I'm thinking about buying a 1980 F350 with 300 engine and 4 spd tranny. Can anyone give some idea what kind of gas mileage I could expect?

 

Most people dont buy a 1 ton truck and expect to get good mileage. With the 300 though, you may get anywhere from 10-15mpg.

 

Unloaded, you may well get 10-15 MPG with a 300 in a 1980 F-350. Loaded or hauling a heavy trailer, however, the 300 will probably get worse MPG than a 351M/400 that typically get around 8 MPG. In mountainous terrain, expect even less.

 

Thanks for the info that's kind what I expected. Now what if anything can be done to improve gas mileage?

 

10 mile a gallon in a one ton with a SIX in it????? i have a 150 with a rebuilt 302 mustang motor and i get 8mph, lol, i think its the carb, idk wut cfm it is. prolly to high for the motor.

 

A lot of things can be done to improve mileage. You can get a better air filter like a K&N, you can get dual exhaust, or you can get a hotter ignition system like an MSD. Another thing you can do is find what gear ratio you have and go to a different gear. For example: if you have 4.10 gears in the truck now, you can go with 3.55 gears to lower the rpm's at highway speeds. But if you plan on towing or hauling a lot of weight, keep the gears right where they are to give you better low rpm grunt.

 

i JUST bought an F250 with the 300 in it. I drove it home because it needed some TLC pretty bad (i figure 10 years of being beaten to ****. Its got...you know...."flow through ventilation" in the floorboards...). I drove from rolla where i bought it to saint louis, where all my tools are. I got 15.6 mpg maintaining 70 mph steady on the highway. I do NOT know what rear gears i have, but i think theyre pretty low, because the thing struggles in fourth gear at anything under 40 mph.

Another distinction, that i know may or may not exist, but there is also a difference in the engines themselves. I have a "light duty" F250, apparently. Im sure there are no Light Duty F350s, so id expect you to have the HD 300, but i really dont know what parts are different. Nonetheless, theres your numbers! To be honest, im afraid to find out what this thing will get in the city...Considering my 302 HO mustang has gotten me 23 mpg with city/highway mix.....lol, that is now my "mpg vehicle".....

good luck!

 

If you decide to get a new distributor, consider our D.U.I.-Davis Unified Ignition or our custom curved Duraspark distributor. Please see them at:

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http://www.performancedistributors.com/forddui.htm

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Part No. 39820 is for the 6 cyl. 300 c.i. D.U.I.

 

This came up in another post, but basically here goes. expect about 12, be happy if you get better, and find out what's wrong if you're getting worse.

But there's no reason that a perfectly tuned, good condition 300 with moderate gearing and a good driveline can't get in the very high teens for mileage.

Justin

 

That assumes, of course, that the truck will not be either hauling or pulling a heavy load. Under heavy load, MPG will likely be worse than with a 351M/400.

 

what gears probably 4.10 or deeper cause it's a 1 ton a work truck not a combination for milage 12-13 is what you should hope for ,15 a dream