gas mileage
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Senior User
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gas mileage
I have a 69 360 with a 2barrel carb. I am getting eight miles to the gallon and I want to get better mileage cause it costs me 25 dollars a week to run it. I have heard of alot of accesories you can put on the engine but do they really work? Does anyone have any recommendations of what I could buy to get better mileage?
thanks
brad
thanks
brad
Elder User
Joined: May 2002
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gas mileage
My truck ('72 F250, 360 2V, auto, 3.73 Dana 60) regularly got about 7 mpg when I first got it. With a good tuneup, carb rebuild, etc. it is now up around 10 mpg, maybe 12 mpg on a good day when I keep it under 65.
Most (I really want to say all) of those accessory claims are bogus (magnets, fuel catalyts, turbo mixing fins, etc.). You can't fool the basic thermodynamics. There is just so much energy in the fuel and contrary to popular claims,darn near 100% actually does burn. Then you have to account for friction and load -- these trucks have a lot. There was a great SAE paper back in the late 50s or early 60s by Ford when they were trying to figure out the variations in mpg from car to car. I'll try to look up the reference.
The best and *cheapest* things you can do are things like giving it a good tune up, bumping up the spark timing a little, rebuild the carb and drop the fuel level just a shade to lean it out, checking tire pressure, make sure the brakes aren't dragging, listening to make sure the tranny (assuming it's an automatic) goes into high. Things like that.
Beyond that, adding an overdrive, swapping your rear axle ratio, raising your compression ratio, or swapping in a 302 or a six would be more expensive options.
And I'm sure the rest of the folks have good suggestions, too.
Good luck!
--Matt
Most (I really want to say all) of those accessory claims are bogus (magnets, fuel catalyts, turbo mixing fins, etc.). You can't fool the basic thermodynamics. There is just so much energy in the fuel and contrary to popular claims,darn near 100% actually does burn. Then you have to account for friction and load -- these trucks have a lot. There was a great SAE paper back in the late 50s or early 60s by Ford when they were trying to figure out the variations in mpg from car to car. I'll try to look up the reference.
The best and *cheapest* things you can do are things like giving it a good tune up, bumping up the spark timing a little, rebuild the carb and drop the fuel level just a shade to lean it out, checking tire pressure, make sure the brakes aren't dragging, listening to make sure the tranny (assuming it's an automatic) goes into high. Things like that.
Beyond that, adding an overdrive, swapping your rear axle ratio, raising your compression ratio, or swapping in a 302 or a six would be more expensive options.
And I'm sure the rest of the folks have good suggestions, too.
Good luck!
--Matt
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Joined: Jun 1999
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From: Comox Valley, Canada
gas mileage
I also have a 69 F250 360 2bbl 
However I cant recall ever using "gas mileage", "good" and "360" in the same sentence
I also do not put too much faith in those "snake oil" gas mileage increasers.
IMHO, a good thorough tune up, checking the brakes, tire pressures and front end alignment will help. Remember these trucks are heavy and have the aerodynamics of a brick
Sparky
However I cant recall ever using "gas mileage", "good" and "360" in the same sentence I also do not put too much faith in those "snake oil" gas mileage increasers.
IMHO, a good thorough tune up, checking the brakes, tire pressures and front end alignment will help. Remember these trucks are heavy and have the aerodynamics of a brick
Sparky
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gas mileage
I just rebuilt my 390 2V, have about 800 miles on it. I am getting just over 12 mpg. I have the timing set at 10 degrees, tried 12 and mpg fell to 11. I have the Autolite 2100 carb that is a 350 cfm. Most of the Holley's that I have dealt with get less mpg that the Autolite.
Bob
Bob
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From: Coal country
gas mileage
Back in the early '80s there was a fad about heating the fuel line with the coolant. Using a needle valve to control delivery to the carb was supposed to dramatically increase mileage. There were even a couple of write-ups about it in the Tacoma News Tribune and Seattle PI.
A good friend of mine was taken in by it, and asked me to install it on his truck, a '79 F-250 4X4. I balked, because I didn't belive it would work. He offered to pay for materials for both me and him, if I would do the work, so I took him up on it.
It increased mileage by about 2 mpg - but killed performance, both on his '79 6-300 and my 66 F-100 352 2V.
Wasn't worth it.
A good friend of mine was taken in by it, and asked me to install it on his truck, a '79 F-250 4X4. I balked, because I didn't belive it would work. He offered to pay for materials for both me and him, if I would do the work, so I took him up on it.
It increased mileage by about 2 mpg - but killed performance, both on his '79 6-300 and my 66 F-100 352 2V.
Wasn't worth it.
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From: Calgary Canada
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From: aubrey usa
gas mileage
You want to talk about bad....... 70 F100 390 c-6 aprox. 4 mpg. Now thats bad. But if you want the power you have to make some sacrifices.......
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gas mileage
As promised, here is the SAE Technical Paper on fuel economy:
“Several Paths to Improved Part-Load Fuel Economy of Spark-Ignition Engines” by A.E. Cleveland and I.N. Bishop, SAE Preprint No. 150A, March 1960. Unfortunately, SAE charges about a half a tank of gas for a copy.
It's a little academic, but if one is interested in theory, this isn't a bad place to start.
--Matt
“Several Paths to Improved Part-Load Fuel Economy of Spark-Ignition Engines” by A.E. Cleveland and I.N. Bishop, SAE Preprint No. 150A, March 1960. Unfortunately, SAE charges about a half a tank of gas for a copy.
It's a little academic, but if one is interested in theory, this isn't a bad place to start.
--Matt
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gas mileage
thank you all for your responses. Im glad I didn't go out and spend a bunch of money on some of those products. I suppose the money I saved will buy me enough gas to get me a few miles
thanks again
brad
thanks again
brad
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From: Yelm Washington usa
gas mileage
My 360 in my 72 used to get about 17 if I kept my foot out of it. I won't tell you what I am getting now but I hope to improve it enough to at least see it in the double digits. My grandfather and I both feel that the 360 is twice the engine as the 390. This is just our opinion.
dj
dj
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From: usa
gas mileage
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-Jul-02 AT 03:44 PM (EST)]ok did some work and refigured my gas milage. i'm now getting 13 miles per gal. did a tune up, headers with turbos and 2 1/2" exhaust, h/v oil pump, preformance air cleaner, flex fan. don't know how much of this helped with gas milage, but i can live with 13 mpg sure beets the 8 mpg i was getting.
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From: Rimbey Canada
gas mileage
Wow I never knew that our trucks would get such bad mileage. This may sound unbelievable but my bone stock 390 with 54502 miles on it with a 2 barrel carb gets about 20 to 24 MPG depending on how many ch#vs I embarass in town.
steve:-staun
Ashes to AShes
Dust to Dust
Without ch*vs
our tools would rust
steve:-staun
Ashes to AShes
Dust to Dust
Without ch*vs
our tools would rust
New User
Joined: Jan 2008
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gas mileage
Steve ,Our gallon is 20% LARGER than the U.S.
Apples to apples > That brings it down to 16-19 MPG
If you do a litre vs quart mileage comparison it will be almost identical.
[font color=red]Dennis
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Apples to apples > That brings it down to 16-19 MPG
If you do a litre vs quart mileage comparison it will be almost identical.
[font color=red]Dennis
FTE Adminstration
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