I just bought a 1997 (1996 body style) f250 4x4 (long bed, xtra cab) with a 460.

What mpg can I expect?
I don't tow anything 99% of the time.
What can I do to maximize mpg?
Thanks

PS its an automatic

 

Don't know what rear end gears you have, but my '76 gets 10 mpg on the highway. Mine is 2wd though. I would think yours might be about the same, or maybe a little bit better. You have the extra weight of the 4x4 stuff (front diff and transfer case) however, it is 20 years newer and would be fuel injected, so I would hope it would get better than 10 on the highway.

If the truck has a cab high camper top on it, it will get better gas mileage also. I try and drive mine like there is an egg under the gas pedal, that helps some, but face it. A heavy truck with a big engine and 4x4 is not going to get good gas mileage no matter what you do to it. I will retire mine from daily driving as soon as the Ranger arrives, and only use it for camping trips, or chapter meets.

 

What you can do get better mpg is to make the truck run better or more effecient. Try to make the motor breath better by adding a more free flowing exhaust like headers and big set of duals and maybe work a little on the intake side. Anything will help on the side of helping that beast breath. It might not get you insane mpg increases but it helps and you will gain some power . Gear changes can help also especially if you do not tow with it much.

 

I have a 86 with a 460 C6 and a camper shell and got between 8-10 mpg and its a 2wd.

 

95 f350 srw 4.30 rear about 8. I found out with clean oil mpg was ok,but as soon as oil get old it drops.in 4x4 plowing 3.

 

Leave it sit as much as possible for better fuel consumption. I got 13 mpg one time driving real careful on hiway with no load. Mostly 10 or less.

 

Your rear differential gear ratio will have more to do with your gas mileage than anything else. If it is below 3.73 you will get poor mileage. By poor we are talk less than 10 mpg and maybe even less than 8. However don't listen to the carburated 460 guys as their mileage will alway be worse than your is with the EFI on your motor.

 

14.5 MPG is my best to date, 100% highway @ 60-65MPH.

12ish MPG Highway mileage with a little more aggresive driving @ 65-75 MPH.

7.5-9.5 MPG Towing a 5th wheel @ 60ish (highway), seems to be greatly dependent on amount of headwind.

Truck specifics in sig. Hope this helps.

Eric <><

 

89' F250, 7.5/460, C6 Auto, High flow Cat, Cat-back exhaust

Okay, the rear differiential gear ratio thing has been on my mind for awhile now. Since I'm getting crappy mpg (I expected bad mpg but holy crap mine is bad) I'm getting more curious about my rear diff. It takes me 1/4 tank to go 28 freeway miles (one way to work if I have snow drifts to get through on my property. I don't drive it daily, I avoid that if I can)

What is a good rear diff gear ratio for 'better' mpg? Does this new ratio effect truck performance? Does it effect 4wd? Is the fix a 'drop and replace' project? Etc, etc, etc.

Thanks a zillion.

Oh, and for those tired of 460 mpg threads, just don't open them if you're tired of them.

 

The gear ratio will be the same for both differentials and you have to change the both if you change one. stngh8r is getting pretty good mileage for a 460. I've seen higher claims, but I've never seen that high in person. My carbed 460, with C-6 and 4.10 gearing gets about 9.5 local and 10.5 highway, But then I've reworked the carb, distributor and added 3" exhaust. Before that it was 7.5 at best. EFI will do better.

 

Yeah, wonder if stngh8r knows what size gas tank he really has

Just kid'n stngh8r

 

IMO you are wasting time and money by changing gear ratio. My truck has 3.55 rear gears and it will cruise on hiway at under 2000 rpms and still gets 13mpg in OD and not kicking down. It pulls loads pretty good out of od and if you go changing gears, it will defeat the purpose of having a tow/haul truck.

You probably have two gas tanks and the rear is smallish(14 gal maybe) So a quarter tank is 3.5 gals times 8mpg = 28 miles.

 

Maybe in your opinion, but if he wants better mpg and has 4.10 gears or worse, getting much better than 10 mpg is not likely. MPG is not related to tank size, but miles per gallons whether the tank is 14 or 24 gallons.

 

Just for clarification, my best (14.5 MPG) was accomplished with no load and driving very gently with the intention to get as good MPG as possible. Long road trip, driving mainly 60 MPH, letting the speed increase to 65 or so on down grades.

My goal was 15 MPG, but I just missed it. Maybe one of these days if I ever get some headers I can try it again on a long trip. The air horn removal, free flow air filter and muffler delete seemed to help a little.

My guess is that realistic MPG #s for mostly highway would likely be 12-13. (with EFI, OD and 3:55s)


Grizz3000: All I know is, it cost too dang much to fill that sucker up

 

I just had a though, scary stuff there, phre2b SLOW DOWN! When I stopped driving at 65 to 70 miles per hours and backed down to 55 mph the mileage went from 6.0 to 7.5. Seems at 2900 rpm the secondaries (known as the power circuit) were starting to open and that really killed an already bad mpg number.