ECT POWER MPG increase.. why?

i agree with this. if you drive the freeway alot keep ect on. or just switch on for freeway and off for city/side roads.

 

i also always forget that button exists. along with the clock. Steering wheel blocks it.lol.

 

I just made this account just to say that I keep it on because I get better fuel economy with it on, but I live and work in rural Idaho.

 

ECT PWR FTW!!! After reading this thread decided to run a couple of days with it on and it definitely has made my 2.7L AT feel more powerful and shift more to my liking. I don’t drive city or highway miles, it’s single lane rural island driving, up and down hills and curvy roads(no stop lights, under 55mph). Not really concerned with mpg, my round trip daily isn’t even 20 miles(or less). It’s perfect for me, I’m keeping it on! Thanks for all the info TW!

 

I wish my 2000 5spd MT had a Mo Powa button!

 

I wonder how many real-time OBD2 scan tool purchases this thread has encouraged

 

It really works! I drive mostly city and went from 14.5 to 17.5 mpg!

 

Going to give the ECT PWR a try after reading this. Not to be confused with ETC PWR - when I seek out downhill routes to improve my mpg.

 

Wonder if there’s a way to keep ECT on continuously vs having to press the dang button each time I start my truck! I’m an old fart and will forget. Sticky note…

 

It’s crazy how your 3rd gen’s MPG is fairly analogous to our 1st gen’s.

 

So I’m doing the ECT PWR experiment. No load / no tow, around town, occasional highway, not hammering down on it - this is about 95% of my driving. Question: do folks see an appreciable MPG improvement in around town vs highway or both with ECT PWR on? Just curious. I’ll report back with my findings. Guess if I really want to see an improvement in MPG, I’d swap out my 255/85/26’s for dealer tires - what’s the fun in that???

 

I’ve found it makes more of a difference on the highway, where especially untuned the ECU can’t decide if 5th gear exists or not and treats it like hot potato

 

@TS4x4 - Thanks!! Hate that hot potato gear hunting!

 

As to "why", it's my understanding minimum BSFC is loosely related to peak torque point. There is a sweet spot between using more RPM (more fuel/s) to get to peak torque, and being in a higher gear (more load, less RPM, less torque) but needing to stay there longer to accelerate to your desired speed. If I had my own dyno, I'd plot BSFC on my truck, but alas..

 

Do you ALL have larger-than-stock tires?

 

It does, just downshift to 4th gear and leave it there.

My older 2007 doesn't have the fancy electronics but it's easy enough to manually downshift out of OD which I do quite often.

On paper, under ideal conditions lower rpm's almost always mean more MPG and car manufacturers jump through a lot of hoops to show even 1 more MPG on paper to meet CAFE standards.

But in the real world more RPM's can often mean better fuel mileage. The engine may be running faster, but it's not working as hard. Anybody who's ridden a bicycle with multiple gears can illustrate this easily. If you're in a gear that's too high you work a lot harder and the bike is moving slower. Drop down a gear or 3 and it's a lot easier to pedal and you'll actually pick up speed.