I just bought an 89' f-150 a few weeks ago. It has a mazda 5 sp., 4x4 lariet, 3 in. body lift, 32 in. BFG's, and an Oreily rebuilt 302 with 2000 miles on it. Has anyone heard anything about these motors? My truck runs excellent, but i have a problem with the gas mileage. I am getting 6-8 mpg, (8 on a good day) and i don't know why. It seems to run like a top, but i just can't figure it out. And I don't drive it like i stole it either. I shift at about 2000 rpm, and run at about 200 rpm, with the majority of my driving at speeds of 45 -55 mph. i am currently running 87 octane. I am not expecting to get 16 mpg with this truck, but I would think it should be getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12. what do you all get? thanks for your help in advance!

brandon

 

Sorry it has 5000 miles on it.

Brandon

 

Sorry again. I also have a problem with it not getting warm enough. the heater barely puts out heat at all. we have just recently replaced the heater hose running to the heater core. could these have been mixed up? which one goes where? it will not even het to the N on normal. thanks again.

 

Just for information sake on the gas mileage, I've got a stock 302 in my 89 that has 157,000 miles on it. I get anywhere from 9-12mpg with it with my shift points being anywhere from 2500 to 3000 rpm.

One thing I have to ask you is about the heating problem. Is there no warm air coming out of the heater, or are you just saying the gauge isn't running at normal. When I bought my truck, the temp gauge always read between cold and normal, but I was getting warm air out of the heater. I replaced the tempurature sending unit to the gauge(not the one for the computer) and my gauge read normal.

Fire23

 

If you are not getting heat at all you may want to change thermostats.

 

This answer is in referance to the fuel mileage. Maybe the speedo was not calibrated to the new tire size. Do a mileage check between a known distance and see if the odometer reads correctly. With bigger tires your mileage will be less if the speedo was not calibrated, hence the apperance of bad fuel mileage.

 

In reference to the heater problem, I had the same problem on a pickup I recently bought. I checked the thermostat and for some reason somone had taken it out. I put a new one in and it warmed right up and blew warm air.