Nice truck & a good price.

Craig

 

Think after tires and the coolant leak fixed the next thing will be to remove the cats and put on a turbo muffler of some sort. Then maybe play with ign timin to see if I can eeek out some better mpg which is a concern nowadays unfortunately. Already has the Open k&n air filter on it.

 

First off neither the K&N nor removing the cats help gas mileage enough to pay for the hassle of removing it. A turbo will give you a nicer tone. Now playing with the timing might be the best hopes of increasing gas mileage.
I say all this because I hear the claims both people & manufactures make. From my long experience I have seen little to no positive from doing what you want, (except timing) for gas mileage. Now many a few HP gain but with more HP comes more gas.
The only true way to gain mileage (enough to notice) is changing the perimeters of the computer. With one gain comes a loss, or slow down with your driving starts & stops etc.
People do all this stuff then claim all these gains. But I have yet to see anyone post computer proof before & after of these gains. But each to their own. If you think your getting better mileage that is half of it.

Craig

 

*update* Not sure what the previous owner was doin but I had no problem gettin the truck into low range 4x4. Everythin seems to work as it should on the truck. I do wish the MPg would pick up a bit and am goin in the AM to get some exhaust work done, have always had that help in the gas mileage dept. After that will add a trans cooler, advance timin a lil bit, inflate tires to max psi and pray it gets 15 mpg lol We have a 3000-3500+ mile round trip to see family (al,sc,nc,w va, va and md) within the next few months and pretty sure we'll be takin her truck.

 

Nice truck! Looks good, and I agree that a free flowing exhaust can help your mileage.

As far as that engine oil "cooler" goes, only 351 engines have that.
Anyhow, I ditched my cooler. It wasn't leaking (yet) but for what it is, I had my doubts that it actually did much cooling. Not enough surface area there for what it would have to do. And, I don't like the idea that if it were to fail, I would then have coolant in my engine oil. Since I also just replaced all my cooling system hoses, I found out that one of the lower hoses for this truck (the lower is 2 separate pieces) was WAY expensive just because of that cooler adapter. So, no more cooler. If I need it (how will I know that... hmm, maybe I'll use my infrared thermometer on the oil pan) then I can install an oil-to-air cooler behind the grill.

If you want to get rid of it, it's easy enough.

First go to your favorite parts store and get a lower radiator hose for your year truck, but tell them it has a 302 instead of a 351. Also pick up a Motorcraft FL1A filter (NOT what the catalog shows that you should have, which is a Motorcraft FL820S), and might as well change your oil while you're at it so pick up 6 quarts of your truck's favorite lube.

Drain your coolant, disconnect the hoses from the cooler, and let it **** for awhile. Might as well take the lower hose assembly off from the waterpump and radiator. Throw that bad girl away, you won't be needing it anymore. Now just take the old oil filter off, and then take a hex wrench (I didn't have one big enough, but did get a big Torx bit to work) and remove the threaded nipple from the center of the cooler, and it should just fall off the block into your hand. Clean up the mounting area and screw the new FL1A filter on, change your oil, install your new lower radiator hose, refill the coolant, and you're done.

 

yea I'm with you in the fact I don't think that cooler removes much heat from the oil. So after you remove the cooler the threads left on the block are the good old standard small block ford filter threads? I won't need to purchase any sort of threaded insert or anythin I definitely want to do this before our trip.

 

Yup, that's all I had to do. Remove threaded adapter and cooler, screw on new filter. Cooler went to the dump, threaded adapter went in the scrap metal bucket to be used for something other than it's intended purpose.

 

Thanks again, sounds easier then I read elsewhere on here.

 

Yeah no problem. Remember you'll need a new lower radiator hose for a 302 truck also.

 

well partner, we ditched the second cat which is the larger of the two cats on her truck, the intermediate pipe to the muffler and the stock muffler. Replaced it all with 2.5" pipe and a glasspack muffler and picked up a solid 3-4 mpg. So I can assure you, it does help make a difference in mpg in the real world

 

The cat won't affect a thing unless the one you removed was plugged. I stand by everything kermmy said, it was pretty good advice from him, just saying . Of course, an exhaust upgrade which lets the engine flow better will affect things positively.

 

cat wasn't clogged at all and with no other changes but what was done to exhaust the truck picked up a solid 3-4 mpg. I knew it would help but didn't think it would help as much as it has, but I'll take it. Better flowin exhaust has always helped MPG with every vehicle I have owned (well over 50 so far), to say it wouldn't is pretty bad advice IMO.