Mileage Quest 2011!

[Camper Special Ed]

Acording to the EPA in the 70s they should have got 24 MPGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0lUScAn89c

[fomocoguy]

Thanks guys! I'm glad that some of you should be able to take some good info out of this thread and do something positive with it. I think there are a few untapped mpg's in a lot of these old trucks.

As for my mileage run it probably won't be today. The baby kept us up two nights in a row now so I'm tuckered, plus we've got 40-50 mph winds today and I'm sure a 40mph headwind would really screw with my figures. I'll keep you all updated.

[fomocoguy]

Acording to the EPA in the 70s they should have got 24 MPGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0lUScAn89c

Wow, 24 mpg's with a 302 and a stick huh? That's quite optimistic! I don't think an overdrive efi 302 from the 90's will even do that good.

[67 428 F250]

Hey Joe, I have been tweeking the mechanical and vaccum advance on my 67 F250 4x2, 428 and NP435.
!st round trip was 110 miles and got 14.5 mpg at ellevation from 3500 to 1750 and back, mostly hwy which is the best I have ever gotton.
Next trip out was close to the 1st trip, but a bit more dirt road, and getting stuck in snow looking for bear and couger tracks, but still got 13.6 mpg. Make sure you are getting all the advance your engine can take and as soon as it will take it.
My initial is at 10 degrees, mechanical starts at 900 rpm, total is about 36 degrees.
Can anyone tell me what there initial, advance starts at and total degrees are at??
Also the curve needs to follow rpm.
Will

[67 428 F250]

Joe, also I am planing on going to the nv4500 5 speed to get the mpg numbers up where I will be happy
Will

[fomocoguy]

Wow, those are great numbers! I was looking back and saw that your truck has a 3.54 rear gear ratio. I can see how a torque monster 428 that can lope along easily at low rpms could run that rear gear and get good mpgs doing it. I've come across a lot of bigger FE's that seem to get no worse or even better mpgs than my 360. I have a 300 that I am building (slowly) as a torque engine with hopefully decent mileage, but maybe what I need is a 500 cid rv cam beast...

[67 428 F250]

Yep, I will get the best numbers just above lugging and keeping her in 4th gear as long as possible, but speed is low (29-50 ) yes in 4th gear! By getting 5th over drive I am excited see what mpg I can get and at 60 mph. I have seen some disagree with my findings "low rpm", but I would challenge anyone, I still have plenty of extra torque for the NV 4500 and may consider an overdrive behind that down the road. Right now I am waiting for stainless parking brake cables to arrive then I will install them and my Eaton Elocker at the same time. I love driving my F250 over anything else.
I believe I could get better mpg with my 360 in my 68 camper if it had the 354 gears and standard trans. Once you are tuned correctly, it is ALL IN THE GEARING!!
Will

[TX69F100]

One idea I haven't seen mentioned is to slap a wide-band O2 sensor on and verify that your A/F is optimized while cruising.

[67 428 F250]

I think it has to be close to get over 14 mpg, plus the spark plugs burn very light grey to white. White is to lean, dark grey is to rich. I will be doing a full tune up this year, it has been awhile.
Will

[NM5K]

I used to think gearing should make a lot of difference, but lately I'm not so sure.
I've seen plenty of reports where a higher overall gear ratio made very little difference
with these rolling barn doors.
I'm pretty sure Willowbilly came to that conclusion after trying a few different ratios for
one example.
I think part of the conclusion was that no matter what the RPM, the amount of throttle
needed will be about the same. IE: going up grades.. With the high ratios the rpm's
might be lower, but that foot will be in the gas to get it up over the grade.
Anyway, I've seen some come to the conclusion that the overall ratio made little difference
in overall mpg. The lower rpm's would reduce engine wear, and there may well be some
cases, like being on the flat highway most all of the time, where the higher ratios may
pay off.
Take my case with the 68 F-250, with heavy utility bed and shell. I get about 16 mpg,
and I'm running a 4 speed and a 4:10 dana 60. I rev about 3000 + or - at 70 mph.
The rpm's are pretty high, but I have no trouble climbing grades, getting off lights, etc
which may well offset the rpm's due to me not having to firewall the throttle or downshift
to get over grades, and taking off from a start.
Mine also can go quite slow in 4th gear, which is a normal 1:1 ratio 4th.. I can do 20 or
slower without lugging. No problem idling through school zones at a steady throttle.

Myself, the things I mainly do to get good mpg is good tune and timing, having lots of
air in the tires for less resistance, and try to keep the truck as light as possible..
If you don't need to carry it, leave it at home.. Costs gas to tote around.
Past that, the increases are going to be pretty minor.
I get about 16 with a heavy truck. If I could dump all the load and have it
showroom light, I could probably get 18-20... :/ But I need the truck to be a truck..
Which means hauling all my tools, units, etc.. I don't see it doing much better than
what it's doing now, no matter what I did to it. Doesn't pay to spend $2000 on a mod
that saves $50 a year on gas.. Or to me anyway.

When I want really high mpg, I take my toy car. It's in a whole different league mpg
wise. "40+ mpg" It does have an OD, and revs fairly low at highway speed. About 2700
at 70 mph, which is not too high for a four banger. But what really saves the gas is the
low wind resistance. It's like a slippery eel in the air vs the trucks. I also have low rolling
resistance tires on it, which further helps reduce drag.
Then on top of that, it has variable valve timing, so it will optimize the timing for the
driving conditions. It's a slow gas sipper for a non hybrid.

[fomocoguy]

I buy my gas from the bp station near me. It's the only one close by that isn't a pain in the arse to get in and out of.

Just to update, I'm fighting a cooling issue at the moment, so it's gonna be another week or so probably before I can get a run in. I think I'll be installing a new water pump this week...

[fomocoguy]

Well, I finally got a good run in this morning. Since the last run I've installed the electric fan and 195* thermostat, pertronix kit I had on the shelf, plus a new timing chain and high flow water pump. Todays numbers came in at 13.2 mpg. I finally busted out of the twelves! I was starting to wonder if that was ever going to happen. So, here is a break down from day one.

Running strong but worn distributor- 6 mpg

New distributor, finely tuned, and 12* BTDC- 12.6 mpg

3g alternator install- 11.4 mpg

Electric fan and 195 stat- 13.2 mpg


Unfortunately I don't like the way the engine runs at 200 degrees, so I think I'm going to put the 180 back in it. During the summer on a hot day and a long drive it would tick as if a lifter is bleeding down at idle when it had the 180 in it; now it does it after 30 min of driving on a 60 degree day. Hopefully it won't hurt the mpgs too much. I can say that I'll put the 195 back in for the winter months. My heat is awesome right now!

My next move will be the 180 stat and then some timing play. A friendly member here peaked my interest in switching my vacuum advance over to full manifold vacuum and increasing the timing some more if I can get away with it. It won't cost me anything, so I'm going to try it. Last time I messed with the timing I gained 6mpg, so it would make sense that it could help more. If some is good and more is better, then too much is just enough, right?

[cdeal28078]

I tried full manifold vacuum once and messed around with the timing for a couple of days. It ran great, I just couldn't get a nice idle. Was real erratic. Might have been more in the distributor though as I did replace it a while later. That was on the Windsor also. Make sure whatever you do to run as much vacuum advance as you can. On some engines in certain conditions you might have 60btdc or more with the vacuum advance right. Some people like to get the rest of the timing set and then just go 10 over with the vacuum advance. I think you should run as much as you can. I set it until I can go up a long low grade with a steady foot and hear just one or two pings every once in a while. Then I back it off just a bit. Long as it doesn't ping when you give it gas it is fine
I like this thread. I see nothing wrong with getting the best you can out of an engine.
I just took the 3.25 with Lock_Rite out of my 71 F100 and put the open 3.0 back in it.
I should help some
clint

[fomocoguy]

Thanks Clint! Next time I have a couple hours to donkey around I'm gonna adjust on it. One thing I don't know much about is the advance adjustment that is in the port where the vacuum line connects to the diaphragm housing. Do you know the procedure for this?

On another note, I was thinking about it and I forgot that I usually run thicker oil in the summer. That would probably help with the tick, so I'm gonna change it before I swap the 180 stat back in and see how she does.

[wyowill]

Way back when we were all a bunch younger( 1974) I ordered a new F 100 SWB 4x4. It had a 360 , NP 435, 7.00-15 tires and whatever ratio was standard. Drove 122 miles round trip to job at mine. If we kept under 65 Hi-way patrol wouldn't bother us. Seems like New'blue averaged 14-15 MPG. (Ol'blue was a 1968 4x2 SWB) Co worker sez to me "what you need is headers and a 4 barrel" So, next days off we installed a set of headers (Doug Thorley it seems like) and Corvair Turbo mufflers. He had a Ford cast iron 4 barrel manofold and carb setting in his garage. That was the next step, Piece of Chocolate cake! YEA RIGHT.... Newblue would start but didn't have enough oomph to move. Lets see here 4:00 PM, my day to drive tonight....... off to shop for a carb kit.....no such luck. AHH A new carb...... Only 4 barrel in town was a TINY Holly for a PINTO!!!!!! Seems like it was a 360 CFM. NAPA guy ( Girlfriends little bro) sez "Try it ,If it wont work bring it back" So.... We try it . Newblue ran like a r@ped ape, and averaged under 6 gallons round trip ( big chief tablet and red crayon sez 20+ MPG) Ran steady average for next 3 years til I had a brain phart and sold Newblue for a Peterbilt. Will