Cummins ECM print out questions

October 30, 2012, 07:43:50 pm

My post is in relationship to the Cummins electronically controlled engines from 1999 and later. I wonder how many ForeForum members have had Cummins do a print out of their ECM, and how that information obtained relates to the real world. The previous owner of our coach thoughtfully provided me with most of the documentation that he had on our coach. Among those papers during one of the services Cummings gave him a printout of ECM history. There appears to be a lot of interesting information on this printout. The heading on the printout is entitled features and parameters. The part that interests me at the moment is a category called trip information. It is broken down hierarchically, and the first heading is "All trips (Cumulative)". The first parameter is ECM distance and it shows 107,670.73 miles. A little ways down from there, is the parameter for fuel used which shows 11,199.6 gallons. if I just brute force the math, it comes out to be a bit over 9.6 MPG. however, also in there are parameters for Idle fuel, idle time and various other potentially mpg affecting parameters.
So my question is, does this number have anything to do with the real world as regards the miles per gallon? Next category the hierarchy is called "Trip Since Last Reset". the first parameter in this category is average fuel economy and it shows 9.49 MPG.
It is interesting to note that the mileage noted on the work order is 123,223 miles. if I divide that by the total fuel used in the ECM print out, that turns out to be just a hair over 11 mpg. Now I like to think of myself as an optimist, but I'm pretty certain that this coach is not likely to achieve that kind of mileage over its lifetime. However I would be extremely pleased with anything over nine MPG from everything that I've read, and doubly pleased with something that approaches 9 1/2 Miles per gallon!

Anybody have any insight as to how this information relates to real-world miles per gallon, and if so how idle time and generator usage figures into that MPG?

Re: Cummins ECM print out questions

Reply #1 – October 30, 2012, 10:06:13 pm

It's as close as the correct tire size and the speedo accuracy can be. My coach shows 154K via the ECM, 141K on the speedo (I happened to check mine today). When I add in the 'correction factor' for the VMSpc to make the 'speedo feed' to the VMSpc match GPS, the total miles are within a couple thousand miles.

There were electronic engines before 99, too - just U320 o Foretravels with Cats...

Re: Cummins ECM print out questions

Reply #2 – October 30, 2012, 11:03:39 pm

Your 320 has a Cat? I didn't know that any of the Unicoaches came that way... learn something new everyday!
Don

Quote from: Dave Head – October 30, 2012, 10:06:13 pm

It's as close as the correct tire size and the speedo accuracy can be. My coach shows 154K via the ECM, 141K on the speedo (I happened to check mine today). When I add in the 'correction factor' for the VMSpc to make the 'speedo feed' to the VMSpc match GPS, the total miles are within a couple thousand miles.

There were electronic engines before 99, too - just U320 o Foretravels with Cats...

Re: Cummins ECM print out questions

Reply #3 – October 30, 2012, 11:25:29 pm

There were a few, but mine has an M11. It's electronic too... As were the 3176 and 3126 Cats.

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