Ford F150 - Please post your F250-350 diesel 7.3 fuel economy.

If you drive an F250 or F350 with the 7.3L from 2000-2003 please post up your fuel economy.

Unloaded and loaded or towing figures all appreciated.

Also, if you've added exhaust/intake, etc or other mods please post what you've done if it's not in your signature.

I'm curious to know how it compares to my 4.6L. With gasoline prices rising by the minute and diesel staying stable (at least south of the border) I'm thinking of switching as well as adding an extra fuel tank and trading in the car for a TDI as well.

Thanks.

_________________
Mods: IC foil delete, aux trans cooler, shift kit, triple disc torque converter, DP Tuner F5 20hp tow, 80hp econo, 140hp aggressive, 3-gauge a-pillar pod, tint, gps, billet grille, clear corners, white taillights, f*ck emblem, boost fooler, DIY Tymar intake (fram CA6816), magnaflow 4" turbo-back, 6" tip, 08' axle cover, dieselsite boots/coolant filter, HX crossover hose, Tekonsha Primus. 98'F150 sold.

I get about 11 miles to the gallon. But, I am running 38 Ground Hawgs. I used to get about 18 miles to the gallon with 33's and unloaded. That was with a Bully Dog chip, high flow intake and dual exhaust. It would probably have been better if I could have kept my foot off the floor.

Cool thanks.

Talked to a dodge cummins driver the other day. Said he gets 18 on a newer dually. Said his friend gets 19-20 with single rear axle. Don't flame me but I was almost thinking of switching to a dodge for the motor. Any opinions on that front? From what I've been reading all three (Ford, Dodge, GM) have some sort of quirks and problems with their diesels. Can't go GM as I worked in their parts distribution warehouse. Never worked with a bunch of monkeys like that before. You can't give me a GM product.

But I do like the sound of a diesel V-8 vs inline-6.

Dodge has a decent engine, it's just the rest of the truck that falls apart. Ford is coming out with a new diesel soon, I'd wait for that or see if you can find a 7.3 with decent mileage. One thing that I forgot to mention about the mileage is that I run off road diesel in my truck because it seems to run better and give me a little more horsepower.

A friend of mine has a 92' Honda Civic with 249,000kms on it. Just for fun we calculated how much his fuel has cost him to run that distance.

Civic: $28,000.00
VW TDI: $15,000.00
My F150: $50,000.00

This is assuming typical actual fuel economy and a fuel price of $1/L cdn.

The real numbers are actually worse. Reg gas is 1.19/L and diesel is $1.08/L.

The savings on the little TDI are incredible. Forget about hybrids unless you only do city driving. Those puny little 1.3L motors like in the Toyota are anemic. They make a "car guy" feel like he's got no balls. LOL

I think the TDI is going to be my next car, for my wife. Plus the fact that with a tuning chip and one size larger injectors you get literally 50% more power, a car that accelerates well, tops out at over 125mph and still gets 45-50mpg. It's a win-win situation I think.

_________________
Mods: IC foil delete, aux trans cooler, shift kit, triple disc torque converter, DP Tuner F5 20hp tow, 80hp econo, 140hp aggressive, 3-gauge a-pillar pod, tint, gps, billet grille, clear corners, white taillights, f*ck emblem, boost fooler, DIY Tymar intake (fram CA6816), magnaflow 4" turbo-back, 6" tip, 08' axle cover, dieselsite boots/coolant filter, HX crossover hose, Tekonsha Primus. 98'F150 sold.

I have an F-250 5.4 and i get 14.3 with an intake system.

Yesterday I had a chat with a friend of mine.

He had a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 crewcab LB with the Cummins 600 motor and auto slushbox.

He was towing around trailers to job sites with the truck and being paid for the tow + time/mileage.

Anyway, that job ended and he wanted something more fuel efficient. Ended up getting a new Corolla.

I asked him how he liked the Dodge. He said he never had one problem in 1.5 years and 65,000kms. On occasion had 4000lbs of sheet steel in the bed and it hauled it like it was nothing on the freeway onramp. He said the same thing of the 6000lbs trailer he towed around.

He has a 128L tank and worst he got was 800kms which works out to about 18mpg (imperial gallon) and best was a trip from Vancouver to Kelowna (4hrs hwy) and 1200kms on one tank. That's a solid 27+mpg! Prob better as he didn't run it dry. That's friggin impressive considering the size of the vehicle.

That's without a programmer chip or anything, just stock.

I'm a Ford guy at heart but I'm looking at all options. Not too happy with what I'm seeing with the newer F350's. Friend of mine's 04' is a total lemon.

Maybe Daimler is rubbing off on Dodge in a good way.

_________________
Mods: IC foil delete, aux trans cooler, shift kit, triple disc torque converter, DP Tuner F5 20hp tow, 80hp econo, 140hp aggressive, 3-gauge a-pillar pod, tint, gps, billet grille, clear corners, white taillights, f*ck emblem, boost fooler, DIY Tymar intake (fram CA6816), magnaflow 4" turbo-back, 6" tip, 08' axle cover, dieselsite boots/coolant filter, HX crossover hose, Tekonsha Primus. 98'F150 sold.

got a 6.0 excursion that gets 20 highway and 17 city if you drive nice. Not a single problem yet, but most 6.0's have problems. Wait until the new 6.4 twin turbo diesel comes out. it probably will get pretty decent mileage.

_________________
My dads '71 Cutlass Supreme Convertible http://tinyurl.com/atuzy
My '69 Firebird convertible (a work in progress) www.1969firebird.org

I am also cosidering switching to an F-250 turbo diesal. I found a few on autotrader online in my area that are nice looking, now i have to sell my truck..........

Yesterday I joined the forums at http://www.dieselram.com/ and did a lot of reading. I have to say, there are a lot of ex F350 owners over there. Even one guy that had an 03 6.0 and now just bought an 06 6.0 and has 1500miles on it. The more reading I do the more positive things I here about teh cummins. Even the new 48RE auto in the ram pickups seems to be holding up. They had probs on earlier years behind the diesel. But like all diesels you need to upgrade the torque converter, add a valve body and big cooler for them to stay alive behind a modded motor. No different for the 4R100. Ford's new tranny seems to work well but it's a more complicated beast and should anything go wrong it's big bucks. The cummins is rated at 350k miles for rebuild time. That's a lot of miles.

The 6.4L twin turbo sounds nice but add on a second turbo that could fail and even more complicated engine management system and it's too many parts to go wrong. Having two less cylinders makes injector upgrades less money too. From what I've been reading, on the cummins you can get a new air filter, fuel filter and oil filter for what it costs for just one filter on the 6.0. That and the motor is in it's 4th generation.

Maybe I'm nuts but I'm taking a cummins for a test drive soon.

Used Dodge cummins trucks aren't nearly as cheap as Fords same year. Has to be a reason.

Maybe I'm nuts, I dunno. But I'm certainly not die-hard enough to stick with only one brand if there's problems. Doesn't hurt to look at the competition right? If Ford doesn't smarten up they're going to keep losing customers.

_________________
Mods: IC foil delete, aux trans cooler, shift kit, triple disc torque converter, DP Tuner F5 20hp tow, 80hp econo, 140hp aggressive, 3-gauge a-pillar pod, tint, gps, billet grille, clear corners, white taillights, f*ck emblem, boost fooler, DIY Tymar intake (fram CA6816), magnaflow 4" turbo-back, 6" tip, 08' axle cover, dieselsite boots/coolant filter, HX crossover hose, Tekonsha Primus. 98'F150 sold.

Yeah, actually i get 12.3 mpg, haha, not 14. But about the diesal trucks, i am definetley looking into buying one and selling my gas guzzler. I'm thinking of going with the 7.3L V8 turbo by ford. Anyone heared anything good/bad about this particular engine.

The 7.3 was the best the last couple of years of production. It ended halfway through the 2003 production year. When looking at used trucks a lot of sellers don't actually list if the vehicle is a 7.3 or 6.0 for 2003 so make sure you ask.

_________________
Mods: IC foil delete, aux trans cooler, shift kit, triple disc torque converter, DP Tuner F5 20hp tow, 80hp econo, 140hp aggressive, 3-gauge a-pillar pod, tint, gps, billet grille, clear corners, white taillights, f*ck emblem, boost fooler, DIY Tymar intake (fram CA6816), magnaflow 4" turbo-back, 6" tip, 08' axle cover, dieselsite boots/coolant filter, HX crossover hose, Tekonsha Primus. 98'F150 sold.

I had a 2000 F350 4x4 crew cab w/7.3 that I traded back in December. My around town (not a tremendous amount of stop and go but speeds varied from 20 to 60) mpg was in the 14-14.5mpg range. It was pretty well stock except for a leveling kit and slightly larger tires. On the highway, I could get about 17.5 driving in the 70-75 mph range.

I wish my 2006 6.4 got that kind of fuel economy.

my buddie at work told me his gets 13 and 19 but he drives like a grandma and his truck is completly stock

My neightbor's F350 w 7.3 gets 13 around town and 18-22 when traveling, he has a leveling kit and 35's and a K and N air filter and the tornado air system.

My dad gets 23 empty and 15 pulling the 30' travel trailer loaded about 7500lbs. His truck is a completly stock 2000 F250 scab 7.3L 8' box 4X2 rolling up on 200k miles.

_________________
Why do today something you could put off until tomorrow?

Im gettin about 20-21 empty. Pulling the snowmobiles and fourwheelers 18-19. Pulling the 30 foot sea ray which weighs about 12000 around 10.

my work truck (2001 f-550) get around 9-11 mile per gallon. mind you its a tow rig so the pto and fast idle really likk it for me.

I have a 2005 F350 4x4 6.0 Diesel 3.73 rears and 35" tires. I get 17 mpg the worst it gets and 19.5 mpg the best I have ever gotten. I also use Diesek Kleen the silver bottle.

I have a 2000 F350 7.3 4x4 and I get 12.1 MPG. I do not know how people get 18 and 20 MPG!

_________________
Sam Kirk
2005 F-350 4x4 6.0 Diesel