By Ken Payne

With today’s gas prices its more important than ever to have the best fuel economy possible while driving your Ford truck or suv. There are many products available which claim to increase economy but it’s difficult to gauge just how much they help. ModBargains.com sells the Scangauge II at a great price and this device will help you know how much a modification helps, and will also help to determine how changes in your driving habits impact fuel economy. I purchased 2 of the units – one for my truck and one for my wife’s minivan. If you choose you can purchase additional cables and use the Scangauge II in multiple vehicles, but I opted for 2 of them because I didn’t want to have to reprogram engine size and tank size each time I moved it to another vehicle.

In addition to this, the Scangauge II product lets you track fuel costs and fuel usage, the ability to view 4 virtual gauges at once and read/clear OBDII diagnostic codes. It’s a universal device and works with most OBDII and CAN compatible vehicles. This includes all 1996 and newer light duty Ford trucks and suvs, 1994 and newer 7.3L, 6.0L and 6.4L Powerstroke diesels, and 1999 and newer gas powered Ford Super Duty trucks and Excursion.

Installation is easy. Simply plug the device into the OBDII connector located under the driver’s side dash panel and then mount the gauge in a handy location. Do not locate it on or near air-bag surfaces! The Scangauge II is light and comes with a Velcro mount so you can mount it just about anywhere (the “Blendmount”, also available from ModBargains.com, allows you to permanently mount it above the rear view mirror). For my tests article I didn’t mount it but instead I had someone hold it and take photos while I drove. My plans are to fabricate a custom mount in my ashtray area in the near future.

Once plugged in you set it up by turning on the ignition, entering your engine size, fuel tank size, fuel type and units of measure such as gallons or liters. That’s it!

The main screen offers 4 selections:

• Scan – This option displays any OBDII and CAN diagnostic codes. If no codes are present it will give a READY reading which means the vehicle should currently pass emissions testing. If any codes are present it will display them and give you the option to clear them.

• Gauge – Selecting this option displays 4 gauges on the screen. Using the buttons next to each gauge changes the currently displayed gauge for that position. Here are the standard gauges available:
Open/closed loop, cost per mile, intake air temperature, coolant temperature, fuel pressure, gallons/liters per hour, ignition timing advance/retard, engine load, miles per gallon (or other units of measure), miles/kilometers per hour, manifold absolute pressure, RPM, throttle position setting and battery voltage. Additionally, the Scangauge II has the XGauge feature which allows programming of custom gauges for specific vehicles. One popular XGauge setup is the horsepower gauge and ModBargains.com includes detailed instructions on their web site for setting up this gauge on Fords.

• Trip – This is by far one of the best features of the Scangauge II. It displays information about the current trip, combined trips for today and combined trips for the previous day. Each of these trip information screens can display maximum speed, maximum coolant temperature, maximum RPMs, average speed, fuel economy, miles driven, elapsed time, fuel used, fuel cost. There is also a “tank trip” which shows information since the last fill-up including fuel used since last fill-up, fuel remaining in the tank, distance driven, distance remaining, time driving, time remaining and miles per gallon.

• More – This option leads you to sub-options such as Setup, Display (you can change the screen color to any one of 64 colors), Fillup and another More option. The fillup option screen allows you to enter data about the current fillup of the fuel tank. The Scangauge II automatically uses tank data to correct for any minor errors in mileage data. The more you use the Scanguage II the more accurate it becomes. My testing revealed that for my truck the “out of the box” mileage readings were very accurate (within ½ mpg) and that’s with a custom tune on a supercharged 5.4L V8. The More option lets you program custom gauges and other options.

One of the options recommended is to adjust the mileage reading using a GPS unit or highway mile markers. This helps the unit correct for any errors in the factory odometer (most are slightly off) and allows the Scangauge II to display more accurate information about fuel economy.

Using The Scangauge II To Increase Fuel Economy

This is where it gets interesting. For this test I ran the truck like I normally do for a day with the Scangauge II hidden from view so it wouldn’t impact my driving habits. I averaged about 7.1 mpg city and 13.5 mpg highway. Roush’s EPA estimates for a Roush supercharged F150 is 8 mpg city and 11 mpg highway - yeah, its that bad! The Scangauge II has already proved itself to be useful because I now know for certain that the custom tuning done to the truck is not only improving power but its also slightly more efficient than Roush’s standard tune on the highway, and it indicates I may driving a bit too aggressively during city driving. With a few changes to driving habits the economy improvements were substantial. Read on….

I selected the gauges display and selected throttle position sensor, real-time mpg, miles per hour and fuel usage. Over the course of 2 days, using the Scangauge II as feedback on the same route I changed my driving habits the following ways:

1. Slightly slower acceleration.

2. Anticipating stops and coasting to a stop from a further distance.

3. Watching my boost gauge (not part of the Scangauge II) and noting how much throttle (via the TPS display on the Scangauge II) resulted in full boost or partial boost. For non-supercharged vehicles watching MAP gauge on the Scangauge II can substitute for a boost gauge. I used this data to get a good idea of exactly how much throttle was required to keep boost slightly lower going up hills at the cost of losing a slight amount of speed going up hills.

4. On the freeway I drove close to the 70 mph speed limit (most of the time) because the feedback from the unit showed an improvement in MPG by doing so.

5. I coasted the last mile to my home when no one was behind me.

6. I still continued to have “fun” by getting into the throttle when a Mustang or other quick car was at a light, but I stopped driving as aggressively overall.

How much did my mileage improve? I averaged 13 mpg city and 17.4 mpg highway. That’s very good for any 4x4 F150 Supercrew… its excellent for one that is supercharged. The Scangauge II has made a believer out of me. I’m sure with a little more time I can squeeze even more economy out of it while still enjoying the extra power the supercharger adds. Check out ModBargains.com to get one --- they have great prices, know the product well and I received timely support from their salesman Alon and his support made the purchase decision easy for me. If your experience with the Scangauge II and ModBargains is anything like mine you won’t be disappointed.

The Scangauge web page is located at http://www.scangauge.com/ and ModBargains can be found at http://www.modbargains.com .

(Copyright 2008 Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Inc., All Rights Reserved. This article is used by Internet Brands, Inc. with permission.)