I have been looking for a Dodge diesel for a while. I have a good friend with a 97 2wd 5sp 12 valve with 500000 miles and it still runs like new. His truck has always got around 20-22mpg and pulls hard. I found a 98 2wd, 5 sp, 24 valve with 280000 miles and it is in very good shape. The owner had K&N air filter, straight exhaust and Hypertech programer. He claims that the truck will go 800 miles to the tanks on a rual route at 29 mpg. I have never heard of one getting that good of mileage but it sure sounded good.

The first tank was a lot of local in town driving, some rual and about 150 miles of hwy at 70 mph. Well I only got about 540 miles when I filled it up and it took 24 gals of fuel at 22.5 mpg.

He said he found that he got the best mpg on level 3 on the Hypertec. Not sure how that can be because it adds about 50 hp on level 3 and smokes black with moderate acceleration. Just does not make sense to me. I know that a higher hp will not have to work as hard but when she smokes she is burning fuel.

The cruise did not work on the truck when I bought it. I found the cruise servo bad and replaced it. My truck surges with the cruise on. I have seen this before with trucks with a programer on the higher settings. I couldn't stand driving the truck like that so I changed it to level one. It still surges a little but acceptable. I changd it at a half of a tank.

Well over all I love the truck but I am a little disappointed with the mileage. I know that 22.5 is not bad for city/hwy combination but I was hoping for better, maybe 25.

Don't know if I should turn it back to level 3 and run a complete tank through it or not. The gauge was much slower to move in the first half of the tank than the second. I had 380 miles at a half of a tank.

I felt that I drove the truck pretty light for most of the tank with a lot of costing to stops in neutral. It is hard not to drive this truck hard. The power is amazing.

Any thoughts?
Bruce

 

I am sorry that the MPG's isn't what you expected. But I look at it this way.
take your truck and toss a gas engine in it and then see what you are getting
then. I have a 2004 3500 4x4 I don't get good mpg 18 highway
I really think that is a lie if you have them programmers it puts more fuel into the motor. HOW ARE YOU GETTING BETTER FUEL ECONOMY? but my truck never leaves extreme setting unless pulling something.

 

If your truck is an auto, your torque converter may be locking & unlocking... this is common on the gasser side and may be worth investigating.

here is a thread on how to clean it...
https://dodgeforum.com/m_1059605/mpa...tm.htm#1059605

Welcome to DF! Be sure to have a look at the DIY link thread at the top of the forum, lots of good info in there.

 

My truck is a 2wd with 5sp manual. I did spend some time in DIY. Very good info. Thanks for all the hard work.
Bruce

 

since it is not an auto... it could be that maybe one of your injectors is sticking... try running some power service diesel thru it at a higher concentration than listed. I use 16 oz per tank (37 gal) so maybe 24 oz. when you do it, take it out to some hills if you can find any and run it hard up them a few times to put a good load on it, or hook up a heavy trailer...

My ram is the only truck I've had where if your hard on it, it runs better... baby it and over time you'll notice it running sluggishly.


Next, we'd like to see pics ;-)

 

Sounds good. I was planning on adding some additive soon.
No pics yet but I will get some and post.
There is nothing sluggish about this truck, she likes to run!
Thanks Bruce