Newbie owner of a 2006 Tahoe LS w/5.3L engine, and wanting to know what upgrades or additions I should perform to siginficantly improve mileage? Any idea on what these adds might be, how much of an improvement one can get, and what brands/cost of the new equipment or modifications?
Much appreciated.

 

Welcome to the Tahoe forum.

Nothing you do will "significantly" improve mpg or power. Synthetic oil will help the most. CAIs and catbacks all help but only at higher rpms.

A supercharger will significantly boost power but costs about $8-$10K.

 

Shark, thanks much. I was so hoping for some magic Pixie dust I could buy and sprinkle over the hood or something. Synthetic oil, gotcha. CAI? I don't know what that means, how much they cost, or what the impact really would be? Catback? Is that one of those air foil things?

Duh....sorry to be so dense. Last time I worked on cars was 50 and 60 vintage British Leyland and American cars.
Used to be that an aftermarket air filter, and sometimes manifold and exhaust system modifications would boost mileage a bit...or at least we thought.

 

Well the Tahoe won't leak as much (I hope) as the BLs did and you shouldn't have as many electrical problems either.

CAI = Cold Air Intake Usually consists of a hi-flow air filter, a box connected to outside air, and a smooth tube to the throttle body. Check K&N and Trueflow.

Catback is a replacement exhaust system from the cats back. Usually larger pipe and a low restriction muffler(s). Check Magnaflow, Borla, Corsa, Flowmaster, et al.

BTW GM makes both of the above. I have both and sounds good but can't attest to much in performance gain. The Superchips did make a noticeable change. In the performance setting, got 0-60 in 7 sec range. But it takes 91+ octane then.

 

I do use the synthetic oil. However, I have found that driving like a sane person does more for my gas mileage than anything on the market.

 

amen to that, the biggest modification is toyour driving habits, keep your foot out of the accelerator and you can get 18mpg in the city as long as it not too much stop and go

 

yeah, but its that stop and go that gets you...

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here, for @ 1800$ you can change your gear ratio to a lower one. Did it in my pickup, 260$ for a CAI, and I drive sanely,almost doubled my mileage. Run and gun and you lose all your economy gains, though.

Persistent regular maintenance helps, wheel alignment and tire pressure is important, go a couple pounds over normal, and monitor it regularly.Wash and wax it regularly. New firmer gas shocks.It all adds up.

I'm looking into HHO systems, a successful build puts out enough hydrogen to save you @25%+, which is a massive amount in the nickel and dime world of enhanced gas mileage. For anybody truly serious, it's an ongoing process of constant mods and trying to shave even
1/10 MPG.

I wish I personally knew more about programmers, because reprogramming the PCM looks like the next step for me.

 

that's an interesting point about the wash and wax, as some will say it makes no difference, I think it does in the overall picture, a clean smooth vehicle will always go thru the air better then a dirty one. Will washin and waxin' get you better mileage that you will see at every fill up? probably no, over a span of time? I think so...