Gas Mileage?

[babypumpkinhead]

Hello all. I have a 99 Tahoe 4dr, 155k on it, newly built heads, new tune up, and valve cover, new temp sensors, oil pan and intake manifold gaskets. My brother had the exact same truck but with about 80,000 miles on it and he was getting 15+ MPG. I get 10-14, sometimes even on the highway. I'm pretty sure he had 3.42 ratio and I have 3.73. However, I installed a cold air intake kit hoping to make that up in gas, and it doesn't seem to have harmed it, but hasn't helped. I work on cars frequently and I know that what goes in must come out. With gas on the rise do thing I would benefit from having a muffler shop weld in a direct fit Flowmaster 50 series?

Any thoughts, I'm kind of leaning toward the muffler to even things out. Otherwise, the truck runs great!

 

[fyremanpat]

I have almost the exact same setup but with 3.42 and 305/70/16 and I avg. about 10-12 around town and about 14-16 hwy...with a good tail wind. Its the nature of these beasts.

 

[AtomicHoe094]

i dont think a muffler will help on gas mileage, if anything youll use more gas since youll like the sound of the truck. Maybe a good set of headers and a cat back system will help, but even still.

and what does a "tune up" consist of?

 

[96ProCompTahoe]

that seems to be about the norm. on the highway i can squeeze around 17 out of mine. driving to and from the new job (way to many lights) leaves me around the 13-14 mark. if its a bad week it dops down into the single digits... hahaha

 

[Phone Man]

Yup, these trucks have a horrible reputation for gas mileage. It's just the way it is.

 

[BattelWagun]

It truly is the nature of the beast. Sometimes it just gets to a point where you where you dont want to know what youre getting... say in two feet of snow with 4wd on, or towing a heavy load. You may want to save yourself the terror and not figure that out...

But hey, thats the price we pay for having a big, safe, comfortable, powerful, useful, and all (lets say most) terrain capable vehicle. They look damn sexy too!

 

[AtomicHoe094]

powerful>??? these things are pigs. lol

 

[96ProCompTahoe]

powerful>??? these things are pigs. lol

regear them a little and its not to bad!

 

[AtomicHoe094]

haha. speaking of. Im redoing my rearend, gears and diff... i have 373s, 410s? or more yet?

 

[992dr]

I never did the math but, I can get about 420 miles per tank.
You can do some simple mods to free up some power to get better mileage. Pullies, e-fans, exhaust and intake seem to be the more popular mods for MPGs.

As for them being pigs, yes big heavy barn shaped vehicles tend to be pigs, hah.

3:73s are THE best all around street/strip gear. You go to 4:10s and you will definately see a drastic change with your fuel consumption. I would have to say for a DD, I'd consider doing something else. Just my .02