decent milege

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elgemcdlf
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Re: decent milege

Post by elgemcdlf »

There was a propane truck at Anderson this year that sold. I didn't get a chance to talk with them about mileage vs fuel costs. I have gone the other way. I could get 1 mpg & be happy as I do not daily drive my truck & I want the haul a$$ factor.
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Re: decent milege

Post by hotrodfeguy »

As the first poster brought up 360/390 will give you the same MPG. I know this cause I have ran both. The extra crank/stoke in the 390 does not work as hard and allows less throttle input. But the best return on your investment is keep jetting down till you have peanut butter colored plugs. Then I swapped for a cooler set/heat range of plugs. Also I set my overall lead time on my Dizzy to 37* marked by my balancer(you have to measure as lines do not go that far) I ran my engine up to speed till all the advance was out of the distributor. Of course with VAC ADV disconnected as normal. Then I lock down the dizzy. Those two alone should get you right on target for better MPG.
This marks a big improvement on the 360 as the 8:0 CR likes a bunch of lead on the ignition time to make a bit of CR in itself. With little to no crankshaft it needs all it can get.
1972 F-250 4X4 390
1999 F-350 7.3 PS 4X4
1996 Ford ranger 3.0
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colnago
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Re: decent milege

Post by colnago »

hotrodfeguy wrote:... Also I set my overall lead time on my Dizzy to 37* marked by my balancer(you have to measure as lines do not go that far) I ran my engine up to speed till all the advance was out of the distributor. Of course with VAC ADV disconnected as normal...
Don't you have to have the vacuum advance hooked up to dial in the total advance? I thought it was initial + mechanical + vacuum = 35 to 37. Am I misremembering (again)? :?

Joseph
"Sugar", my 1967 Ford F250 2WD Camper Special, 352FE, Ford iron "T" Intake with 1405 Edelbrock, Duraspark II Ignition, C6 transmission, front disc brake conversion.
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hotrodfeguy
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Re: decent milege

Post by hotrodfeguy »

You were right, I went out today and worked on my truck a bit. I adjusted the idle mixture and bumped the curb idle up a bit. But the marks on mine were closer to 38* maybe even 39.
1972 F-250 4X4 390
1999 F-350 7.3 PS 4X4
1996 Ford ranger 3.0
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Re: decent milege

Post by bgulseth »

I have a 300 straight 6 bored over .025 im getting average on the highway 17 mpgs I will look to see which carb I have its sad I cant even remember..
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Re: decent milege

Post by hotrodfeguy »

Yes a 300-6 will run circles around our FE engines on MPG's. The FE was designed back in 57 not exactly up to date. The latter 385 series had a lot better updates in it with many years of knowledge behind it. The 300-6 had a 428 FE stroke and a 4" bore and that spells TQ no matter what Ford did to it in it's history of roughly 30 years it was still I think the best 6 cyl they made.
1972 F-250 4X4 390
1999 F-350 7.3 PS 4X4
1996 Ford ranger 3.0
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elgemcdlf
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Re: decent milege

Post by elgemcdlf »

I think the Ford 300 & the Chrysler 225 (Slant 6) are probably the 2 best 6s every built.
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Re: decent milege

Post by ToughOldFord »

elgemcdlf wrote:I think the Ford 300 & the Chrysler 225 (Slant 6) are probably the 2 best 6s every built.
:yt:

And GM's 292 isn't bad for a GM product.
1969 F250 Ranger Camper Special. 390, NP435, 3:73s.
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elgemcdlf
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Re: decent milege

Post by elgemcdlf »

I forgot about that 1. What was that monster V6 they put in their '60s trucks? That was a good 6 cyl as well.
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Re: decent milege

Post by ToughOldFord »

No, it was their big straight 6, from the 60's to the 80's I believe.

But you're right, those monster V6s they used in the 60's were almost indestructible.
1969 F250 Ranger Camper Special. 390, NP435, 3:73s.
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Re: decent milege

Post by hedz »

heres my plan to squeeze more mpgs out of my FE. My build thoughts. i'm going to do the powre lynze trick on my heads. go read on this. you will need 3 custom bits made. 3 different pitches. port and change pitches according to the info you find on the net. then i would get the valves machined with circles encircling circles. do some heavy porting on the combustion chamber of your heads. go with a waffle style intake and adapt a quadrajet to it that will have a clear path for fuel delivery. install a fine screen in the intake right below the carburetor to help vaporize your fuel. all of these are tips that mpg mike aka mike holler writes about. i'm on the mopar/dodge forum that he frequents and these guys run turbo setups following his powre lynze, valve mods, and combustion mods and are getting significant gains. and after you do all this a turbo with some low boost may not be a bad idea. and of course some tri-ys with a crossover as close to the engine as you can manage with your setup. if you're going automatic get a gear vendors. also hydraulic roller cam. i havn't worked out what kind of pistons are going to be best yet. maybe some custom pistons.

i'm keeping my 360 a 360. i think i can get as much power as the 390FEs and bigger size FEs out of my 360 and get better mileage. i'm sure alot of people disagree but that's my 2 cents
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Re: decent milege

Post by hedz »

also the dui hei makes one hell of a spark and allows you to run some better plugs like the irridium tips. you can run them at atleast a 65 gap. theres some kind of spark booster you can run with the dui to allow a gap all the way up to somewhere in the 80s.

i run vacuum advance...

a egr mod on a intake would probably help. my intake doesn't have egr. i don't even know if there is a FE intake with a egr feature.

i remember reading a article of some guy who built a edelbrock headed 390fe with megasquirt on a custom drilled aluminum intake with his fuel injection bungs and claimed 30mpg. and i know he didn't do any of mike hollers mods... :hmm:
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Re: decent milege

Post by hotrodfeguy »

irridium and the other fancy plugs tend to be very hot at the tip and make for a great "glow plug" when you dial down the mixture on the lean side. ASK ME HOW I KNOW !!! Any ways the best way I know to make a FE efficient is squeeze the piston as close to the head as possible. even a plus or positive deck by .010-.020 and a dish piston the shape of the chamber. This takes full advantage of the wedge effect. I was always going to mutt a FE this way but have yet to get around to it. I like your Q-jet idea that's a good one. Also the annular type autolite 600 that were on the early birds work well to atomize the mixture they even had a smaller size carb but the CFM doesn't cross my mind. I think the best ECONOMY FE manifold bar none would be a SP-2P it was found on JAY Browns Intake compare to have the highest TQ of all intakes tested at the lowest of RPM. It also posted the worst HP numbers of all. Even to the "T" or truck cast iron and the "S" AKA suck 2nd worst manifold performance wise. but MPG wise may be just the opposite.
Just food for though on the FE gentlemen
1972 F-250 4X4 390
1999 F-350 7.3 PS 4X4
1996 Ford ranger 3.0
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Re: decent milege

Post by Brokenarrow »

hotrodfeguy wrote:A 390 c-6 can easily pull a 3.00 or even a 2.75 rear gear :2cents:
:yt:
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Re: decent milege

Post by Clunker »

Many years ago, I drove a F150 RWD work truck with the FI I-300 and consistently got 22 MPG. You couldn't expect to get anywhere very quickly, but the engine had great torque and was bulletproof. That being said, my 1970 F250 RWD with the 360 is a torque monster and much more fun to drive. I agree with previous posts that 15 MPG is about the best you can expect with any FE setup, based on my extensive research and limited experience. Deciding which engine depends on how you want to use the truck.
1970 F250 CS: 360, RV cam, Edelbrock Performer 390 intake, Holley 600, headers, Pertronix II, Flamethrower coil.
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