Most of the driving was at 75 mph and there were hills and some off pavement driving. What is the most effective upgrade to get the mpg up a little? .

Drive 65mph

 

The truck does get better gas mileage at 65 mph, but on I-10 in New Mexico and Arizona, going that slow is a bit unsafe.

 

start with a C.A.I..and don't get it over 2500rpms lol...i don't know how to save the gas i seem to find ways to burn it..someone with more fuel saving knowledge will chime in..good luck

 

Thanks for the reply. With the 18 inch tires that this truck came with and 4:10 gears, it is only turning 2400 rpm at 75 mph. I am thinking about a power tuner and a K&N air filter. I will also be ordering the Bakflip bed cover, but that was only for security and storage.

 

Sounds like your v8 is doing good to me stock mine was getting about 15.5-16.5 now that I'm lifted with 35s I'm getting 14.1-15.1

 

I was getting just over 19mpg on my trip back from MI, mostly going 75-80mph (all highway). Truck has a SuperModulation PTB and an intake, though, as well as a bed cover (supposedly helps).

Biggest improvement I've seen was learning to control the right foot.

 

Sounds pretty good to me to get 18 on a V8.

Look at the power curves of the air filters and intakes. See if there are really any gains at the normal RPM range, or if the power is more increased at high RPM.

Give you truck a chance to break in before you start throwing parts at it too.

Slower and consistent driving habits as well as proper tire inflation will make more benefits than anything, and it's free.

 

Along with the intake, a new exhaust would also help (cat-back or full), tune, keeping off the skinny pedal. I got 17.6 on my trip to USASM, so 18 is pretty good.

 

You could spend $500+ dollars on mods to get 3-5 more mpg or just put that money towards gas... use cruise control as much as possible and as mentioned before drive 65-70mph.

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This is very true, but who in there right minds would want to spend the money on gas over having a intake and exhaust common now. Having Modd's is way cooler then having gas in the tank at least with mods they will always be there under the hood and you'll get more HP and lil better MPG



Like someone said earlier, K&N filter, Bed cover like you plan to get makes a difference cause of less drag on the truck. Tire inflation and cruise control. I wouldnt doubt if the v8 gets close to what I get with 31x10.50's and 3.73 gears with a 2.9L my foot is always in the gas to get the damn truck to do anything.

 

Through hilly terrain with cruise set at 65-75MPH on 33" Goodyear Duratracs with 4" lift my 4x4 V8 gets 15-16 on average for highway. Besides the lift and tires the truck is stock. CAI, full exhaust, headers, and a tune are in the future when I have $1k to burn.

 

Thanks for the advice on the mods. I use the cruise control on this truck almost all the time. My driving habits are very good and take it very easy when taking off. This V8 has plenty of power and pulls steep hills quite well. I will be getting the bed cover ordered this week and look into a cold air intake system for the truck.

 

Let it get more miles on it before you start modding it too much....While not a V8, the last 2 new Chevy's I got (an '06 Mailbu Maxx 3.5 V6 and my '09 2.9 I4 Colorado) didn't make their best mileage until they had at least 13,000 miles on them. The Colorado didn't make it's best until after 16,000 miles on the engine.

 

Thanks for the input. I figured this might get better after it had some more miles on it. At the rate that I am going, I might have 10K miles on it pretty soon. The most that I will ever do is get a Volant CAI and a power tuner. I think the factory does a good enough job of getting cool air into the engine, but the air box and inlet tube may be the restriction in that system.

 

yeah most vehicles have a break in period once you are passed that u should start seeing improvments...........but kmon you got a v8 hammer down!!!

 

Thanks and I will see how it does after a few thousand more miles. I haven't really put the hammer down on this truck yet. It seems to have plenty of power and I had it almost up to 90 mph one time and that was just passing someone. I don't know what speed the ECU limits a 4x4 Colorado to, but I expect it would be about 100 mph. When I want to go fast, I have some other toys that will faster than I care to ever go.

 

Handheld pcm programmer/tuner i guess.

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Whatever they call those things! I thought about getting a chip for the Colorado, but like the idea of the pcm programer better. I don't mess with EFI much, so excuse my lack of using the correct terms. I currently have a car being built with a F.A.S.T XFI 2.0 fuel injection system that is tuned with a lap top on a chassis dyno. That has been a real learning experience for a guy that has been messing with carburetors his entire life. My Colorado is a driver, so I want to keep things simple and inexpensive if that is possible.

 

Nobody on this web site will be your friend if you buy a chip. Many have had problems with their truck after installation.

The next option is to purchase a PCM to directly replace the stock PCM. Or, find a shop that uses tuning software such as HPTuners software. There aren't any other "do it yourself" programmers that I'm aware of. Not like an Edge or BullyDog hand programmer. HP Tuners will cost you a minimum of $159 labor. The system is based off of a credit system and it takes 2 credits to unlock the PCM ($75/credit). Plus whatever the person feels like charging you to do labor and the tune.

 

Thanks for the warning about the chip. I wasn't really very serious about getting one because you are limited in what it can do. The best way to do this would be to tune it on a chassis dyno and have control over everything. I might talk to the guy that will be setting up my project car with the F.A.S.T XFI system and get his thoughts on the Colorado's set up.

 

I agree with 08Canyon. I don't think that you will see much over 18mpg with a 4wd, especially running 4.10 gears. I'm running a 2wd, 5.3 with 3.42 and the tach sits on 2000 at 75mph. I don't have a clue as to my average mileage as I didn't buy a v8 for that reason. I checked it a couple of times and it was in the neighborhood of 18. I call my driving style "spirited".

 

i was getting 17-18 mpg in my trip back from usasm and i was going 80-85mph

 

I just found out that the Diablosport T1000 now supports all the Chevy Colorado V8 engines, so I pulled the trigger on it. I will now be looking for an "A" pillar gauge pod to mount it too. Diablosport also makes an adapter to fasten their monitor to a 2 1/16 inch gauge pod opening. This should be the last of the upgrades to this truck for a very long time!

 

You bought this? Diablosport T1000 Trinity Programmer
A full dyno tune costs the same, and has guaranteed results.
:shrug:

 

I5 swap :kiki:

 

I got 22.8 mpg on a 2380 mi trip to the super meet. 75-80 mph on cruise, air on.

 

that thing costs more than a dyno tune. I can guarantee that thing isn't going to do near the same as a dyno, but its your money.

 

I bought it with the intent of using it as a monitor, then installing one of their performance tunes later. As a monitor it had some very nice features, such as fuel pressure and engine load. I had a three gauge screen set up with volts, oil pressure and engine load. That was nice information to have, but not at the expense of it ruining the door lock system. Since there are problems with using it as a monitor, I am sending it back with the hope that I can get a refund on it. Perhaps I will have the truck dyno tuned in the future.

 

if ur planning on doing an intake and exhaust at some point, do the exhaust first then the intake if u cant aford to do them at the same time. basically why cram more air into the cylinders if it cant get out any faster, just a thought. but everyone does have valid points especially training your right foot! i have an Edge Insight CS monitor in my truck n i set it up for audible alerts through it to chip annoyingly when i give the engine anything at/over 40% throttle! i noticed a major difference my first time driving. i got into it taking off from a light, it started chirping n i let off lol! i find it alot easier to control my foot when i have the chirping! but the best part is it will display 4/6/8 diff forms of info at a time, kinda har to explain but check out the site heres a link below... highly recommended, little pricey but it will pay for itself in no time took me about 6tanks of gas =O not long at all

Edge Products| Product

 

Thanks for the advice. I tried the Edge CTS and liked the features it had. The problem was that it would only work for about a minute, then shut itself off. As it turned out, Edge said that it was not set up to use on a 2012 Colorado with a 5.3 V8. As a test, they had me try it on my 2002 Jeep Liberty and it worked fine, so there was nothing wrong with the CTS unit. I am glad that I got my money back on the Edge and the Diablosport Trinity T1000, which worked, but disabled my keyless entry system. I don't want to try anymore monitoring devices on this truck after this experience.

If I do anything in the future, I will consider headers and an exhaust system. I must agree that this truck gets better gas mileage at speeds below 75 mph. The truck only has 3500 miles on it now and I will be changing the oil very soon. I doubt that switching to a synthetic oil will help much, but it can't hurt either. My right foot is a big factor in the gas mileage and I have been watching it much closer now.

 

Your truck came from the factory with synthetic oil. That is what the "dexos 1" specification is.

 

Interesting how GM is breaking the rings in with a synthetic oil. I just had a stroker engine built for a car that I own and it was run in on the engine dyno using a non synthetic oil. The big concern on that engine was breaking in the solid lifter flat tappet cam, but I might not be making a good comparision here between it and a new Colorado. I will switching it over to synthetic oil as soon as the engine is in the car and run for a couple of thousand miles. It was suggested to run it with the non synthetic oil to get the rings to wear in then switch it to a synthetic oil. I intend to do extactly what the engine builder says.

The Onstar system in my Colorado just told me that I have used 70 percent of the engine oil life, but I will change the oil before I get to the 100 percent mark.

 

Synthetic oil during engine break-in? Here's what the oil manufacturers say... | Roadcarvin

 

Thanks for the link, but at this time my new stroker engine already has some pretty good engine dyno time on it and will have some more chassis dyno time when the efi is tuned, so it should be ready for the first oil chance by then. I will be using a synthetic oil with a high zinc content for the flat tappet cam shaft protection. As for my Colorado, I should be doing its first oil change real soon and I already have a large supply of synthetic oil and filters.

 

using oils that are synthetics right off the bat does not harm the engine that is an epic myth! especially considering the fact that there are numerous models of vehicles that have been rolling off the assembly line w/ Mobil1 in them (all cadillac models). All gm vehicles post 2011 use a synthetic blend "dexos1" that is pumped in at the assembly plant. All new Fords are the same way right off the line they have a synthetic blend. i have asked around at many dealerships about this myth even worked w/ a tech at a dealership who was a top fuel dragster crew chief Master ASE certified + L1 & L2 certified and he even told me thats just a gimick! even going from synthetics to standard oil then back to synthetic being bad is another myth that most people overthink.

 

I always use a synthetic blend and have for years. Less expensive than full synthetic and never yet had any oil related engine issues. My old Chrysler ran to 215,000+ miles and never burned oil (it did leak it from the valve covers, oil pan and front and rear seals LOL).

 

exactly! theres nothing wrong w/ synthetic blend infact thats what all new gm and ford vehicles use now right off the line! and it deffinately is cheaper:true:

 

Royal Purple makes a break in oil for high performance flat tapped engines. Which is exactly what my car's stroker engine is.

Royal Purple Break-in Oil - Royal Purple

Maybe this stuff is a gimick, but there was a big concern when the oil companies started taking the zinc out of oil. There were a number of engine builders around that were having camshaft lobes going flat and had trouble figuring out why. For a modern engine with an overhead cam or roller camshaft, not having zinc in the oil is not a problem. It usually isn't a problem with most flat tappet engines if the valve spring pressures are not too high. Perhaps there are a bunch of old school engine builders out there that just won't break an engine in with synthetic oil.

This little stroker 388 cubic inch stroker engine of mine was broken in on an engine dyno using a non sythetic oil and a zinc additive. It will be switched to full synthetic once it is in the car and the efi is tuned on a chassis dyno. The oil will have a high zinc content because of the flat solid flat tappet cam and high spring pressures. I know it isn't a Chevy engine and it isn't going into a GM product. My Chevy Colorado will be towing the car that it is in.