Chip contest
 

I've been fascinated with installing a chip in my Powerstroke, particularly since my mileage has been so bad this winter. The last time I went that route, I installed a Granatelli Mileage Miser. The truck ran like a P.O.S., and the mileage got WORSE. I took it out.

Still, the Hypertech ads are too enticing to stop at Granatelli. They claim 2-6 mpg improvement. I'm going to try a Hypertech chip as soon as I can trot down to the dealer. The Blue Beast has a decent set of mileage data, so the results ought to be obvious. I plan to average the first 5 tankfuls, so the test will take over a month. I'll let you know when the test tanks start.

I'll send a $25 check to the guy that guesses the MPG improvement most closely, compared to the current gaslog, 17.96 mpg. Negative gueses are allowed.

Commercially available chips might help a little if you have a really egregious fuel hogs, but idoubt it will help much.

Commercially available chips do advance injection and that helps efficiency but generally their fueling ""ramps" are so steep as to make it impossible to keep EGT down.

Everyone I've tried resulted in WORSE MPG. Today I run a one-of-a-kind custom-burned special MPG chip and it only gained me 0.75 MPG.

What's the weather like in your part of the country?

My MPG did get better. Ran it on the lowest setting, Super Chips Micro Tuner, and that added 100 ft/lbs of torque. Great for getting moving from a stop and to maintain momentum on the interstate with small throttle openings.

The trick is that they become more fun to drive, and that sometimes causes one to use the throttle a bit more often...:D

It's the Boston, MA area. We got a lot of snow and cold last month. Better now in January.

I guess I'll draw first blood. 19.5mpg

I'm guessing 18.4 mpg.

20.2 Mpg

How else could a chip help a diesel engine except tweaking the injection timing? Or maybe advancing automatic transmission shift points?

Since diesels run ultra lean (unless you floor it), it seems like they ought to be pretty hard to improve on for mpg (without changing mechanical parts).

It could better control the torque convertor. Our PSD doesn't shift out of first until 2k rpms.