06 cc sb looking for a starting point

[frozen450]

i have read for most of the early morning and have still have some questions that im looking to maybe get some answers for.

to start with diesel hitting 5.00/gal in mass and the family wanting to take a 1200 mile round trip to obx in nc. i have come to relies that i need to open the book and start to mod this truck to gave better mileage then i have been getting. around town back in mass its a 12mile drive to work and 12miles home. just do to the fuel costs i have cut down on the other activities that i have done in the past (quad is collecting dust now). sorry for the story...

in town 13.4 avg and on the trip down here to obx on the hwy the truck was being baby'd to the tune of 19.6 mpg and yes everyone it was done with total gals to total miles not that dumb comp that i didnt get in my truck..

the cruise rpm's were at or around 19-20 hundred @ 65 mph (yes i now that 55-60 will net the best mpg, but the 13hrs trip at 65-70 is do able with out stopping.. anyslower i would have stuffed a sock in my fathers mouth ,lol sorry to the fathers reading this..

ok yet again, i know that i have to upgrade the intake and exhaust and i know that sct makes by far the best programmer and i also know that eric or dj can set me up with a great tune.. but with the truck being stock now and still under warranty would the live wire be the better tuner to purchase, seeing that i be leave it comes with its own gauges and that the X3 i would have to buy and mount gauges..??? i think that is it for now and the very first post to the forum..

thanks for reading,,

Tim

[shu873]

19.6 isn't bad mileage for the highway... Just my opinion but I'd just skip the livewire and get an Xcal3 with whoevers tunes you like. Get a 4" turbo back pipe and a set of gauges on the pillar. Even with the livewire you have to drill and tap your exhaust manifold for the pyrometer to function. Might as well save yourself a few bucks. I have a quad commander for gauges and as soon as I can swing the purchase I'm going to get a good set of analogs, as digital gauges are more prone to malfunction I'm finding out... Hope this helps, and welcome to the .org!

[PGreenSVT]

I agree with shu873 on the Xcal3 over the livewire. Lots of people are not happy with the gauge functionality of the livewire. I run an Edge Insight to monitor things and I am real pleased with it. I have 4 custom screens set up that let me monitor 6 PID's each so I can get a lot of information real quickly. I am still thinking about running seperate gauges to monitor oil pressure, fuel pressure and HPOP pressure. As for tunes DJ or Eric seem like good choices. I run tunes from DJ and am happy with them, great customer service too. A open 4" exhaust and intake will certainly make it sound better but any mileage gains will be small. 19.6 sounds pretty good to me. I've never got that kind of mileage but I couldn't drive 13 hrs at 65 if my life depended on it lol.