I'm looking for a new to me truck, been looking into 150's and 250's, was only considering the 351, but 460's are showing up left and right now. Whenever I ask someone about the bigblock, they automatically say 'horrible, like less than 10 mpg' for mileage to won't last at all, motors don't make it past 100k miles. Now, I know they can't be all that bad, are they? I'm looking into a 4x4, most likely manual tranny, regular cab. I drive pretty conservatively also. What kind of mileage should I expect from a setup like I described? How reliable are these trucks in day to day driving, with some moderate towing mixed in? And what are the trucks rated at from the factory? Thank you in advance.

 

the 460 engine is one of the best engines ford ever made , will easily run 200, 000 mi loaded or pulling loads , just change the oil on time . they do like the gas , but hey it's a big engine . mine gets maybe 10mpg empty , driving easy . 1997 f-350 4x4 , 11 ft flatbed drw , e40d ( 245 hp )

 

I have a 97cc/lb 460 4x4 4:10s e40d mass air,With 33x12.50s I would get 10-10.5 around town driving conservatively,On the freeway driving @ 70mph on c/c I would get 13+ but i never hit 14.All of the mpg # are unloaded.I think mass air trucks were 245hp 405ftlbs w/auto Slightly lower tourqe w/stick.By looking @ the FTE a while i think their good till at least 200k w/proper care.If you get on it though they get VERY thirsty like 8mpg and less.I dont tow that often but the most recent tow i Averaged like 8mpg towing a trailer Around 7k pounds maybe a little heavier.

 

I drive a 97' extended cab 460, with a 5spd hd trans, and 3.55's in the diff's. current milelage is 135500 miles, i drive it hard some, easy some then sometimes very hard, change oil every 5000 miles , avg gas milelage is 14 city 16-18 hwy. by far the best truck i've ever owened.

 

i have a 94 supercab 4x on 33x12.50's, e4od, 3.55's lockers, it got 8 loaded (7000# trailer weighs 1800 empty, and a 4600# t-bird on it) and 10 with no trailer before i rebuilt it @ 189,000 miles (broke piston skirt). After the .060 bore and crane cam, K&N filter, and perf chip i get 10.8 loaded (same load) and 14.5 empty.

My theroy is more horsepower doesnt have to work as hard to move the weight, and besides, its fun to see the faces of the guys @ the drag strip when i take the 4x4 out for fun when the 'birds done for the night....gotta love a 13.675 sec 4x4

 

I've got a 97 F350 Crew Cab 4x4, 460, A4OD with 4.10 gears and 35" tires. I get about 11-12 mpg unloaded highway with the cruise set and about 8 pulling a 5200 lb 30' RV. My truck has 157,000 miles on the clock and does not use a drop of oil. Not a single leak of any kind. I live 20+ miles from a town, so I don't have much to base city driving on. My highway mileage went from about 9 to almost 12 just by getting rid of those ridiculous restrictor horns Ford put in the intake lines.

 

OK, I'll take a chance and look dumb, but i keep seeing on here about restrictors and silencers in the air tubes, what am i missing here? Maybe they got eliminated when i added the K&N Cold Air kit? If not, and it makes that big of a difference for everyone else, tell me where they are so i can eliminate them on mine

 

The restrictor "horns" protrude into the air intake lines from the plastic collector which sits between the air cleaner box and where the air intake hoses attach to the manifold intake. They protrude into the hoses from the plastic collector pointing toward the air cleaner box. All you have to do is disconnect the intake hoses from the collector to see them, or you can feel them inside of the hoses next to the collector if you squeeze the hoses near the collector. When you take the collector off to cut away the restrictors with a hacksaw, make sure you don't break the outlet nipple which exits the collector on the bottom. What I couldn't believe was that the Service Manager at a local Ford Dealership was who told me about this!!!

For me...10 minute modification = about 3 mpg. That may not sound all that significant, but it comes out to a 25% increase in economy if you do the math.

Anything you can do to a motor that is free, only takes about 10 minutes, gives you both an increase in power/torque, AND a 25% increase in fuel mileage is the kind of modification most can only dream about.

 

My 95 F-250 supercab with 7.5L, 5-speed, 4.10's and 4x4 just turned 320,000 km and it still runs great with no expensive issues. I average 13-14 m.p.g. and have been up to 17 on long trips. I like this truck so much that I bought another one today- this ones a 97 F-250 crewcab shortbox with low miles.

 

OK, found em (a week ago) thanks, i cut mine out and didnt really see a MPG gain, but there's definately another noticable HP gain, feels like it did when i added the K&N setup......it'll now smolder tires in 1st and 2nd, and chrip into 3rd, damn good for an E4OD, and 33x12.50's.

 

Do you know if the 1996 F350 460 has these "horns"? I just bought a CC 4x4 LB, 4.10s 35x12.50x16.5's, E4OD. Truck has 88k miles and I put a K&N FIPK on, magnaflow exhaust (cat checked out OK), new plugs, wires, cap and rotor and fuel filter. Engine has good (and even compression) and driving easy I get about 6 around town and 8 on hwy unloaded.

Seems to lack power too. Low end is great but when I pulled my 7000lb trailer it struggled to do 65 on flat ground at sea level! Could it be fuel pressure or maybe the coil? I seem to feel a bit of chugging at speed but can't tell with all the bouncing!! I'm not used to the jerky ride - I just upgraded from a "car" (2004 F150 SCrew 4x4 w/5.4) since I am pulling a lot of trailer at times.

I'd sure like to get mine up to 10. Also, anywhere I can figure what the tires have done to my axle ratio and would that effect mpg that much? Thanks!

 

part of the problem w/yours might be te 35's, the taller the tire the greater the gear ratio, so if youre runnin 4.10's, it's more like 3.55's now, especially when you figure that truck came stock w/235/80/16's (rough guess), and those 35's are the equivelent of 315/70's...thats a big jump, and can caouse alot of problems if not done right.....at a bare minimum i hope they flashed the OBDII when they went that big, you might get that looked into.

as for the "air horns", look @ the air tubes from the filter box to the engine, adout 1/2 way theres a plastic junction, the horns are hid in the hose on the filter side of that junction, simply pull the hose off, and saw the horns off (leave enough plastic to clamo the hose back onto).

as for MPG since i did mine, I'm up to 12.8 runnin around here empty, 13.6 on the interstate empty, and 10.2 with a 4000# load on my 20' trailer (total of 6000#) on the interstate.

not bad considering stock it got 10 empty, and 7.2 loaded (same load).

If any of y'al are looking @ rebuilding your engines, and wantin "good" mileage and still keep some power, lemme know and I'll post exactly whats been done to mine for you to kinda follow....I'm sure the external mods would help some too, but i think alot of mine came from how it was built, especially if you look @ the numbers and keep in mind i beat the hell out of this thing, if i could keep my foot out of it i might gain another mpg or 2, who knows? (the pipes sound too good to try to find out).

 

The 460 is one of the best Ford ever made. I had several and loved them all. I don't know anything about the engines built after 1985. I drove my carbureted '85 until 2001. The only problem I ever had was valve stem seals. I replace the lifters, pushrods and rockers at 125k and what an amazing difference. Towed like a bat outta hell, too. Finally gave the old beast away to my son, it now sits in Price, Utah.

Never got better than 11 mpg, and 10 towing.

 

My truck is a 97 F350 Crew Cab 4x4 460 with 35" tires, 4.10 gears, and E4OD. I just got back from a 1000 mile trip, 500 unloaded, 500 loaded, all 4 lane interstate highway. I have removed the "restrictor horns" from the air intake.

I got 14.5 mpg unloaded cruise control set at 72 mph. Return trip I was pulling a 30 foot 1965 Silverstream Travel Trailer that weighs approximately 6000 pounds. I set the cruise at 65 mph, and drove the entire return trip in 3rd gear with the Overdrive shut off. I got 9.4 mpg on the loaded return trip, even with the overdrive shut off and turning about 2750 rpm the whole way. I pulled some fairly decent hills and never lost more than 2 mph on any of them.

That is still a substantial amount of fuel burned, but I couldn't be more thrilled with the mileage my truck is making! I didn't expect the truck to ever make more than 10 empty and more like 5 loaded.

 

I put the full Banks kit on my 96 F250 4x4, gutted the cat, and had Motorhaven do a custom chip. My mileage driving empty has jumped from 10.5 to 12. Towing the mileage is anywhere from 9 to 6. I just towed a new Cat skidsteer 236 which weighs 11,200lb on a 2,000lb trailer and it burned 1/2 tank of gas in 48 miles at 65 mph with OD locked out. The truck has 60,000 miles on it - still has the original Motorcraft battery! The E4OD transmission on the other hand was replaced at 47,000 miles.