whoa buddy have gotten less gas mileage with out ever letting the engine warmup or the car. I have had several cars and i just get in and go. I know it uses gas to idle but thats not the only reason.

 

There are a lot of reasons why a truck would get poor mileage.

Timing, points, plugs, wires, all the normal tuneup stuff should be gone through to be sure its all up to par.

If thats all good, and you live in a "cold" state (llike NJ thats 7 degrees right now) it might be your water temp is not getting hot enough for your ECM to think you're driving in normal operating temperatures. Check temp sensor, thermostat, electric fan or mechanical fan clutch, those kind of things.

Of course there is more! bad O2 sensors are an obvious target to zero in on.... $22 so not terribly expensive.

Some Ford vehicles run rich when the voltage is low (around 12.5V), so check the voltage across your battery and make sure its in the 13V+ range while idling, after its warmed up so that the idle is "normal" and not slightly higher.

Might also be the gas - a lot of states mandate oxygenated gasoline in order to "control pollution". While this does work fin in the laboratory, in reality your vehicle's ECM will try to achieve a certain amount of knock avoidance so often when you use oxygenated gasoline you tend to use more of it per mile.

Another brilliant political decision.

When its nice and warm out, my crewcab (351W, manual) gets a hair over 14 on the highway. Now that its freezing cold, I'm getting 10 tops.

could be many, many things.

 

gas mileage for that truck is pretty good

 

Trust me, I'm not complaining! The 75 Dodge D200 I had before topped at 8-9 on the highway.

Driving habits have a lot to do with it... with the exception of merging on the highway which I do briskly because everyone's flying, I tend to shift early so I'm not pushing so many rpms all the time.

Of course, a 7000lb truck is a slug no matter how you shift

 

yeah, I have a 351 in front of an E4OD and it gets a little better mileage when I baby it. I can get around by feathering the gas and it never has to go over 2000rpm and I'm not significantly slower than the rest of the traffic!

 

Yeah, mines a manual but I generally do the same. Loaded, or up steep inclines on the highway, well, its more like gallons per mile.

Get a nice tailwind... .grin.

 

f thats all good, and you live in a "cold" state (llike NJ thats 7 degrees right now) it might be your water temp is not getting hot enough for your ECM to think you're driving in normal operating temperatures. Check temp sensor, thermostat, electric fan or mechanical fan clutch, those kind of things.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Good point -- I have just that in my Topaz with 2.3L.
It is not running as hot as normal. I *think* it is getting out of the "cold mode" but possibly not.

 

Funny... we have the opposite problem with our Tempo, also with a 2.3L. We start it, and after .5 seconds its in "I'm nice and warm mode".

Of course its not, and gets rather cranky. If I bang the ECM a few times, it works wonderful, so I know I have a wiring job ahead of me if we choose to keep the car.

I have, um, a few too many at this point.

 

Thanx guys, I do have a problem with my thermostat reading fluxuating from cold to hot all the time. maybe i should check all my temp gadgets. Appreciate it fello's.
holla!!

 

I bought my 92 E.B./302 with 153,000 miles and routinely got 17mpg on the freeway with 3.55 gears and 31x10.5 tires.Occasionally i have got 19 out of it Now with 220,000, and doing a whole lot of towing my freeway average has dropped to around 15-16. Not sure why it runs so good with that many miles, but I aont complaining. I haven't given it a good thorough tune up since I bought it. I will be doing that shortly, including new sensors(O2, ECT, ACT, TPS). I recently put some summit truck headers and a 3 inch exhaust system with the summit turbo muffler, and that made a big differance in power. Next I am thinking I will put an electric fan, underdrive crank pulley, roller rockers, and and an MSD ignigtion to see if it is possible to get 20 plus

 

I only get 8-10 with a catback and a K&N filter. your doin good man

 

My wife drives a Z-28 and I started babying it and shifting about 2000 rpms and the gas mileage has increased alot. Thanks for the suggestions. Now when my truck gets out of the shop I think I'll baby it too.
holla!!

 

I wonder how my truck is feeling, then. My temp never gets anywhere close to normal, it is still a ways away from the "N" in normal at all times. I think on the highway it crept up and almost touched the "N" but still wasn't in the normal letters. What do I do? Do I need to get creative with some cardboard in front of my radiator or something?

I'm getting about 12.5 right now with generous warm ups, and also the truck having to put up with me getting used to driving a manual. Not too shabby - its a truck, it was made to suck the gas =).