2006 Dodge 3500 - MPG

[Mopar1973Man]

Well my first relaxed trip to Caldwell ID. I know the odometer is off and speedometer is off by about -3 to what is actual speed. Now that being said I know its 125 miles from home to Ontario. Now I filled in Riggins ID that's adds on another 15 miles. From Riggins to Ontario showed 123 miles. The odometer is slow too. All from the 285 tires.

 

All that said I've hit 21.0 MPG which would actually be higher if the odometer wasn't slow.

 

The other thing I'm pretty sure this truck is 3.73 gears which with the 285s I'm running the RPMs are roughly the same as my 2002 with 3.55 gears and 245s tires. This combo seems to be great for towing weight.

[Mopar1973Man]

Now I've gotta ask about tuners for the 3rd Gen. I've worked with Smarty for nearly 3 years. I've played with self contained EFI Live tuners (not the full package). Then another friend mention ed another tuner like HP? He was sure of the name at the time but I figured I'd ask.

[Doubletrouble]

 Quad adrenaline won't fit the bill? Or are you just looking to experiment with something different?

[Dieselfuture]

1 hour ago, Doubletrouble said:

 Quad adrenaline won't fit the bill? Or are you just looking to experiment with something different?

I believe quad is the best for vp not for common rail, smarty should be good for that.

[Doubletrouble]

 Gotcha, just curious.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

3 hours ago, Doubletrouble said:

 Quad adrenaline won't fit the bill? Or are you just looking to experiment with something different?

No. Quadzilla is not a solution being its just a rail pressure box. On common rails you need to flash the ECM with all the core values. Even Jacob Kidd suggested other solutions for Common Rails. 

 

2 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I believe quad is the best for vp not for common rail, smarty should be good for that.

Correct. Smarty after working with them this is not a solution either knowing how the whole thing works. I really don't want to deal with Smarty for a tuner. I know what they have for support and not what I want to deal with either. I know way too many secrets of that group. Not one I would like to visit again.

 

 

[Doubletrouble]

 I don't have any experience with diesel tuners so just gonna toss out a name, Bullydog? I don't know what they may have available for that truck. Have heard of them though. 

[Mopar1973Man]

This truck had a "Bully Dog" again another tuner that is just a rail pressure adder. Doesn't flash the ECM for core values. Like Quadzilla is all 2D layout for the most part but when you get to common rail its all 3D graphs. Then this data is flashed back to the ECM. most of these hijacks the CANBus signal throws a "priority command" then injects the new value to the bus and the VP44 takes it.  The other thing I'll need to setup Virtualbox and get my copy of Windows back out. 

 

The only two common tuners that do flash the ECM is...

• Smarty Touch
• EFI Live

Both of these tuners have full tables of timing, fuel, boost, etc... Example.

 

[LorenS]

21.77 MPG seems pretty darn good to me!  I know if I had a truck like that and wanted more power/MPG I'd be asking Apache John where I should start.

 

I know you guys have emissions testing in ID, does that rule out camshaft change to something more similar to the 12 valve?

[Mopar1973Man]

As long as there is no OBDII error codes and low smoke it will pass. Cam can't be detected by any smog shop.

[AH64ID]

An MM3 with UDC Pro is what I would run. UDC Pro has more tables that can be adjusted and that leads to a better daily driver. 
 

The MM3 is the same hardware as the Touch but doesn’t have the canned tunes, which you don’t need. The MM3 also comes with the commod included, while the touch doesn’t. 
 

My 05 had some good mods: cam, turbo, injectors, pistons, and tuning. It ran cleaner than stock and had no issues passing emissions. 
 

Which bully dog was on the truck? Some are very similar to basic S06/Touch Smarty tunes, some are not. The basic Smarty tunes are better thou. 
 

Aside from a very few trucks that ended up being recalled all G56 5.9’s have 3.73’s. 
 

With the G56 AD ratios the 35’s are helping out quite a bit. On 04.5-06 5.9’s the timing really falls off above 2000 rpms and takes the mileage with it. Nothing some tuning can’t fix thou. Light load, like the downhill from Riggins to Ontario, and sub-2000 rpms will get great mileage. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by AH64ID

[Evan]

I've got my best mpg running both directions on the river.  I think gravity is about half from horse shoe bend to Lewiston  so numbers are likely not realistic compared to the rest of the world 

[Mopar1973Man]

Same here from Donnelly ID to Home by Pinehurst.

[AH64ID]

River drives always provide mythical mpg numbers and those numbers should be stricken from the official record. 
 

Just enjoy the ride. 

[Mopar1973Man]

11 hours ago, AH64ID said:

River drives always provide mythical mpg numbers and those numbers should be stricken from the official record.

 

Well S__t! 

 

That means all my fuel logs are junk. All my travels are next to a river. Big Salmon River, Little Salmon River, Snake River, Weiser River, Payette  River. Come to think about it there isn't much highways out here without a river closely following by. 

[dripley]

On 7/29/2021 at 9:35 AM, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Well S__t! 

 

That means all my fuel logs are junk. All my travels are next to a river. Big Salmon River, Little Salmon River, Snake River, Weiser River, Payette  River. Come to think about it there isn't much highways out here without a river closely following by. 

Maybe you should put some pontoons on that truck and see what mileage you get then.

[Mopar1973Man]

Well as soon as I get time I'm going to...

• Get a set of 17 stock wheels I've got a deal for $150 in Parma, ID for wheels
• Get a set of 265/70 R17 tires I've got a bid in for about $1,000 for a set of Hankook ATm 
• Take out the 2 inch lift kit in the front. (Thrust angle is wrong).

Funny thing lately the tach is coming back on its own and start to function properly for short time. When I seen that I'm not much different from what the 2002 is gear wise. I'm look towards actually getting back to the stock size and take full advantage of the 3.73 gears with all the weight. Heavy front steel bumper and a heavy steel flatbed, then all the tools in the tool boxes. Biggest thing I'm fighting is my trip back and forth up Goose Creek grade (7% at 45 MPH).

 

The other small issue is the wastegate solenoid is failing and randomly will trip a P0243 code. This is defualing and keeping me held back ot a mere 20 PSI of boost. EGT's easily cross the 1,300 to 1,400*F realm. I'm not even towing yet. 

[4Play]

I've got a ton of parts laying around for my '05.  Let me know if you need anything that will cross over.  Still running the twins but took most everything else back to stock or damn near.  Even have some BBI 1.5s if you ever want to do some mosquito abatement up there.

[Mopar1973Man]

I appreciate the offer but I'm good I'm going for huge power yet till I fix a bunch of rattles and wobbles I've got yet. Adding power now would be a mistake. Gotta finish up the removal of the leveling kits, get the nose back down, get the thrust angle corrected, etc. I'm just happy to see a noted INCREASE in MPG hand math since I got the stock tires back on. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[dieselautopower]

Michael,

 

I have about a dozen MM3 tuners if you want a good deal and do your own tuning.  

 

For 2006 we usually do EFI LIVE.  There are lots of good options.