New Member w/ Gas Guzzler
 

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... :p 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...

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.

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 :rolleyes:

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.

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

The cats had long ago fallin to pieces and ended up in the muffler. THe muffler was well clogged.

BTW, what's your deffenition of "Big Trailer"? Because the 302 isnt capable of "big trailers". LOL ;)

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.

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

That's a big load for a 302. :eek: Oh well, still probably beat some Geo's off the line. Oops, forgot where I was, disregaurd that last statement :D


She's been Sea Foamed.

Whats a PCV catch can for? I did change the PCV valve though...

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.

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...

All I can figure out is that if you have enough blowby that you are blowing nasty stuff into the intake, the catch can collects it. I guess the thought is that if there is enough crud going into the intake it will eventually cause carbon deposits on a valve or in a cylinder.
https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=766

:p Ol' Rusty? Wasn't Ol' Reliable good enough for you?:p

much better than my parents 454 dully. 11-12mpg, towing the camper... 5-6mpg. some quick fixes for pickups- easily remove the tailgate = 70+lbs less and no air drag. get rid of that heavy rear bumper and get one of those fiberglass bumper inserts unless your towing from the bumper hitch. just those 2 things and you should jump at least 2 or more mpg. i did the tailgate on my own and got 3mpg better, still working on the bumper part...

another thing I've just realized, get yourself ezpas (N.E. region has this) so you don't have to stop/go in the toll booth lanes. i coast down to the booths and keep going without stopping. their is also one ezpass toll on the main road where you can keep your 55+mph up without slowing down( i ran through one time around 80 ;0 )

Well, I had a '92 Bronco with a 302 and AOD, and averaged 13.3mpg on rolling hills, with about 50% rural routes and 50% in-town, but like you, there is very little traffic here. On pure highway runs, I got a best of 18.5, but it usually was in the high 17's.

What happened to your Focus?

Oh and I'm with Gary Palmer. Get a cheap Honda :p

I totalled the Bronco last summer. The Focus is my current vehicle. I regret getting another modern, cumputerized, fuel-injected vehicle though.

oh sorry dude, i meant Bubba's Focus. I know him from another forum.

hmm well to start off it is a truck ment for towing (and it clearly shows when you only see a loss of 1mpg hauling a huge trailer) im not too framiliar with the engine in these things but do all routine mantinice on it. (air filter, PCV valve, run some fuel cleaner thru it, seafoam it, replace the O2 sensor if it has one, take off the TB and clean it out real good, replace all the vacum lines) some of thsoe you said you already have done so keep it up.

but the whole cat delete thing: keep it that way. if you dont have emmisions testing and it breaks, take it off...

since you have a high flow exhaust system now, install a high flow intake system: either try a K&N drop in filter or find a cold air intake off ebay (usually super cheap) it will allow the intake air enter easier/quicker. i installed one on my 4 banger truck and noticed a slight 1-2mpg increase. ive heard the bigger the engine the better mpg increases you see from the high flow intakes. it also has a small side effect of making your exhaust louder and have a bit more tourque.:p but you wouldnt be interested in that...:D

I will attest to high flow intakes makin your car louder. Boy my engine volume is so high, I still don't really know what my exhaust sounds like. :p (which is actually a good thing cause I don't have to hear that raspy fart can of mine) Also, I have a friend that put a Weapon-R intake on his Camry and boy just the intake made that thing loud with a stock exhaust.

geez, good luck finding a new intake for your truck. I just looked on Jeg's and couldn't find a single one that fit your truck. Then again I only looked and K&N and AEM intake systems.

Almost identical mileage towing and unloaded eh? How fast is it unloaded? If not much faster than loaded I'd have to say you have a cam that is designed for heavy load towing, and probably have rear gearing in the 4.10 range. Changing the rear gears to a lower ratio and installing a new cam with a good low to midrange RPM band will work wonders for you. A wide LSA will also help keep cylinder pressure built up on the low end.

A catback exhaust that leaves the factory manifolds in place also does little more than adjust the exhaust note. The Big 3 really didn't focus on anything more than unit cost on the exhaust until the late 90s/early 00s, modern exhaust is now as effective as shorty headers. But, 80s exhaust will see a drastic improvement in power and economy with the installation of a nice set of long tube ceramic coated headers. Long tube headers emphasize the low RPM torque range, which will also help keep your towing ability.

Next up on the bandstand is electric fans. I saw a 2MPG increase with electrics alone on my 96 Tahoe. And, GM is now using electric fans on their trucks with no loss in towing ability. You want at least 5000CFM capable fans, and you want them in a shroud that will set the fans at least 2 inches off the radiator and not allow the fans to draw air anywhere but from the radiator. If you have metalworking ability I suggest building a shroud and using two Permacool 14 inch (or 16 inch if your radiator is large enough) 2950CFM fans with a DC Control fan controller.

These changes will affect reduce top end power and will lower your max towing ability, but should return a much higher fuel economy when unloaded. The fans will bring back some of the top end power. And, these changes can be done in a weekend.

oof yea i forgot about the efan. on my truck i noticed a huge difference, of course mine is only a 4 banger truck so any small change is going to be noticeable...