rotor
Bosch +2 plugs <- they dont seem to be durable enough and need to be swapped out

Heads & valve train:
r/t heads with 1.92's no mods to the castings
1.7 crower roller rockers
stock lifters (took the rhoads out for now... lost 1.5" of vacuum and hurt mpg by about 1 mpg)

exhaust:
gibson shorty headers
Carsound cat ?input 3" output
3" from cat to 3"input 50 series flowmaster
dual 2.5" outs from the flowmaster, reduced down to 2.25"
mandrel bent exhuast from muffler to tips.

Throttle body & intake:
52mm Fastman
K&N FIPK II with 2 filters 1 stock cone and the other a 6x7" round for top end performance

Gears: 4.11's

Tires: 295 75r16's

 

sorry bout jackin the thread... i tend to do that sometimes with out catching myself


just a CAI FIPK and the headers highflow cat flowmaster and duals... ( i checked the piping to ensure that it wasnt bottlenecked in any places after you posted about yours dropping down like it was, i didnt think it was b/c i was the one that put it on but i checked to make certain)

4.10's with 265/17's (winter tires... no recalibrations) and i get 250 - 260 a tank with a 26 gallon tank on a good day..usually its worse then that...thats all highway driving from home to college and back ..all freeway...not even a full mile off of the freeway and speeds less then 70-80 in OD

 

your 4.10's and the small tires are putting the rpms up pretty high at 70~80... what is it at when your doing 70?

what about your normal tires... what size are they and what milage are you getting with them?

with my 295's i'm at about 2k doing 70~72. I get my best milage going between 65 & 73 mph... anything higher and milage takes a nose dive. normal driving will get me about 13.5~14, romping on it will give me about 12.5.

 

Had to jump in here....I have 3.55 gears and 265/16's I run at about 1900rpms at 70 mph. I get about 250 miles out of 23 gal or so - I consistently figure my mileage at about 12 city/hwy (which I do both every day) I think it will improve after my latest mod - the Hypertech - it runs so much better. Let ya'all know when I fill er up this week......

My truck "likes" to run at about 71 mph on the highway, that seems to be the "sweet spot" if you know what I mean. So I assume that is where the best mileage numbers would be????

 

no problem... we were just trying to find out why Shot's milage sucks so bad... I think it's a combonation of a heavy foot and tall gears with stock tires...

I think it all comes down to how much vacuum signal you have at a given rpm & speed. I've thought of putting a vacuum guage on the inside to prove it but havent yet. when I had the rhoads lifters in there I had 1.5" more vacuum and about 1 mpg better than where i'm at now.

 

the weird thing is ...is that i dont lead foot it hardly... i mean maby once in a while ill get on it slightley to help the ram get out of its own way... but other then that im pretty gentle on it.. nothing so sever to cause the mileage to go down..

the stock tire size that came from the factory was 275... i have 265's on there now b/c thast what i could get the best deal on the snowtires i got... winter duelers (great winter tires!) i figured the 4.10's are made to run tires up to 35's and being 35 inch tires would run the most effecient with the gear combo... i know im WAY low on the tire size.. 265 are tiny tires but they are just for now...

i also would figure it would get crappier miliage b/c it being winter it takes longer to warm up now and when the computer isnt reading the motor is at operating temp... it will make the injectors squirt more fuel then normal... atleast that what i think

besides my CAI and my exhaust (posted above) giving me the performance i wanted..i know its the tires and the gears playing a role in the crappy mileage... ALSO! i forogt something... the winter tires are on some plain jane STEAL wheels ... pretty much steal rock crawler wheels .. just made for DOT standards... nothing special to them.. i just know they way a ***-ton-butt-load more then the stock 5spoke alum alloys i took off that had the stock 275's on them...i figured that would play a role too b/c it adds in an increase of resistance due to a higher amount of rotating mass the truck is fighting with

im bout due for an oil change (i run vavoline synthetic so i change the oil between 4-5 thousand mile intervals) last time i checked the oil i was down bout a quart.. knowing my plenum gasket is bad..and that would be a cause of poor mileage... thats gonna get swapped too.... the gasket actually went NOTICIBLY (sp) bad after i put on the CAI and the exhaust..prolly b/c i was romping the hell outa the motor the first few weeks i had the mods on it.. im also bout due for cap and rotor witch i know can cause bad mileage in severe cases

when the income tax comes in (pretty penny too!!) the MSD 6A system is going on..mainly to help out the throttle response and to smooth out the idle (idles rough.. no misses .. just vibrates a bit..witch the plenum gasket can cause to from what i hear) 8.5 mm wires mopar perfomance cap and rotor. and new plugs... ive never indexed plugs before but ill be doing that when i put the new ones in...

planned mods that will be coming up in the near future (within the month hopefully)

-ignition-
MSD 6A
8.5 mm MSD wires
plugs cap rotor (basic maintence)

at the same time (same weekend) im going to do the plenum gasket fix as well

while the intake is off im going to clean out the TB bores and the injector bores like steve posted in his other thread...im gonna hold on on the runner cut down untill i can score a another intake from somewhere it experiment with ... my truck is a reg cab short bed and weighs alot less then your guys's QC's do so i think ill benefit greatly from the runner cut down... just whenever i get that additional kegger is when ill monkey with it

i really wanna hold off for the hyperpac but the price is OUTRAGOUS! and ill already have a carputer (another on going project - waiting for the donor PC to start it) so i think im going to spring for the programer from hypertech... mainly b/c i DESPRATLY need to recal the speedo to get a more accurate mpg reading..and also programing the pcm to gain some hp and mpg too...

ALSO!!!! im going to go to an electric fan setup with a 180deg thermo to keep engine temps down... the main reason im going with an elec fan setup is b/c i think i will benefit from being able to stand in the engine bay instead of stradling the motor and stand on the inner fenders... or laying on soem 2x4's strung across the fenders for support while working on the motor and stuff...and if i gain some extra hp and mpg by eliminating some un needed rotating mass then thats a side plus..but not the main reason for doing it... im not worried about the amp draw b/c im lucky enough to have a stock 136AMP alternator... im mean i could run a small city with the power output from this alt... i had 2 12's and 1000 watts running with no stiffening cap and the lights would never dim during heavy draws....

so recap

in one weekend i plan on doing

msd ignition system
cap plugs wires rotor
oil/filter
elecfan conversion
plenum gasket fix along with injector and tb bore clean up
and hopefully a program

yea... im gonna need a few cases of some labatt blue light and about a log of chew to get me through that weekend..and a good helper..maybe ill hire a kid off the street to help me LOL!!!

good god that was alot of typing

 

hell yeah that's alot of typing... there are a couple of things that I can see that are working against you...

1) the leaky plenum. that will kill mpg by at least 1.5~2 mpg.
2) your gearing and tire setup is killing your milage even more.
3) the lack of correct speedo calibration (I'd get it done by the dealer), when I had mine re-caled I got back about 1.5 mpg compared to the manual way of correcting the milage (% of speedo delta... in my case it was 9.3%)

what can you do for now?
1) one thing I noticed is that my motor runs a hell of a lot better when my breather hose is disconnected from the intake pull your hose off and plug the intake side and put a filter on the breather end (part that goes to the valve cover)

2) get your tune up done

3) get the correct offset for your odometer with the current tires on it and do your mpg calculations with that. drive about 10 miles or more with a car that has a good speedo cal and measure the delta between their odometer and yours. Yours is probably fast with your tire/gear combo.

4) also you could change your diff & trans case fluids over to synth fluids. that also helps but probably not much

you should see improvement with the breather opend up and your tuneup. I wouldnt worry about indexing plugs right now, you need to get the basic motor in good shape. Oh yeah, another thing to mention... if you have the stock timing chain on there, you might want to swap it out if your going to have the plenum off. stock ones are junk.

try the breather suggestion 1st, reset your comp, figure out your offset for the odometer and get the tuneup. that is a good place to start for now. when are you getting the plenum fix done?

 

Steve - on the breather idea, you are talking about unhooking the hose and throwing it away basically, and installing a "breather filter" on the valve cover like on race cars, correct?? What does this do to help it run better? Just keeps clean air going in the motor?

 

yes exactly... I found when the plenum was leaking if I took that hose off and blocked off the one going to the intake, it ran better and got slightly better milage. I want to make mine just like what you mentioned, just havent done it yet. K&N makes one for about $20 bux. Mine measured 1" for the piece that slipped into the gromit in the valve cover. you'd need one with a metal base.

there might be some cheeper ways to go if you just want to test it out for a bit.

 

i think he's talking about the breather tube that hooks up to the CAI FIPK... pluging the hole on the FIPK and then filtering the breather tube that hooked up to it... if im wrong let me know

im gonna finish ordering the parts on monday and tuesday i think... i didnt think of the timing chain... how much and where did you get it? i got a whole week off of school after the week of valentines day. not sure the dates...

thats when the work is going to be done...

so 2 or 3 weeks before i start tearing into it

i already know im 5 mph faster on the speedo then a normal calibrated vehicle.... i really need to recal asap...

i think after that week of monkeying with the ram ill be able to get back and gain some mpg... atleast i hope i will... cant see why not