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    Eco tuning

    I was watching some bow hunting videos and they had a link to this. The guy stated that he plugged it into his toyota and within a month or so his gas mileage had improved by 31%. Claims it’s good for models past 1996. Plug it in and let do it’s thing.
    The site given was ecotune.luxesto. Didn’t find anything under that so typed in ecotune and found several different chips. I need you mechanics to step up and call b s or legit. When my wife got a new vehicle she gave me her 2015 4x4 Tundra with a 5.7 in it. Best I’ve gotten is 15.2 in the city.

    #2
    Bump for an answer!

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      #3
      I'm not ASC but I call BS

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        #4
        Ok. That’s one! Has anyone used one of these? Back in the day someone came out with a fuel atomizer that was supposed to save fuel as well. Need some mechanics to chime in.

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          #5
          Here is my experience with "eco" tunes. The less power I ran in the name of fuel economy, the more accelerator it took to get up to speed. Basically, the way these things work, it changes your fuel map such that you get less power on the low end, which means more throttle to overcome that lack of fuel. If you Google engine mapping, there are some good youtube videos that explain it.

          But in real world terms. My Hellcat had an "eco" tune. I never got more than 15 mpg with that tune. I think it was about 450 hp in that tune. When I bumped it back to 717 hp tune, I had no problem hitting 17 mpg. I don't measure fuel mileage in my truck, but I did notice if I ran in stock tune (400 hp), I made it about 5 days before I needed to fill up. In street mode (525 hp), 6 days.

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            #6
            So it sounds like six of one half dozen of the other? Cuts down power on low end so you use more fuel trying to overcome that. Can’t win for losing.

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              #7
              There are ways of improving fuel mileage with tuning. But it really helps if you do other stuff also.

              The ways I have found to improve fuel mileage, cut down on air flow restriction and exhaust restriction. Then if you can find good long tube headers that are designed properly. You can gain low end torque, which helps fuel mileage. Bumping the ignition timng, and running higher octane fuel also helps. Bumping the compression ratio, with good fuel, correct timing, will also help timing. Most anything you can do to improve the engines ability to make low end power, without increasing engine size, anything to make it more efficient, should help fuel mileage.

              The thing I have trouble getting people to understand, is engine rpm and gear ratios. Too high of gear ratios, will put too much load on the engine, the more load the more fuel it needs to consume. The more the load increases on the engine, the lower the manifold vacuum drops. When manifold vacuum drops, fuel mileage drops. It used to be somewhat common for people to install vacuum gauges or fuel mileage gauges. If you watched the vacuum, while driving and keep it as high as possible, you will get best fuel mileage.

              For many years now, the auto manufactures, have had emission requirements they have to meet. To help reduce emissions, they often choose to put higher over all gearing, to drop engine rpm. The fewer engine cycles, the less emissions. But by putting higher overall gearing, puts more load on the engine. The more load the more fuel required. So what reduces emissions in a lab, kills fuel mileage in the real world.

              Most engines will get optimum fuel mileage around 2200 rpm. I know of many cars, typically V8 cars or trucks, that typically have a cruising rpm, below 1400 rpm. At that rpm, it really does not matter what engine you have, it's lugging, if you are at highway speeds. Whatever rpm produces the highest manifold vacuum will give you the highest fuel mileage.

              I used to have a 86 Mustang coupe, 5.0 5 spd, I replaced the 3.08 gears with 3.55 gears, then later 4.10s. I had a K&N filter, ported heads, ported intake. Then I made my own headers, removed the cats, replaced the mufflers with higher flowing mufflers. Then I put some tires on the car that were 26.5" in diameter, stock tire diameter was a little over 25". I bumped the timing and fuel pressure. I chose bumping the fuel pressure, over going with larger injectors. To try and get the fuel into a finer mist, which should mix with the air easier and burn better.

              That car with me driving it wherever I needed to go, back when I was young. With me driving typically 85 mph, to about 120 mph, hitting speeds quite a bit higher on occasions. The car would get 26 to 28 mpg. Anyone who I told those numbers to told me there was no way, it was possible. The car would run high 12s in the quarter at the time. Even my best friend at the time, thought I was full of crap. We traded cars, he wound up with my coupe. He drove the car, almost 100% highway miles. He said he would cruise at 95 mph to and from work and the car got 29 mpg, all the time.

              Years later, I built a coupe, as a street strip car. I built it to be as light and efficient as possible. I built a 306 for the car, made my own headers, and full exhaust. I put a T5 in the car, with non stock gearing. I used a 2.95 1st gear, gear set with stock OD gears, which will give you a .59 OD gear ratio. The stock T5s that came in the Mustangs back then had .67 OD gear ratios. I put 4.56 gears in the rear of the car, at first, then later switched to 4.10s. For quite a while I was not able to get the computer to work beyond 7000 rpm. So I was rpm limited, so I had to put higher gears in the rear. Because I ran out of gear on the top of the track. Then I skinnies on the front and some 275/50/15s on the rear, which are basically 26" tall. That car would run low 11s at speeds between 120, at one point, to as fast as 125 mph, with the last 306 engine combo. I was able to get 26 mpg with that car on the highway. That was not putting any effort into trying to trying to get good fuel mileage. Once I figured out it was getting a lot better fuel mileage, than I expected. I started working on fuel mileage, adding timing, at cruising loads and rpms, then trying to lean the engine out to around 15.7:1 A/F. Doing that, I was able to get the car to 28 mpg. I got a good laugh out of it. I never built the car for fuel mileage, but most everything I did to make the car run faster in the 1/4, also helped fuel mileage when cruising. The cam was probably the only thing that hurt my fuel mileage. Had I designed a new cam with fuel mileage in mind, I probably could have gotten the car up to 30 mpg, maybe a bit higher. The car only weighed 2600 lbs.

              When I worked in the dealers years ago, many times, we had old farts come in the shop complaining their car, truck or van did not come close to advertised fuel mileage. Those were always fun customers to deal with. Ford had a check list of things for us to check right off, then we drove the vehicle and watched the fuel trim, and O2 readings. Usually, there was nothing wrong with the engine, that would cause pour fuel mileage. Typically it was a case of some old fuddy duddy, buying a truck or van, with a little V6 engine and then some 3.08 gears. Then adding running boards, ECT.

              So basically, most of the time the vehicle was going down the freeway, it was lugging a lot. But it was turning low rpms and had the smallest engine Ford put in whatever the vehicle was. So the owner was sure, it should be getting great fuel mileage. So then I would try to find ways of explaining what hurts fuel mileage and what helps fuel mileage. Most of the time, I got stubborn old fart disagreeing with me and being a royal pain, in doing so. I did have a few guys who listened. Those few who would listen and do as I suggested, got better fuel mileage. The others stayed POed and came back complaining, repeatedly.

              Of the many guys who bought V6 F150s and vans, with something like 3.08 gears in the rear. I would explain the problem of the high load on the little engine and how getting the engine to rev higher, would take a good bit of the load off of the engine. Most all of them would not believe me, pretty close to 100%. I would tell them that putting 3.73 or 4.10 gears in their truck would do a lot for the fuel mileage, they always thought I was full of it. So what I would ask them to do, was leave the truck in drive on the highway, to let the engine rev higher and take some load off of the engine. Then drive it that way for a while and monitor fuel mileage as compared to driving the truck on the same roads, with it in OD. The few that did as I asked, would come back and tell me how surprised they were that the fuel mileage went up quite a bit. Multiple of them decided to go ahead and replace the rear gears with something lower, others took the cheap route and just kept driving the truck around in drive and not let it go into OD.

              Putting low restriction exhaust and lower restriction air filter, air cleaner, both help mileage, most of the time. The exhaust usually does more than the air filters, uless the one in the vehicle is clogged up. Lower restriction air filters in some of the newer cars, likely won't do much, because a lot of the newer stuff, is pretty low on air flow restriction to begin with. Then there is another issue, the computers are programmed so that if the air flow through the engine is improved much at all, it will put the computer into a limp mode, then it runs like crap. Back before the manufactures started that crap, you could put lower restriction exhaust and intake pipes and filters and make more power, and improve fuel mileage. Since about 2005, you have to get the vehicle retuned for exactly the mods you made, that increase air flow through the engine. Older cars and trucks from the 90s and early 2000s, would allow the air flow to be increased without putting the computer in a limp mode. If you did increase the air flow beyond a certain point, it would need to be retuned, or it would most likely be running lean.

              The types of things we were told to look for by Ford, that would cause increased drag, resulting in lower fuel mileage, were, bug deflectors, running boards, larger towing mirrors, air dams, spoilers, ECT. Basically anything that can catch air and increase drag. Then larger tires, can also reduce fuel mileage, by increasing the load on the engine. Brakes sticking or dragging, vehicle out of alignment, low air pressure in the tires, worn out tires, low quality tires. I can tell you that Michelin tires, almost always gave a noticeable improvement in fuel mileage.

              Reducing friction, will improve fuel mileage, but my many years of trying many different synthetic lubricants, has resulted in virtually no improvements in fuel mileage or 1/4 mile times. There are some high dollar specialty lubricants that can do a bit for reducing friction. The things that reduce friction the most are gears or bearings that have a REM finish done to them and or ceramic bearings, or Jet Blue coated bearings. REM finish gears and ceramic bearings by far, do the most for reducing friction. But those are very expensive and the ceramic bearings are not something you want to use in a daily driver. They can shatter, when you hit pot holes, ECT., then you have no bearing. Tweaking the alignment and getting the driveline angle perfect will do a lot more for fuel mileage than synthetic lubricants, or at least and of the common synthetics. Royal Purple is a good way to eat up parts and increase friction. I found that out first hand. I tried Royal Purple for years, trying to prove it was reducing drag and friction. All I ever got was burnt up fluid and parts. Amsoil has some good products, but not usually good enough you will see a fuel mileage improvement.

              The old laying the tail gate down, has been proven on most trucks to not do anything for drag for fuel mileage. The manufactures have tried it, magazines have tried it, I have tried it. Don't help for crap. Bed covers do, from what I have been told. I have never tried one, because it would make my truck, not very usable. I know I would toss it, within the first week of having one.

              One of the best ways to improve fuel mileage for quite a few years now, is to find fuel with no ethanol in it. The more ethanol in the fuel, the richer the engine has to run, for the air fuel ratio to be correct. Get rid of the ethanol, and your fuel mileage will go up. My wife's Cobra, went from 290 miles per tank of fuel, to 350 miles per tank of fuel, when we found ethanol free fuel for her car, some years back. My GT went from 230 miles per tank to 350 miles per tank, when I put the same source of ethanol free fuel in my car. Great mpg booster. Actually the one tank of ethanol free fuel I put in my GT, I only ran it down to 1/4 of a tank. But those cars, when they hit 1/4 of a tank the needle drops to empty much quicker. Because the bottom of the tank is tapered. I figure I could have gotten another 20 to 30 miles out of the car, had I ran it down to where I normally run it down to. I only ran that one tank of ethanol free fuel, then Buc-ee's stopped selling ethanol free fuel at that location. That one tank was amazing. Right after the Buc-ee's opened in New Braunfels, my wife bought fuel there. Her car went a lot farther on that first tank of fuel, she did not know why. So she bought some more, it did the same thing. Then she told me what was going on. I told her, they were probably selling ethanol free fuel. So when she went back the third time she looked the pump over and found no sticker saying contains a max of 10% ethanol. So I knew why her mileage went up. So on our way to Fredericksburg, I stopped there with my car, filled it up. Sure enough no ethanol stickers on the pumps. We drove up to Fredericksburg, going up and down those hills and had a strong crosswind all the way. The car went 350 miles, and was still on a 1/4 of a tank, but, where we were at, I knew the car would not make it to the next town with a gas station. So I filled up, when it was at 1/4 tank.
              My car had a 306 with a stock geared T5, stock height tires, and 4.30 gears in the rear. The engine had ported Explorer heads and a ported aftermarket intake, fairly large cam, good pistons, stock crank, stock length rods. Then good exhaust all the way back. That car loved that fuel.

              I have been thinking of building a small truck for the purpose of getting good fuel mileage and having decent power. Primarily good fuel mileage, my V10 truck does a best of 13 mpg, when it has new tires on it, as the tires wear, the fuel mileage slowly drops. It just went over 300,000 miles, so I know what to expect for fuel mileage out of it. I would like to get a truck that will get at least 25 mpg, hopefully more. If I decide to build a little 4X4, I know that will hurt mileage. I would almost rather just build a 2wd truck. But I don't want to drive 1500 miles and then need 4wd. I was wanting to buy a new Tacoma, but I just got told they only get around 17 mpg. I was sure those would get at least mid 20s on the mpg, but nope.

              As far as a tune, that just leans out a vehicle, it's most likely not going to help fuel mileage. Like what the other guy said, it hurts power, when you do that, you have to give it more throttle to achieve the speed you are trying to achieve or maintain. By opening the throttle more, you drop the manifold vacuum, potentially a lot. This again, increases load. So again, increased load, results in fuel mileage dropping.

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                #8
                Wow RBP! Thanks for taking the time to write all that up! I had a Toyota Tundra 6 cylinder and was happy as a clam with it. We traded that in on my wife’s sequoia and I got the above mentioned truck.
                It’s beautiful truck with 63,000 miles on it and I’d sell it if I could find another Tundra with a big six. We sold our property and I don’t foresee me owning any property in the near future. I’m 65 now and my days are spent taking care of our son and working around the house. Suxx I know but that’s where I’m at right now. Around Katy you better not be Sri it faster then 30 or your gonna get pulled over. So it’s too much truck for my life right now.

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                  #9
                  I just put a performance and tow tune on my F150 from Gear Heads in Bryan College Station. When the novelty of the extra 100-125 ho wears off I will see what added mph I get.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Barrett View Post
                    I just put a performance and tow tune on my F150 from Gear Heads in Bryan College Station. When the novelty of the extra 100-125 ho wears off I will see what added mph I get.
                    Lol, I've had my truck tuned for nearly 8 years now. The novelty still hasn't worn off. Good luck!

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                      #11
                      So I’m making an assumption that all 5.7 liters are gas guzzlers?

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by WItoTX View Post
                        Lol, I've had my truck tuned for nearly 8 years now. The novelty still hasn't worn off. Good luck!
                        Please stop confusing me with the facts

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                          #13
                          I’m a former ASE certified mechanic. ANY programmer or plug in module or chip claiming more than 10% increase in fuel economy is a scam. Simply put, a modern vehicle has a VERY sophisticated computer that balances economy, fuel efficiency, and power in that order. Yes, if you sacrifice emissions you can tune for better fuel economy, but it won’t be a huge difference. The only exception is with turbocharged gas engines and Diesel engines.


                          The biggest improvement in fuel economy can be had for free. That is with behavior changes when it comes to driving, and I’m not talking about just slowing down. Here’s an example.

                          3 friends and I drove to Lordstown Ohio many years ago for a National car meet. 2 guys were in a truck pulling a trailer with a car on it while a friend and I followed driving a domestic economy car. Our friends in the truck used cruise control the whole time so our average speed stayed the same. When my friend drove, the car got 26 mpg but when I drove it got 30 mpg. The difference was not in the speed we were driving but how we accelerated, when we accelerated, when we coasted, and how slow or quick we made gas pedal adjustments.

                          The key is to conserve momentum. This means going just a little faster around corners(I’m not talking about tires squeeling), paying attention to your surroundings a little more so you can let off the gas well before you approach a stop light, try to accelerate when going downhill whereby using gravity to your advantage, maintain speed going uphill(not accelerating up hills), and going nice and easy on the throttle. Quick sudden changes of the throttle position require extra fuel to be injected(think accelerator pump on a carb) but if you are nice and easy on the throttle then not as much extra fuel will be needed.


                          These are some techniques that hypermilers use to get crazy fuel economy. Hypermile techniques is the term that you search for if you want to read more about it.


                          In 2005 I bought a brand new 2006 Chevy Colorado regular cab 2.8L four cylinder 5 speed manual truck. If I set the cruise control to 65 mph on the highway it would get 27 mpg. But if I used some of the above techniques along with a partial grill block to improve aerodynamics, it got 34 mpg at the same speed!!


                          If you are serious about improving fuel economy then these techniques do work. I’ve consistently gotten better fuel economy out of every vehicle I’ve owned than what the manufacturer states it will do. My current car is the only car that I’ve ever owned that I get too exhausted to finish an entire tank of gas while hypermiling. It is a KIA Niro hybrid that is rated for 51 mpg in town. My best after 3 trips going back and forth to work(a total of 180 miles) is just over 70 mpg. At that rated, my car could go 840 miles on its 12 gallon gas tank!

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                            #14
                            Looking it up when I’m done. Great stuff gentlemen.

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                              #15
                              Something else, I left out, a gasoline engine, can be leaned out and really should be, as the load is reduced on the engine. Basically if a engine has no load on it, you don't want to run it at 13.7:1 A/F ratio, you will want to run it closer to 15.3:1 to 15.8:1. As the load increases, the engine needs to richen up. Typical NA engine at WOT, or wide open throttle, should be running somewhere around 12.7:1 to 13.0:1 A/F.

                              So if you have a 7000 lb. truck, with pour wind resistance, large tires that cause a lot of drag, then corked up factory exhaust, and high gears in the rear axle. Depending on the size of the engine and how much power it makes at cruising rpms, you will probably need to run the engine at something like 13.8:1 to maybe 14.5:1 A/F. If the engine does not make much power, it may need to be richer, if the load is higher.

                              If you are dealing with a 2400 sports car, with good aerodynamics, with gearing for accelerating quickly. You could easily run that engine around 15.1:1 to 15.7:1 A/F without a issue. My coupe, the one I have currently, produces load numbers, while cruising, that are the same as the engine produces, when it's out of gear. So no load on the engine. When it was last running, I would see load numbers in the 20% range, with the transmission in neutral or clutch pushed, so it was disengaged. But then cruising down the highway, I would see the same load numbers. The reason, the load numbers were so low cruising, is the car weight was low, then I did a lot to reduce drivetrain power losses. Then the engine made good power, even idling.

                              At first it was hard to tune, because the load numbers varied so little, from no load on the engine, to the car in gear, driving down the road. Once you get into the throttle to accelerate, the load starts climbing. Even then, the load numbers don't increase much, unless you give it a lot of throttle. Again, because of the light weight, power the engine makes and low power required to push the car down the road. It takes very little throttle, to accelerate at normal acceleration rates or even accelerate at rates a good bit more than most people accelerate at. So most driving, you are barely giving it any throttle. Once you do give it half throttle or more, it goes.

                              I could improve the fuel mileage on my V10 truck, but really just want to replace that engine with something else. Not sure what I am going to do with it, I have had a few ideas. I am sure I could get that truck up to at least 15 mpg, with the current engine. If I really got serious about improving it, I might be able to do better than that. But I think with the weight of the truck, I probably could not gain a lot more than the 13 mpg, I can get with new tires. I have thought about trying to get the engine to make a good bit more power, bump the compression ratio, increase the head and intake flow. Then much better exhaust, tune it and then see what it will do. I think the best I might be able to get would be 16 mpg to maybe 17 mpg. I would bet more like 15 to 16 mpg. I would rather not worry about the fuel mileage of that truck and get a smaller truck and work on getting at least 25 mpg.

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