I am looking for ways to inexpensively boost my gas mileage from 10-13mpg. My vehicle is a 1995 B3500 Dodge Maxi-Wagon with the 5.9 liter V-8 and a 3 speed Torque-Flight w/Overdrive. The roof is raised to accommodate my wheelchair and the wheelchair lift.

I have done the obvious things air in tires, regular oil changes, no excessive acceleration and keeping the engine tuned up. The truck runs great but the gas is killing me. Any improvement will help.

 

12-13mpg around town and 15-16 highway is about right for a 5.9L van that is properly tuned and has the right tires and tire pressure.

Stev's gas mileage thread has good info and is worth reading:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...rovements.html

 

Thanks for the help Blackvan

 

You are welcome. Wish I could have given you more. As outlined in Stev's thread its really all about rolling resistance: making sure your brakes aren't dragging, proper wheel alignment, tire pressure etc.

My van is modified and probably weighs less. I had no problem getting 13-14 in town and 18-19mpg highway in Texas (flat terrain, attempting to maintain constant speed) but driving in these Kentucky hills is costing me 1.5mpg.

 

There has been talk about 02 sensors as well. Our vans do not like Bosch, they will use them but it cause some issues, such as lower mpg, random hiccups (like the engine skips on a few cylinders for a moment), stalling with no codes yet restarts easily, even hard starts.

I experienced all the above on my van with the stalling and hard start being 2 weeks ago. I have been running Bosch (which I bought and had installed before I read about the problem) for almost 5 years and about 46K miles. When I pulled out the old sensor I found it instead of being a grayish color to be almost black which means it was running to rich. I changed the sensor yesterday and so far it has been running great.

If your van has the Bosch or your not sure I would order a Denso 02 sensor for the front 02 sensor. You may have to special order it, I did for the parts store only carried Bosch. A couple of people have claimed 1.5 to 2 mpg gain doing so. I am hoping for the same but don't know yet.

 

NTK is stock but its been my experience that the Denso works better and gets better milage. You can order Denso O2 sensors from rockauto.com.

 

A of the biggest gains are Load-E tires, Fram AirHog filter, ensuring the rear brake self-adjusters are not dragging and the front pads along in their tracks do not drag, and 5W30 in the winter a must.

I have also done the block of 1/3rd of the radiator to keep the engine temps higher. This has a good and steady increase, but my van always runs too cool since I replaced many of the old parts in the cooling loop with better ones. About 190 is the sweet spot to maintain.

The rear axel grease of 75W90 synthetic was a Chrysler TSB issued to help vans and trucks with MPG and Chrysler with fleet requirements per the EPA.

 

15 MPG should be attainable with a proper running engine and the drivetrain in good repair. I have a 1991 B250 with a hightop which weighed in at 6700#s during my last trip and I was floating between 14 and 16 MPG tank to tank. Do not accelerate quickly or go over 55 MPH if you want that extra MPG.
Steve

 

Well, my B2500 HD suspension just like the B3500 with the 8-lug rims, 5.9L Magnum engine and the 3.92 rear is getting 19MPG highway. I could push it to 21MPG if I really try. Not bad for a 12-passenger Ram Van.