Gaidin43

I am changing my new 2009 crew cab 5.3 silverado over to synthic mobil 1 oil and filter at 1000 miles.

Is there anything else I should do to increase fuel mileage, proformance, and longevity for my truck before it is too late? I was thinking and replacing stock filter with a k&n box filter (I have the bigger z71 big box air filter. Cold intake doesn't seem like a good idea.) and maybe a blackbear tune ( don't want to void my warrenity and it seems the dealer can track the swapping of the chips now ).

Suggestions?

in2pro

Changing to synthetic will help over the life time of the vehicle, but there are no miracle cures to make a V8 get the fuel economy of a 4 banger. Most add-ons or after-market items are for performance and are anti-fuel economy.
Read up on hyper-miling is your best bet...

If GM could have gotten more MPG out of the 5.3 then what they do now they would have... but then you start affecting over all performance

Gaidin43

Hyper miller? First I ever heard of that. The tune should help a bit and the oil and air filter a little too. But what does hyper milling do?

in2pro

What kind of MPG are you looking/expecting to get?

Some tuners do have an economy mode but most are designed to get more power and performance out of the engine, resulting in lower MPG. I would not spend good money on a tuner to try to improve MPG.
In city driving you will most likely see 14-16MPG and 18-22 on the highway, if you like to race, be the first off the line at a green light, drive faster then the posted speed limit , you will most likely see and average of 12-15mpg.

I don't mean to be a buzz kill but the plan and simple fact is its a truck designed for hauling a heavy loads and to do that MPG is going to be lower to get the power needed to move a heavy load.

"Hypermiling is the act of driving using techniques that maximize fuel economy, coasting, using momentum to round corners rather then accelerating, avoiding braking to roll to stops "

http://www.hypermiling.com/index.html

wffokker

Driving technigues have the biggest effect on fuel mileage, the heavier and bigger the truck the more it will affect, i will get 50% better fuel mileage than my dad driving the same combination, just by not getting on it as hard taking of, using cruise controll ( speed doesn't seem to make much difference) and coasting before getting on the brakes.

racerx55

The best helper for gas mileage on my 5.3 was a programmer. yesterday i drove 150 miles at 55-60mph just crusing along on the highway and averaged 25.3mpg and i had a good amount of stuff in the bed.
ive been using a tru-flow foam air filter and have seen better results than with a K&N so far.

Mike Sigmond

Thats it right there.

N2Pro has a well explained post as well. I get the best mileage at 80-90mph with the cruise control on highways, too bad thats illegal, I go 75 , if you hit 76 or more in a 65 its a ticket around here.

Anyways back to your post, put some full Synthetic oil in for the longrun of your engine with a K&N or Acdelco or Mobile (if you like) oil filter & keep everything else stock if you want the best mileage you can get out of your truck.

The 5.3 in my Tahoe gets 23 MPG highway and its 100% stock, so watch what you spend $$$ on.

Blindsight

I thought I was the only one man; I get my best mileage at around 80-90mph too. But on the roads I frequent, I can only really go the speed limit; they're incredibly strict about the laws down here. 36 in a 35 and you're their target; it's ridiculous.

I enjoy the drive out to school; it's mostly 75-80.

Mike Sigmond

I love the I-10 from LA to Phoenix, its a 75mph highway most of the way once you hit AZ and you can go 85 legally (for the most part).

Gaidin43

So other air filter and oil change. A tune is the only real option to help out with gas mileage. Still the question is if the dealer sees the difference in the clock will they honor the warrenity?

Thanks for all the help on this guys.