BoostdCTD

I agree completely with Forrest, driving at highway speed the motor is running boost just to keep up. If you take off the turbo it already has its hands tied just to keep going that speed, imagine with a trailer behind it!

Kyle Graham

Sounds like you would be jumping over a dollar to pick up a dime all the money you would spend to replace engine buy a different car all these variations you could just buy alot of diesel. Here is something nobody else mentioned ever thought of using a secondary fuel along with diesel you could run propane injection make your diesel last longer propane is alot cheaper than diesel or water methanol injection that is also cheaper no federal tax on either.

kingofdodge7131

All is very true, Run mixes , But dont be trying to shoot 6k on mods and what not. 6 k will buy lots of diesel. Unless your putting on 50k a year you wont be ahead

Lary Ellis (Top)

Put a sail on it and drive it down wind

96_12V

This is an electronically controlled 24-valve unit. Therefore attempts to disconnect the turbocharger will affect the programming in the computer, and not just affect the running, but it may cause it not to run at all. Don't try to make something that runs fine as-is into something it wasn't designed to be. Cylinder de-activation, while possible in some very recent automobiles, is a tricky business and is still rather experamental in it's development. Turbochargers INCREASE the volumentric effeciency of the engine.

Pick up a cheap Civic, TDI Jetta, or something similar if you're that concerned with mileage. Switching vechiles for mileage alone (unless you drive 1000 miles/week) is usually a loosing idea.

mr T

the dope dosage must be reduced!!!!! just joking buddy get urself another car or old mazda diesel pickup if u wanna get drastically better fuel economy....turbos were added to increase efficiency!! 17 mpg is ok especially on a 24 valve...check all the stuff previously mentioned but im a firm believer that its driving habits that control mpg the most....DRIVE LIKE U HAVE AN EGG UNDER THE PEDAL!!! trust me that works

Raspy

Johnr9q,

Maybe you could define the perameters of your mileage quest. How much are you willing to spend for what results? Is cost even a factor? Must you keep the Dodge? How much work do you make it do? What is your driving style? How much performace are you willing to give up?
If mileage is all you are interested in then a smaller, lighter, diesel vehicle driven at lower speeds will do more than anything else. If you must haul a ton of weight every day up a mountain at high speed then you are as good as you can get now. Mileage is all about the amount of work done including acceleration, wind resistance, rolling resistance, friction, and the time it took to do it. Big engines have a lot more internal friction and heavier associated parts (trannys, diffs, etc) than little engines do. Turbos make small engines act like big engines, by doubling or tripling their displacement, but with the small engine's friction and weight. My old '93 Dodge Cummins would do about 60 MPH without boost and about 95 MPH with it.
Your question about the turbo is interesting and here's why I think it would get better mileage without it (excluding all the electronic arguments, I'm only talking generically here). The turbo makes a smaller engine act like a bigger engine, without being bigger or heavier. But better mileage is not about having more power, it's about overall efficiency. If you take two 150 Horsepower diesel engines and put them side by side in identical vehicles. One is turboed and one is not. Remember they have the same power. So the turboed one is about half the displacement of the other. The bigger one is naturally aspirated, is heavier and has a lot more internal friction. Now drive the two vehicles on a test circuit with varying speeds and condiitions. The turboed one will get the better mileage because you had less internal friction in the smaller engine and it weighed less for it's power. So now let's assume you only needed 50 horsepower max on the test circuit. Take off the turbo and run the two vehicles again. Now the smaller one still beats the bigger one but beats it by even more. Why? Because it breathes easier which takes less power.
If you don't need more than about 100 horsepower, you might do better without your turbo and your fuel turned way down to match, because it will breath easier and it won't accelerate as rapidly. But if you always drive around town with no load, and are not in a hurry, install a small Kubota or Yanmar in your Dodge.
These ideas are not about being practical. Just about mileage. It's easy to say "get another vehicle" or "it will never pay for itself", but the question was about mileage not payback.
I'd love to get better mileage. I also need what this truck will do. And I want the 315s, the automatic and the 4WD. I don't like to drive slow. But slowing down raises my average mileage from 16 to 19 real quick. 30 would be nice but it will never happen. A diesel car would also be nice for many of my miles. Oh well.

Wetspirit

PourinDiesel

Yeah,
I think its a good idea, take the turbo off.
Mileage should improve.

mr T

if u wanna think about swapping motors in there and putting in all that work then by all means come to my house i'll pay u to put ur time to use here...id like a 6 or 7 speed eaton fuller tranny in there in place of my auto and id like the rear axle of a big GMC topkick too and a twin turbo setup ooops i just woke up darn

just watch ur driving habits and take it easy on the throttle....dont forget its still a 5.9 liter and its a7000 lb truck!! have realistic expectations i think 20mpg out of sucha heavy truck with such displacement is very good
think of all the poor guys that boought the 8 liter dodges because they dont like diesels feel better yet ???

Forrest Nearing

the Dana 80 will hold up to whatever you're gonna throw at it... those medium duty rears generally come with really deep gears, and soak up a lot of power... put a D80 in your '95 and don't look back.

Forrest

mr T

right on ...i saw a 91 flat bed dually in the bone yard with a cummins i'll scope that out see what its got

Ripper406

Hey why not use Home made Bio Diesel, for 50-70 cents a gallon who cares how much mileage it makes.

diesel_kid

I dont think that putting a smaller diesel in there would help matters at all as it would take the same amount of power to move it mentioned in and earlier post. Just like pulling with a gasser, my dad says that in his old fords (pre-diesel era) his 460 would get better mileage than the 351 just because it took the 460 less work to move the same load. If I were to look for mileage It would be a fuel injection motorcyle. If you dont like bikes, a Jetta Diesel lowered with aerodynamical improvements. Either that, or find a tiny little diesel and put it in a mini lol. But for now Ill stick with my Dodge.

Speaking of which, is there any front covers or bumpers that we can put on our 2nd. Gen. Dodges to improve the aerodynamics of the vehicles? Thanks.

BoostdCTD

I think there is a front spoiler which may help a little, I'm pretty sure JcWhitney carries it. It is basically another thing below the front bumper to make a little less under the vehicle turbulence. I doubt it'd be anywhere close to the significance of the tonneau cover but I doubt it'd hurt.

Hemi Cat

I can't get the question out of my head, If fuel economy is such an issue for you, why did you buy one of the best trucks on the market and expect it to get better fuel economy than VW diesel car that weigh about 1/3 the weight and can't do 1% the work?