Hey guys this thread sure generated a lot of response. Havent checked anything out yet. I still believe this guy though. Wouldnt be nice to increase our gas mileage 5 miles more than we do already. Hey check back with you later. Thanks for all the replies.

 

Well I could see the little toyota diesel getting 40 mpg or w/e it was, the jetta diesel gets 49 and one of those tine trucks toyota makes (or used to, dont know about now) couldn't weigh all that much more. No real point to owning one though, not that much of a truck when there that small, might as well buy a car. Although a lot of things in europe seem to have been compacted. Man....keep contradicting myself.

Anyone remember those trucks with the remote controlled machine guy that' rises through the roof of the camper shell when in use? Sure would like to go hunting in one of those.

 

When I was towing my Son's 70 F100 from Columbus to Trumansburg, he was following in my 89 Crown Vic 302. I had to stop several times for gas, but he didn't want ank..wanted to see how far it would go. As soon as we got in the driveway, the low fuel light came on. I filled it the next day, even on a slight slope so I could get the tank filled up. 29.85 MPG. My Wife's 93 CV has gotten 31 on a trip. Of course this was around 55 mph

 

I'll be back

 

i don't know about 45 mpg.....but the toyota "hilux" diesel's i drove in central america did consistently get over 30 on the highway. the hilux basically looks like and is the same size as the tacoma model here in the states. they are surprisingly tough little trucks. you could see them on the backroads (if u want to call them roads) of the country with 15 or so people in the bed on a daily basis.

 

Sorry... I caught this thread at work and wanted to save it 'till I got home...

Anyhow, I personally owned a 1994 GMC Sonoma, with a 2.2L 4 cyl. and a 5 speed. The rear axle ratio was 4.10:1, but 5th was overdriven. In those days, I didn't have a RADAR detector. I was paranoid (especially south of the Mason-Dixon line) of getting busted for speeding, so I would set the cruise control at 55 M.P.H. and roll in the slow lane if I was on a road trip outside of my local area (where I know all the speed traps). This little trucklet would muster up between 38-42 M.P.G. regularly, dependant on weather, terrain, etc. on the highway. The truck was a miserable pile of plastic, except for the highway milage (in the city it struggled so much it would only get 10-12 M.P.G.), but on the highway, I managed to squeak as many as 800 miles out of the 20 Gal. tank before I lost my nerve and stopped for gas. It's therefore no stretch that a diesel Toyota Tacoma might top 45 mpg.
And as to hydrosmith's post about Smokey Yunich's 250 hp 2 cylinder engine in Popular Science, yes, I remember it. The VW Rabbit it was installed in was on the front cover. I even remember that it had enough torque to start out in 4th gear, because the shifter linkage broke and it was stuck in 4th. Smokey built that engine with ceramics and hight temperature alloys to majorly reduce the heat losses of a conventional engine and improve thermal efficiency. The irony is that it propably produced too much NOx (oxides of nitrogen) and was not certifiable to the U.S. EPA. By the way, I just completed a 70 M.P.H. round trip to Dulles International Airport and back in my 1984 Olds 98 Regency (last of the rear drive, V8 powered 98's) of 478 miles. I managed 23.2 M.P.G. Not shabby for a carbureted 307 cu. in. smog equipped V8 with 155,000 miles on it lugging 4,200 lbs around with the aerodynamics of a brick.

 

the engine would have to be a 1.8 liter 3cyl diesel to get 40mpg

 

Isn't there a website for urban legends???

 

This is the "Urban Legends" board. Anyone who tinkers or repairs trucks is an rapidly becoming an urban legend. I can see my grandkids telling their friends, "Grandpa used to repair his own truck" and they will say, "naw thats not true there's nothing, to repair on them, you drive them 100,000 miles and turn them in for a new one". "If they break early you get a rebate towards a new one".

 

I LIKE it Aftrmidnite !!!! LOL

 

Yeah, I hear you on that one too. I am keeping my 1996 F-150 for that very reason... I don't want to buy a truck that I have to spend an hour and a half on just to change the oil on a saturday afternoon. Besides, I have yet to find a truck with this kind of pulling power (Inline 6) with this kind of fuel efficiency (18MPG Hwy empty, W/ OD, at 70 MPH, 13 MPG HWY with a 6,200 lb. enclosed trailer at 55MPH W/O OD). Not as efficient as my Sonoma (no suprise) but much more useful. The Somoma struggled with a small block and an engine hoist in the bed. My F-150 still has reserve at 6,200 pounds on the tongue. I'm worried about safety at that point, because she doesn't feel overloaded, but I feel like I'm pushing it for a half ton above that. I have had one and a half tons of gravel in the bed and it only slightly nosed up then. Got no complaints except the original M5OD it came with (replaced with an AOD). Otherwise, she's a trooper, no troubles at all. That's a kind of efficiency that MPG and MPH and Horsepower realy can't measure.

 

Do you want ot get 5 more mpg out of a newer truck? Play around abit with the fuel injection and electronic ignition. Now, just to avoid the urban legend comment, why does ford not do it? Not the oil companies, its warrenty, you see the drive for fuel economy that led to the release of the fuel injected engine also cause the car buying public to search for a longer lasting car. American cars were compaired to imports such as toyota and the imports ran forever and got better fuel economy. But the problem with this is the ignition does not ajust to an engine's quality. The injection rate that is used on most cars is a rate that will allow 99.9 percent of their engines to run well enough to avoid major warrenty claim. In the manufaturing process only 80% of the engines produced are at top quality. If any producing company had a 20% return rate, not only would they go broke fixing the cars but no one would buy their cars. Back to the subject, jcwhitney has a book on how to "tune" your computer controls in your truck http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...&storeId=10101
is the site.

Sorry about the rambling but if you try this I am sure you will get better performance or mpg out of the truck. Note: I will not garentee because 1) I have not tried it myself only read about it 2) your engine may be one of the 20% that is not at 100% quality

Mark

 

I have driven a Lincoln with a 4.6 and it runs 27-29 mpg, its great just a little lacking on power.

 

The technology is there? Where? Can you prove it? Can you supply any evidence at all that the technology exists?

Didn't think so.

This is a tired, old urban legend with no truth at all in it.

It sure is nice to dream, though.

 

someone mentioned the toyota pickup diesel that gets 45 mpg and it is true after searching around i found it it was at the sema show it s a small truck it is powered by a opposed 3 cylinder engine with 1.0 liter it has a max hp output of 95 hp it has a rear gear of 2.41 it has a 5 speed auto trans and weighs just over 1000 pounds