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Old Nov 30, 2009 | 03:27 PM
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this doesnt pertain to fbodies or GM.

But my buddy has a f250 superduty 99 model. he just put a 6 inch lift and 37inch tires.

He has stock 373 gears. He just told me that if he puts in 4.56 gears, he will get better gas milage, because the truck will think that he has stock size tires on. does this make sense?
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Old Nov 30, 2009 | 03:52 PM
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yes. right now it thinks it has 2.56 gears. Highway milage may increase with the tires, but town driving will kill it. Plus with the odometter off, he can't really check the mpg anyway.
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Old Dec 1, 2009 | 09:07 AM
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thax for a prompt answer btw. forgot to thank you yesterday
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Old Dec 1, 2009 | 07:09 PM
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Originally Posted by cambirdracing
yes. right now it thinks it has 2.56 gears. Highway milage may increase with the tires, but town driving will kill it. Plus with the odometter off, he can't really check the mpg anyway.
How do you figure that? If he keeps the same size tires and changes gears, his mileage will get worse. The driveshaft will have to turn more to turn the wheels, which equals more RPMs, equals more gas used.

It's not a matter of what the PCM sees, its a matter of simple mechanics.
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Old Dec 1, 2009 | 09:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Spartan7
How do you figure that? If he keeps the same size tires and changes gears, his mileage will get worse. The driveshaft will have to turn more to turn the wheels, which equals more RPMs, equals more gas used.

It's not a matter of what the PCM sees, its a matter of simple mechanics.
His tire size became considerably TALLER than stock. In essance that numerically lowers the "final" gear ration. The same concept is used when guys run a crazy rear ratio like 4.56 and have to use a 28" tall tire to keep the rpms down vs mph so they can still cross the 1/4 mile in their 1:1 gear (4th for six speed, 3rd for auto) without going beyond redline.

His highway mileage might increase because he will be turning lower rpms at highway speed, but if it is lugging the truck it will get worse. And, the engine will have to work HARDER due to lack of net tq in city driving, therefore getting worse mileage in the city.

His comment about the pcm is that the rpm vs mph will be off, so the miles he's putting on the odometer aren't the actual miles he's going. Therefore, any attempted to use a trip meter to determine mpg will be wrong.
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Old Dec 2, 2009 | 06:00 AM
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^^^thanks, well stated.
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Old Dec 3, 2009 | 08:30 PM
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Originally Posted by black00ssFL
His tire size became considerably TALLER than stock. In essance that numerically lowers the "final" gear ration. The same concept is used when guys run a crazy rear ratio like 4.56 and have to use a 28" tall tire to keep the rpms down vs mph so they can still cross the 1/4 mile in their 1:1 gear (4th for six speed, 3rd for auto) without going beyond redline.

His highway mileage might increase because he will be turning lower rpms at highway speed, but if it is lugging the truck it will get worse. And, the engine will have to work HARDER due to lack of net tq in city driving, therefore getting worse mileage in the city.

His comment about the pcm is that the rpm vs mph will be off, so the miles he's putting on the odometer aren't the actual miles he's going. Therefore, any attempted to use a trip meter to determine mpg will be wrong.
I know how it works. But you answered his question to "If I change to a steeper gear, will my mpg increase?" with a yes. And that's not right. If you were referring to a taller tire helping then obviously it will, but changing to a steeper rear end gear will ALWAYS net lower mpg than before the swap.
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Old Dec 3, 2009 | 11:13 PM
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I was referring to him keeping the stock gearing with taller tires.
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