My lil stock 240 in 66f100 gets pretty bad gas mileage any way of improving it without spending much/any $ I'm aware of carb intake and header upgrades but am currently on a very low budget. It's a daily driver and a great lil truck. Close to 114,000 miles.

 

James66f100 Welcome to and the Slicks Forum.

Give us something to chew on bro what are you calling bad? These trucks are 1950s technology when gas was $.25-30 per gallon. They are rolling boxes on the road high mpgs are not to be found.

Another thing, the odomoter starts over at 100000.1 so best figure a 50 year old truck is going around it's 3rd or 4th time. There is an 18 year old car in my yard with 180,000 on it.


John

 

The biggest bang for the buck, all things being equal has got to be the distributor advance curve. A well tuned engine can have the timing advanced from idle to highway cruise quite a lot over the stock specification and it will run way better. That goes hand in hand with a big difference in fuel economy, at least on a percentage basis. Make sure the vacuum advance is working properly.

The good news is that it really doesn't cost much to do this - maybe a few bucks for a Mr Gasket spring kit, for the distributor. At worst maybe a new distributor. They do wear out, and get sloppy and gummed up and cause erratic advance.

 

You can get a performance coil for alot less then $50 depending on brand. Which helps with throttle response. Add a weight kit like the guy above mentioned, and get a pertronix when budget allows. A good set of 8.8 wires is a good upgrade at tune up time.

Going from a over the axle set up to a turn down is good for quite a bit of torque down low. Car Craft years ago did a big exhaust test of a very hot 350, and the turn down exhaust have 30hp/lbft below 4000 room. You can do this in 5 minutes with a sawzall.

Also look at your gear ratio, and see if a axle swap may be a good idea. Keep tire psi around 40-45 which helps with rolling resistance.