Big MPG hit after MBRP exhaust install, looking at new tune

[Langwilliams]

Witchcraft!


but it worked an that's what maters. Maybe reinstalling it started a new "learning session"

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[tehschkott]

Witchcraft!


but it worked an that's what maters. Maybe reinstalling it started a new "learning session"

That's kinda what I'm leaning towards.

 

[LB357]

Muffler also sounds different, it's less blatty.

I'm glad you mentioned this as I've noticed the same on my MBRP exhaust after having ran it for a little bit now and wondering if it was all in my head or not.

 

[txquailguy]

Whenever you change intake or exhaust, your tune needs to be tweeked. As im sure you know, or at least found out.

I have the levernois tune. Very happy with it and their support.

I would call livernois and tell them what mods you have and see what they say.

My 2 cents.

Any tune you decide on will have to be customized for you. I know livernois will.

I installed the Livernois tune at 20K and I now have over 66K on my Ranger. It has been flawless to say the least. I only run the 91-93 Octane, hard-shift tune they provide. It is my daily driver tune. As far as customization, Livernois has you fill out a form listing all the mods you have installed so they can plug those into the Ranger tune they have developed. Honestly, the Livernois tune is considered an OTS (off the shelf) tune. They do not customize individual settings for parameters they have established for each tune. I believe this gives them an edge in safety of our engines. I have talked to Anthony at Livernois many times. He knows his stuff. When you purchase their tune you get the MyCalibrator tuner and 5 tunes. 87-89 hard and soft shift, 91-93 hard and soft shift, and a tow tune. They do offer an E30 tune for those that would like to mix racing gas with ethanol, but that is "iffy" to me. I have been very hard driving on my Ranger since day 1 and she still purrs like a kitty and runs like the wind......
If you have questions call Anthony at Livernois, he will walk you through everything you need to know.
BTW....if you have the ability to flash your tune back to stock and then reload your Ford Performance tune, maybe it will reset and pick up on your exhaust change. I don't know anything about the Ford tune....just an idea.
You can flash back to stock with the Livernois tune anytime you want...you'll want to do that when you take your Ranger in for service.

 

[Dgc333]

I'm glad you mentioned this as I've noticed the same on my MBRP exhaust after having ran it for a little bit now and wondering if it was all in my head or not.

Over the past 50 years of hot rodding vehicles new exhaust systems will always change there tone some with time. Systems with straight through mufflers like the MBRP typically have the largest change. As the packing material becomes more compacted to the OD of the muffler the sound will change. Also, as the inside of the pipes become coated with car on the sound resonating off the pipes will change to.

 

[Ace]

I solved it.

I unloaded my FPP tune, went back to stock. Drove it around for better part of an hour, came home, reloaded FPP tune. Drove it for another hour - mostly using ACC cruise. MPG is now back to 17.4mpg at avg 70mph.

To recap

Drove to California - 800 miles - empty truck 17.6 mpg.
(expected baseline)

Put camper on, drove home 800 miles - 16.6 mpg
(expected, added weight and drag, etc)

Got home, replaced muffler with 3in MBRP cat back single port exhaust - 14.5 mpg
(Uh, WTF is going on)

Took tune to stock, drove around, reloaded FPP tune, drove around - 17.4 mpg

So this is great. Mpg is back to expected levels, in fact it's actually better than expected since my new baseline with the camper was 16.6 mpg. 17.4 mpg is better than I expected. There's been no change in fueling or anything else (there was a tank refill after the exhaust to see if that would change the milage - it didn't). The only thing changed was reloading the tune.

Muffler also sounds different, it's less blatty.

Now, I don't have insight into the inner workings of the truck, I don't know what the truck computer can adjust to or how the tune is applied, so I could be full of crap. But my theory is by returning it to stock and driving it for a bit the computer recalibrated with the new muffler. Later when reapplying the FPP tune to the freshly recalibrated truck, everything clicked together properly like it should.

In any case I'm fixed now. Thanks for the input.

Mmmhhh... this is very interesting as I have just recently installed a set of MBRP exhaust(axle dump) along with other bolt on mods and a FPP tune and I have noticed a drop in my gas mileage as well. But honestly didn't think nothing of it since from past experience "gotta pay to play" when it comes to modifying your vehicle. Anyway, what type of driving did you do? Was it mostly highway or combination of city(stop/go) driving and hwy driving? Haven't really driven my truck since I've modified it so it maybe a bit early for me to come to a conclusion. If I'm experiencing what you experienced, that is a pretty good advise/solution and thank you for that.

 

[tehschkott]

Mmmhhh... this is very interesting as I have just recently installed a set of MBRP exhaust(axle dump) along with other bolt on mods and a FPP tune and I have noticed a drop in my gas mileage as well. But honestly didn't think nothing of it since from past experience "gotta pay to play" when it comes to modifying your vehicle. Anyway, what type of driving did you do? Was it mostly highway or combination of city(stop/go) driving and hwy driving? Haven't really driven my truck since I've modified it so it maybe a bit early for me to come to a conclusion. If I'm experiencing what you experienced, that is a pretty good advise/solution and thank you for that.

Highway. With cruise. That's my baseline. Like, there's a bunch that still doesn't make sense in my summary when I look back on it. But I'm busy enough and pleased enough right now, not to dig further just now. For what it's worth though, I got better MPG after the FPP tune, even from the outset.

 

[got3fords]

Do you get a significant performance gain with Livernois 87-89 tune? I would like to have a nice performance boost without having to run high octane all the time.

 

[Langwilliams]

Do you get a significant performance gain with Livernois 87-89 tune? I would like to have a nice performance boost without having to run high octane all the time.

I do. I run 89 in the winter. I ran a tank of 87 because I stopped at a station that only sold 87 an diesel. I didn't like the way it drove on 87, on 89 I think it's better. I love the 91-93 performance but don't want it for winter so why pay for premium. I emailed Livernois an they emailed back the difference between their 93 tune an 87/89 is probably 25 HP. They didn't say if that was the difference between 93 an 87 or 91 an 89.

 

[Frenchy]

I do. I run 89 in the winter. I ran a tank of 87 because I stopped at a station that only sold 87 an diesel. I didn't like the way it drove on 87, on 89 I think it's better. I love the 91-93 performance but don't want it for winter so why pay for premium. I emailed Livernois an they emailed back the difference between their 93 tune an 87/89 is probably 25 HP. They didn't say if that was the difference between 93 an 87 or 91 an 89.

As a suggestion just run the tow tune instead of running the performance tunes. Why you ask? You can switch octane without changing tunes amd the truck will adjust accordingly

 

[Danny15l]

I had a MBRP 3” black exhaust welded on behind my flex tubing by a shop out here in WA. It sounded pretty nice after 1000 miles. I noticed a bit of low end power loss. Which results in the shift points being around ~3500rpm on cold starts (0-45 normal acceleration). I installed the FPP tune which helped with the shift points. I ended up taking off the exhaust for noise reasons. One of these days I’ll probably have it welded back on by the same shop. Still have the FPP tube and loving the low end torque increase. I did not install the K&N filter however. I like to stay with stock air filters.

 

[rc2125]

MBRP cat back on my 21 ranger tremor that i installed in week 1 of getting the truck. For 10K miles, I was getting 17.5-18 mpg avg and I'm heavier on the pedal vs avg drivers. I changed the oil at 5k myself (ford 50/50 oil), took to dealer at 10k for the first actual scheduled oil change, (paid 4 synthetic)cuz I got like $300 in some ford cash to use there. Literally, the next day and ever since, I've never seen more than 16.3mpg. I dunno what they coulda done to change that. Even if they scammed me and used plain oil, I doubt it woulda caused that much difference.

 

[tehschkott]

Circling back on this, I didn't fix for it. MPG bombed out to 12 or 13mpg and just lived there.

Since I posted this I have
- Replaced the MBRP with a Borla S-type muffler (2.75in). No change in milage.
- Installed a Mishimoto Cold Air Intake kit. No change in milage.
- Gone through all 3 tunes provided by Unleashed Tuning. No meaningful change in milage (though the 91 Octane tune is great)
- Gone through FPP tune
- Gone back to stock

None of it has a meaningful change on MPG.

Last week in my desperation I went to a muffler shop and had them replace the Borla S-type with a factory muffler - MPG jumped to 17mpg. Everything else sucks about this muffler, but the economy is there.

And to reiterate, I have a 54 mile flat-ish course I use to test. For testing purposes I use cruise control and I peg it at 65mph. And I test it a couple times over the course of a week to rule out any sort of weird ECU-cook in time variance or whatever.

I want to reinstall the Borla S-type muffler and find a way to make this work. I want the performance gains everyone else in the what seems to get from it - improvements in power and a small improvement in economy. That's the state I'd prefer to hit and I'm not afraid to spend some money to get it there but I am shooting in the dark here and I am bummed.

 

[Frenchy]

Sounds like someone is stepping on ut too much. I havent had.my fuel mileage get that low for an average what so ever

 

[tehschkott]

It's on cruise control for the tests I don't know how many times I gotta say it.

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