"and lo and behold Ford representative came out and took his truck gave him a new one and told him not to say anything about it"
Sorry, but i just can't imagine a pickup onwer letting someone, anyone, just take his truck. Especially one that gets 40mpg. uh-uh, ain't no way.
That said, I've run across that story before. I think it was when i was doing a search about the mysterious *70mpg*carb that detroit supposedly buried. Wanted to see if there was anything to it. Figured the internet would have something.
Result: (A) urban legends
(B) the Fish carburetor

from a conversation with a friend the other day, he says there is a pickup that gets 45mpg but you can't buy it in the states. It's a toyota deisel. True or not, i don't know.

Last winter I got curious about ethanol alcohol as a motor fuel. I'm not well versed on the subject but it seems that about the time of the oil embargo of 73 would have been a good time to make the switch. Cars still had high compression engines then.
I'd just love it if the *imported*oil could be made irrelavant

Has ethanol as fuel been discussed here? yeah i know,I'm asking the question before i do a forum search

 

This sounds like a case for the Mythbusters on Discovery channel.

 

I know this is hard to believe but my friend has always been up front with me. To verify Ill quiz around some more and look into this further. If I read this thread Id have doubts too. I(ll get back to you later].

 

Get the "guys" name and phone number. Otherwise, it's just a story.

 

Ford is trying to sell Super Duties to the Military, their selling point is the trucks get 40 mpg and can go a minimum 1000 miles before refueling. This was on a Ford concept vehicle website.

 

Wonder what little ol' Morgan weighed?? Think if I whittle my current 115lbs down to 100lbs, it'll give me another mpg??

Goodbye bread and potatoes...

ON EDIT: Don't know if anyone's looked it up but, there is a website that may cover this one, www.urbanlegends.about.com

 

back when my dad was in HS, 1960's, there was a kid that took a brand new chebby truck, cant recall the motor that was in it but, the guy tore it apart, rebuilt the heads, intake, fuel system, etc... and came up with a vehicle that would get over 50 mpg, and create the same hp rateing, how he did this i do not know, but once word spread chebby came and offered him an ungodly amount of money to buy the truck from him and for him to keep his mouth shut about what he did.

 

Hey fordman 428 hey now im puttin you in the position that I am. Are you gettin back at me putin me on. Come on fess up. My feelings are hurt.

 

Want 40mpg? Go get ranger with a 2.3 4-cyl. Swap out the rear gear down to like a 2.1 ratio, and throw in a transmission with a granny first - required now because o fthe ultra-high (numerically low) gearing - and very good OD ratio.

 

Does he drive only downhill in neutral? I don't buy it.

 

I'll have to agree about the myth thing BUT I do back you up that the technology is there. Just by "injecting water" into the fuel equation you can raise the gas mileage. The discovery channel did a test on this years ago. They gave a guy a car and then asked him to get the best gas mileage he could. One of the things I remeber he did was to drip water into the carb, along with some other mods to the engine, to help increase the mileage. Don't ask me the particulars because it was a long time ago when I watched it BUT I'd bet the discovery channel still has the program available to purchase. Mid 80's. I'll see if I can find the source and get it back to you.

 

Hey, Is there a way to break it down and see if its really possible, like, a x cylinder engine requres x amount of fuel to create 1 revolution of the crankshaft, then the crankshaft to the transmission to the axles turns the tires this many times, and x number of the tires equals x number of miles. Is there a way to do that and see if it is physically possible?

 

It'd just be an algebraic equation. Just gotta find somebody who feels like putting in the time for the constants....and setting it all up.

 

Seriously though...if you ahd enough gears, your 460 could get 40 miles to the gallon. Just a matter of getting the vehicle so it runs as low as possible at highway speeds. That's why usually vehicles get best mileage at 40 - the transmission hits its last gear at like 1100 or 1200 rpms at 40 mph..but still keep shte car moving. If you had a 6-speec double-overdrive manual packing a 2.xx rear gear and were running a 2.3 4Cylinder...you could get some helacious mileage.

 

Agreed. A new ranger with some gear changes and easy driving could do that.

Anyway, for every one person that gets exceptional milage, there are 100 people BSing about how great thier milage is when it really sucks, I don't see ford beating down the doors of all the people who claim they get 25 mpg towing thier 25' boat with thier V10 F250 with two quads in the pickup bed going up hill with the air on.