what was the smallest gas tank offered on an '81 F100 2wd. 300, c-6?

all things point towards a 15gal tank, but the smallest replacement tank i can find is 19gal.

i run it till the needle says "E" and put about 13gal in...

also, i do mainly city driving with lots of short trips. I know the 2.75 ratio is not helping my gas mileage any. I seem to be averaging 14.5 MPG. Would swapping to a 3.50 ratio help with mileage in town? is there anything else i can do?

Thanks, Rob

 

I just got a tank for my 85 from MTS. they list a 17 gallon like mine for a 80 to 84 F150.

They seem like a great company, all american made and the gas tank is plastic.

MTSCOMPANY.COM

 

16 gal is the smallest I've ever heard of.

You're confused... 2.75 is actually GREAT for gas mileage, you'll get worse gas mileage
changing your gears to anything else higher (e.g. 3.01, 3.50, 4.11, etc.).

 

2.75 is good for mileage on the highway....but is it good for mileage around town?

 

LMC lists 4 tanks for their early Fords... 16gal saddle, 19gal saddle, 19gal rear, 38gal rear

 

I get the same thing.. when my truck is on E and i start getting scared to push it any further.. i gas up and put in 12 gallons.. doesn't sound right to me either..

 

I can only wish that my '83 F-15- 4.9L 6 would get 14.5 anywhere.
I get about 10.

 

Rear tanks are 19 gallon (about) for the pickups and 38 gallon for Broncos. You can put a 38 gallon Bronco tank on a pickup if you relocate the spare tire.

Short wheel base pickups got the smaller saddle tanks (mine holds 16.8 gallons after being run dry) and the long wheel base trucks take the larger saddle tank.

 

its a single tank, with 133" WB... std cab, full bed

 

Is it in front of the axle or behind it?

 

In front of axle, running down driver's side frame rail

 

sounds to me like your guage is off. You could put a 5 gal gas can in the bed and run it dry just to see how much farther you can go.

 

everywhere i'm seeing says longbed had 19 gal, shortbed could get 16 gal

 

I can't see why not; what 2.75 gears *are* bad for is off-the-line acceleration. If you're
always giving it a lot off gas when taking off from a stop (because, say, you're in a hurry
to get up to speed) then, yes, *that* is bad for mileage. But if you're easy on it and drive
it as it was designed to be driven, I can't see how 2.75 gears would give bad city
mileage.

As you may have surmised, gas mileage (esp in city driving) is heavily dependent on
individual driving style & methods.
That's what I've seen, too. Might have been 17 instead of 16 but it's close.

 

Something my pops did when teaching us kids how to drive was installed a vacuum gauge where we could see it, the higher the vacuum the more gas you're using.

Really taught all of us how to soft pedal it.

They have them that are colored, green, yellow, red.

A little OT, Something else he did to us, was a dish of water on the dash!
Spill it and get whipped!

That education has served me well in life.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~