Aftermarket Intake trouble shooting MPG

[Matthew Jeschke]

Awesome thanks! @rockola1971

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I was able to unplug the converter. It was source of at least part of my efficiency / MPG problem. I used lye / powder drain cleaner. Filled exhaust with a water solution of that. Let it sit for an hour. Drained it out. Started truck. Carbon shot out EVERYWHERE. I then drove the truck for about an hour... Also making sure to beat the heck out of it so I could heat up the cats. At first the temps were not in line / cat was still plugged. Afterwards cats have been right at 20% hotter on outlet... The EGT have held in spec ever since.

Now I have a new question. I'm trying to fine tune efficiency of the truck. There's still some gremlins in the closet. I have logged every single tank of gas since I bought the truck. However, there's variance in pumps. I typically fill at the same station every time. However, I want to figure out how to fill the tank more consistently so I get a more accurate gallons measure of what was consumed in tank. Any tips?

 

[SnowDrifter]

I was able to unplug the converter. It was source of at least part of my efficiency / MPG problem. I used lye / powder drain cleaner. Filled exhaust with a water solution of that. Let it sit for an hour. Drained it out. Started truck. Carbon shot out EVERYWHERE. I then drove the truck for about an hour... Also making sure to beat the heck out of it so I could heat up the cats. At first the temps were not in line / cat was still plugged. Afterwards cats have been right at 20% hotter on outlet... The EGT have held in spec ever since.

Now I have a new question. I'm trying to fine tune efficiency of the truck. There's still some gremlins in the closet. I have logged every single tank of gas since I bought the truck. However, there's variance in pumps. I typically fill at the same station every time. However, I want to figure out how to fill the tank more consistently so I get a more accurate gallons measure of what was consumed in tank. Any tips?

Not sure if your rig has the 'gallons used' counter on the DIC. Mine has it, it's been accurate for me within 5%

As far as filling consistently, see if you can find a spot that has you aimed slightly nose-down. The fill neck is on the rear of the tank. Will reduce any air lock in the tank. Parked nose-up vs nose-down is about 2 gallons

 

[Tonyrodz]

I was able to unplug the converter. It was source of at least part of my efficiency / MPG problem. I used lye / powder drain cleaner. Filled exhaust with a water solution of that. Let it sit for an hour. Drained it out. Started truck. Carbon shot out EVERYWHERE. I then drove the truck for about an hour... Also making sure to beat the heck out of it so I could heat up the cats. At first the temps were not in line / cat was still plugged. Afterwards cats have been right at 20% hotter on outlet... The EGT have held in spec ever since.

Now I have a new question. I'm trying to fine tune efficiency of the truck. There's still some gremlins in the closet. I have logged every single tank of gas since I bought the truck. However, there's variance in pumps. I typically fill at the same station every time. However, I want to figure out how to fill the tank more consistently so I get a more accurate gallons measure of what was consumed in tank. Any tips?

So did that solution clean the cats ok?

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Yeah it actually worked AWESOME. I think so long as your cats aren't broken up.... that is if the media is intact, this would work. For more severe blockage you may have to pull them off to do this, but it seemed to work perfectly leaving them on for me. I almost feel like it'd be prudent to do if ever pulling old cats off to do other work. Heck I think it cost me all of $5 for the powder drain cleaner, Sodium Hydroxide. To test it I dipped my O2 sensor in there. Carbon just shed off it everywhere. Pretty amazing.

I have other issues now with MPG. It seems my 4th gear TCC lockup is decimating my gas mileage. Oddly I go from 16MPG highway & city. To around 14 to 15 mpg highway locked up in 4th. It maybe something I did to the tune though. Trying to figure that out. Right now my theory is I more or less disabled TCC partial apply. Whenever the TCC applies merging on interstate I get some pretty serious knock with otherwise factory settings. It's a long shot but will see what happens. In the least it'll clean up a bit of knock retard which probably won't do much of anything.

I did notice in my tuning though the engine is running at a lower pressure now due to cleaning the cats which is AWESOME!