Ratio Change and much more..

[Middi]

So I've decided to go on a massive fuel economy mission - I've got a LWB, RWD, 115 T350 Cab in van with a 4.27 axle ratio.
We do a lot of motorway miles and it's time to try and save some fuel - Unlike most people I work on pence per mile rather than miles per gallon as a lot of the jobs we price up we have to add the cost of travelling on top and it's easier to do it that way...
Currently the van averages 26/28ppm and 31ppm if filled with premium diesel - which is, let's face it "Obscene!" normally costing around £350 in an average weekend away
In fairness I never speed, never tow, and because of the back seats the van is never loaded to anywhere near capacity
So this morning I had the guys from Transaxle services come and replace the crownwheel and pinion so it's now a 3.73
I must say that they were really good, they only took about 90 mins to do it and unlike some posts suggest they didn't drink much of my tea and coffee!
Tomorrow morning i'm taking it to have it's EGR valve blanked off and the ECU? remapped for performance and efficiency
We're doing a big motorway weekend this weekend so I'll keep you posted on the ppm results
Just thought I'd post the info in case anyone was interested. Also if anyone has any suggestions as to any other mods I can have done to save fuel then please let me know
Speak soon

[ThundAh]

great idea, if only car companies would offer mods like this instead of the never ending flow of new 'more efficient' cars, it is a much more sustainable solution to fuel economy problems. how did the new ratio go for ppm?

[transitandy]

Will be interesting to hear the results

[BigMonty]

Cool
It will be interesting to see how much the spend is against mpg saved.

[Middi]

The results were spectacular, the engine runs clean and quiet, and we saved over £125 in the first weekend's run, the 28p per mile has dropped on average to 19.5p per mile saving me £42.50 on 500 miles (which is what i'm now geting to a tank full instead of the 380 miles per tank I used to get) there's no clods of black smoke any more which i assume is due to the EGR valve being bypassed and the whole thing ust seems to have more power, we very rarely go over 2225rpm on motorways which cruises us around 68-72 mph (used to be 3200 rpm for 70 mph)
Has done the job perfect for us - the whole cost was about £800 for the axle ratio cange, the EGR blanking and the software update - covered that in the 1st month of fuel.
Just thought I'd keep you posed