I am just guessing but I would think less than 100#.

 

Willowbilly3, Check out this site for a "save-able" 57 shorty. www.motorheadtrader.com

 

Thanks William, I have been hoping to find one a little better preserved but I may have to lower my standards a little since 57s are kind of hard to find and especially a big window styleside shorty.

 

Wow all this talk to do this and do that and its does not sound like anyone has done it to there FE engines Well here's my story and i'm sticking to it. I started with a 71 4x4 with a 300ci 6 in it that was getting around 16 mpg 4:10 Ft & Rear differ. Np 4 sp trans.. I wanted more power so, I bought my old neighbors 68 county wagon and drove it home that was 168 miles got and got 18.5 mpg 2 barl carb WITH over 120,000 miles on it but it was taken care of, oil changed at 3,000 city driving. Pulled that baby out punched it to 030 that didn't really need it but, I want this baby to last a 100,000 crank is still std. Put in a new regrind stock cam. I didn't balance it because never planed turn any thing over 4 to 4,500 rpm plus the cost to ship it out"ouch" evan 23 yrs ago. Well with header & 4barl 600cfm Autolite carb with 0.52 main jets and that 73lb iron manifold HOT coil and a 7 blade clutch fan the truck would only Ider good, so there i go looking for the smallest drill, I have and started drilling out the main power jets to get this gas starved thing to run right. Something I never came across was and didn't know at that time "the 0.30 over bore Hot coil, and the headers made it run way to lean even drop the timing back to 0 TDC plus it was pretty dry where I was living.. Well those jets got drilled out to 0.62 alright now thats more like it for now until I can buy more. After messing with it 062 was about as lean as it was going to get...After 5,000 miles wit 11x15x32'' tires at 55 miles I was getting 13 mpg... NOW after 75,000 on it and a camper for most of that NOW It was time to do the Heads because it needed those hard seats. At 50,000 miles A Holly 600 cfm carb with Alumi. manifold was in stalled, well **** now got a run 0.68 (Ford@Holly) sets have diff. #'ed main jets man there 10-11 mpg now with camper. Now while i'm doing the heads **** I'll just put in a RV low torque cam. New oil pump low end bearings while i'm in there. Damn now got change the pump shooters form 0.28 0.32 that colud go larder plus change the pump cam for alonger fast shoot of fuel because of a low end flat spot. Well after screwing with it for sometime it's damn close. Now I'M AT 7-10 MILES PER GALLON with 8'1/2' camper. Ho that truck will pull alright But that 9.3 to 1 plus camper got to run that
$2.49 a gal. last week WISHED I'D NEVER PUT IN THAT CAM. SOME DAY I'LL PULL IT OUT, GOING FASTER IN IT NOW ONLY MEANS $$$$$$$ IN TODAY WORLD... THAT MY STORY!!

 

Thanks for the great info orich. Funny thing I was just going through a drawer in my tool box a couple days ago and ran across a tube full of numbered bits I had bought when pursueing a similiar problem with jets several years and a dozen projects ago.

 

bhabben, from my experience the 390 is a great FE engine for power and MPG. I have 4.11 gears and I get around 14 mpg on the freeway and 10 in the city. I towed my parents 21 foot big **** boat and got 8 mpg and it had plenty of grunt to pull it up some steep hills.

Sounds like you wanna do some hauling, I wouldn't go with any gears less than 3.73 they will get the power to the ground pretty well. Wait til you have $3k+ to spend on a over/underdrive kit from gearvendors. That's what I'm gonna do, someday.

Just think that there's an egg under the gas pedal and you don't wanna break it. This works very well in any vehicle if you are shooting for good MPG. If you wanna smoke some idiot in a "racing" Honda, then forget it.

As long as you don't build too hot of a motor, I think you can get similar mpg.