New Member w/ Gas Guzzler

[Bubba Bob]

Hi yall,

I live in South Alabama. I drive an 85 F150 that averages 13 mpg. I recently pulled a double axle enclosed trailer 800 miles and averaged 12 MPG. I think that's excellent gas milage If I do say so myself... Now that I see this truck gets 12MPG pulling a trailer, I feel it should do MUCH better empty. Thats why Im here... I hope to learn a bit...

[ELF]

Welcome, Bob. 85 f150 eh? auto or manual tranny? Lets see 85 was the last year for carbs on most fords. Lots of them had fuel injection in 86.

[Bubba Bob]

Auto Slushly

This was the first year Ford offered Fuel Injection in a truck. Still trying to figure out if that's a good thing or bad

[Bill in Houston]

Welcome.

What kind of driving do you normally do? 13 mpg might be about right. :-) Seriously, if you are cruising on the freeway a lot, I would expect different mileage than if you are delivering mail, or spend a lot of times idling.

[Bubba Bob]

Originally Posted by Bill in Houston

Welcome.

What kind of driving do you normally do? 13 mpg might be about right. :-) Seriously, if you are cruising on the freeway a lot, I would expect different mileage than if you are delivering mail, or spend a lot of times idling.

Right now I dont know what kind of driving I do... I just moved from Texas out here to Alabama. Looks like it will probably be a lot of city driving, but Not too much traffic or stop lights.

I recently cut the cats off and put on a new manifold-back exhaust system, and installed a tachometer so I can keep my revs down. Im hoping for about 14-15 just from that.

[Gary Palmer]

Welcome to GasSavers: If your getting the mileage you said, 12 towing and 13 without, then your no worse off than you would be with a carburated engine, probably better. I really doubt that it would be worth trying to fit a scanner to the truck. They can do a little better, maybe, on a good day, going down hill, with a tail wind. If you were hauling something heavy on a regular basis, then they become a pretty effective vehicle. However, they were made to haul, and although I don't know how they did it, they don't seem to get very much better mileage, empty.

There are things you could do, but they mostly involve changes to the drivetrain, in one form or another, in which case you'd be ahead from a cash standpoint to buy a cheap Honda, or something that was capable of getting some mileage out of the gas.

Good luck

[caprice]

My K5 Blazer used to get 10-11 MPG and it has a 5.0 L similar to yours, but it has a 2 barrel carburetor, and a mechanical ignition advance. Also I don't have overdrive.

After changing the nut behind the wheel to not go over the speed limit, and race to the next red light, I started having the windows cracked instead of all th way down. Also I increased the tire pressure, found some flat hubcaps, did a 2/3 grill block, carburetor rebuild, and fixed the broken ignition advance (also advanced the base-timing a little). Now I can get over 16MPG. It isn't great, but it is a lot better than it was!

You could start with a tune up, and make sure your ignition is working properly. Try a throttle body rebuild, clean out the EGR valve, you know, your basic engine check-up stuff.

[Bill in Houston]

Is this the kind of vehicle where Seafoam might be helpful? And a PCV catch can?

[Gary Palmer]

What do you have for a transmission? My expectation is that it's a 3 speed automatic, without torgue lockup. I suspect Clencher probably has a 4 speed automatic, with torque lockup. Additionally, I think the 302 may be a better fuel economy engine than the 360 or bigger engines.

I had a 70 Ford Galaxy that had a 302 and it got about 19mpg on the highway. Really pretty surprizing for how boxy a shape the car was and how much it weighed.

One problem you have is that a 10% increase in mileage only amounts to 1.3 mpg, where if you were driving something with higher mileage, a 10% increase amounts to more like 3 or 4 mpg. However, you got to work with what you have and if you can improve it any, that is that much less your disposing of, in terms of $ into the tank.

One thing that always puzzles me, with myself, is how I can sink $50-$60 into a tank of gas, but spend 15 minutes futzing about spending $30 to purchase a good tool to do a job or spending a day trying to figure out not to have to spend the $30. Very fascinating phenomenon, heh.

[Bill in Houston]

Originally Posted by Gary Palmer

One problem you have is that a 10% increase in mileage only amounts to 1.3 mpg, where if you were driving something with higher mileage, a 10% increase amounts to more like 3 or 4 mpg. However, you got to work with what you have and if you can improve it any, that is that much less your disposing of, in terms of $ into the tank.

Buuuut, if he makes a 10% improvement, he may burn 100 gallons less in a year. A Metro with a 10% improvement only burns 20 gallons less... (13,000 miles per yr, Metro getting 65 mpg)

No matter how you slice it, though, driving a 13 mpg vehicle is a painful proposition...