Recently, we purchased a 2005 Expedition, and Bill reprogrammed it almost immediately. I was pretty surprised to see our fuel economy skyrocket, and in my "spare time," I sat down and figured out how much his tuning was saving us. Of course, I couldn't stop there! I figured out how much our customers are saving based upon the price of fuel and their personal gains in fuel economy. I made a few charts. The one below shows the money saved if a customer drives about 15,000 miles per year. (I also have that shows savings based on 1,000 miles driven.) I thought it was cool to find the point where the programmer pays for itself. We've used this information on a lot of our printed advertising lately. E-mail me if you have any questions!


Our customers who drive gasoline vehicles generally report gains of 2-3 mpg; newer vehicles may experience slightly smaller gains. Diesel gains rely heavily on gear ratio and load. Our calculations are based on an initial average fuel economy of 14 mpg without a Gryphon programmer. Your savings may vary based on driving habits, altitude, towing vs. no towing, etc. These numbers are to serve as a guideline for the savings you might experience based on driving your vehicle 15,000 miles per year and are not guaranteed.

 

That's pretty much my take on it. Not only do you have more power, but at 3.90 a gallon for regular here in OR, the gryphon will pay for itself in about 10,000 miles if you gain about 2 MPG.

 

I do not intend to rain on the parade, but I feel I need to add 2 cents here. I am one of PHP's most vocal supporters and thorughly enjoy my custom tunes, but I must say, I did not experience any fuel gains at all. If anything, maybe slightly less. I have always gotten very good mileage with my truck, even though I drive quick and fast. Stock, it was almost 17 around the metroplex and 19.2 on the highway running 75 to 85. I bought the Edge and with the canned tunes, mileage stayed about the same, just a lot more pep and more fun to drive. Then with Bill's tunes, even more pep, but no better mileage, and as I said slightly poorer. I really think there are other factors at play here to cause that, but I just think it sould be pointed out that you may save enough to pay for the Gryphon, but you may not save any at all. Even though I did not save anything, it was worth every penny for the improved performance and shifting.

 

Hey Bluejay,

Have you ever talked to Bill about it? I've talked to some customers who were getting pretty decent mileage before the Gryphon, so their gains weren't all that impressive, but I've never had anyone tell me that they didn't have any at all -- not to say that it doesn't happen, mind you. I've just never heard of it. I wonder if there's something he can tweak for you...?

Realizing that not all customers will get the gains that I've seen on my Expy or that our customers (except you, I guess ) have reported, I did point out after the chart that gains in mileage are based upon lots of things. For example, if someone is going to drive with his foot to the floor, the gains just ain't gonna happen. (I've never seen you drive, so I'm not saying this about you! It's just that there are many factors involved, that's all.)

Dang! I just went back and re-read your post. You were getting awesome mileage to begin with, which is why -- I imagine -- you didn't see the increases that our other customers have reported. It wouldn't hurt to run it past, Billy, though.

 

No, I never contacted Bill on it. I just assumed I was already getting as good as I could expect. I was just trying to point out that not everyone could expect such great results and I think you got that point. If you are already on the extremely efficient edge, you probably won't improve much if any. Running around town and some on the freeways, I was averaging 16.6 to 16.8 with stock, Edge canned tunes, and Bill's tunes. That is a Supercrew, 5.4, 3.55 gears, XLT.

 

Thank you, Groovy Chick.
I have hesitated to spend over $300 on a programmer just to increase the gas mileage. A few people have told me the gains on a newer truck would only be about 1 to 2 MPG.
I have a 'Bone Stock' 2007 Screw 4x2 with 4.6L and 3.55 rear-end (NO Limited Slip Diff, NO factory tow pkg.). Truck has about 26K miles on it right now.
I get 13 to 14 MPG City (Lots of Stop Go traffic where I live, near Los Angeles). I get 15 to 16 MPG pulling my double PWC trailer on the Hwy. Lots of hills and the trailer weighs about 2K #. PWC trailers do not have the 'Wind Resistance' of a camper. Aerodynamics are much better. When I pull the trailer, I have about 1K # in the truck (This includes 4 to 5 people plus gear).
Can Bill or yourself give me your estimate of the expected increase in MPG, using the most efficient program for my needs?
Thank you very much.

 

Not to bother also, but i too haven't seen much gains as far as MPG, at best 1mpg better but no more. And i have been making my best efforts to (forgive me for using the term)(SP?) "MILING".
At bets I can get 17ampg, thats with 3.73gears, intake, exhaust, and gryphon on my 5.4L FX4 SCrew.
but, all in all I didn't anticipate much increase in mpg, I wanted performance and functionality for my intake!

 

I'm in a similar situation with Bluejay, being an '05 Lariat SCrew in the DFW area. I currently get around 17mpg average with about 60-70% highway miles, but if I baby it and there isn't any drastic weather (strong winds or high temps) I can get anywhere from 18-22 mpg on any given day. So I'm afraid that my gains won't be as incredible as some people's are, even though I've added about 2 mpg just by adding the tonneau cover.

But I drive over 800 miles a week, which equates to over 50,000 miles a year. So any gains that I do see is a few hundred dollars or more that I don't give to the oil companies. My fuel bill when it hit $4/gallon was over $800 a month, so I'm enjoying $3.39 at the moment. If the Grphon even saved it's worth in gas over a year, it's still worth it in the long run if you intend to pay off and own your truck for more than a couple of years. That's when you really save your cash - no truck payments, lower insurance premiums and just gas expenses. $500 or more off of that is definitely worth the purchase.

So I'll be saving the extra cash from the lull in the cheaper gas at the moment and purchase one in the next month or two...I would buy one now, but as you can read above my money's been going out fairly quick, lol.....thanks Corey for the spreadsheet, the figures were about what I had figured out myself as well.

 

Guys,

Pay Attention: mileage gains are only going to be on the freeway

Trust me. I use a 91 Octane Performance Tune from another custom tuner and I routinely see 24-26 Miles Per Gallon on long, flat, open roads.

But like the gentleman in the Los Angeles area, stop & go driving in The City sucks. Especially with short trips of 1/2 to 1 mile. I live in San Francisco, a city which is only 7X7 miles, or 49 square miles. Manhattan, with 12X2 miles, or 24 square miles, is just as bad. I have personally seen where it took over 20 minutes to go 1 mile. My commute on the graveyard shift is about 15 minutes. That same commute for the swing shift in the afternoon sometimes takes over an hour. So if any one else lives in a big city, don't expect miracles with custom tuning for your stop & go commute. I have had trips where the gauge displayed 6 miles per gallon.