2006 Powerstroke wanting some updates

[Korby]

Hello this is my first post and also my first diesel I have bought. I have already gained a wealth of info from other post and I just want to say thanks to everyone for thier input and tips. I bought my 2006 6.0 in september at a dealership here in town. The truck had 62k on it and was in perfect shape. I have already put 15k on the truck and have had no problems. I use the truck to pump oil wells and I am in the mud and water all day long. The truck is completely stock except for the 4 inch straight pipe I just put on this weekend...which sounds awesome by the way. I am not wanting to beef up the truck and make it a HP machine but I would like to improve my fuel mileage since I drive about 150 miles per day. Please give me any advice you have, it will be greatly appreciated. I am getting ready to take a trip to Texas from Ohio on April 1st. I would like to get the truck ready to go before then. Thanks again.

[tnet69]

You need to purchase a tuner and some custom tunes. SCT is very popular and I have had great success with Matt at Gearheads SRL tune. You will want to be thinking on the near future of an EGR delete kit. It is about $200 but will save you thousands in repairs down the road. The EGR is the weak point in these motors especially when we start adding horse power to them. You could get into the FICM rollback and PCM reprogram but start with the programmer. It is the most bang for your buck when it comes to fuel economy. I get better milage with the race tune than with my economy tune.

[PGreenSVT]

The first things you want to be doing should be for reliability and longevity starting with a good engine monitoring system like an Edge Insight. Then get rid of the Ford gold coolant and change to a Cat EC-1 rated ELC coolant. Then look for performance mods. Yes add'l performance is the best way to gain fuel mileage if you can control your right foot.

[caissiel]

Coolant flush and see my signiture. Been using programmer and Scangauge for 4 years and so far the results have been outstanding.

My programer is great for MPG at higher speeds then when it was stock.

While stock it was a dog at 60MPH and higher and now it's great at any speed if set on level 3. The towing has been great at all levels. I also found that while programed the lower the Boost the better the MPG. When towing my 15K trailer on level roads, torque at 45/54 % and boost kept at 10PSI or less, I averaged 16MPG. And that was in Maine turnpike and again in GA and FL.

But I would not use level 3 now that you have the exhaust done because you might take a chance on hurting your truck. My truck is now all stock and the programer is set for a stock truck.

Scangauge II Rocks, would not tow without it