Oh yeah I also know of a guy that regularly gets 26-29mpg's in his classic ford conversion truck using a cummins 3.9L 4BT diesel engine. He has gotten as bad as 22 mpg's towing 10,000 pounds. He is over on 4btswaps.com check it out.


haha "as bad as 22mpg's towing 10,000 pounds" thats funny.

 

Was not refering to tin man post, but the earlier ones.
Point was they can get decent MPG with right set up.

 

Randy, Diesel is cheep in Texas, it has been in the mid/high 4 dollar range most of the year here in NC. So you do have that in your favor.

How many gallons of used vegi oil can you get your hands on in 24 hours? Around here you might go out looking, but you would have to get in line, that idea has been milked already. I agree it can run on used fry grease, but I recall it takes more than just filtering to be able to run it.

Using your $13,000.00 number divided by $3.80 per gallon is 3,421 gallons. Multiply 3421 gallons by your 32 mpgs and you come up with 109,473 miles a year that you would have to drive. That is a lot.

You must be some kind of engineering genius to pull that swap out in a weeks time, my hats off to you there. I doubt that I could pull it off in a month.

I doubt that I could come out that cheep on the parts either, you got a steal. IMHO


John

 

Don't need veggie oil I've run a 6.9 on 100% waste engine oil and it works just fine. You can get that free from most of Your Buddy's.
A Diesel has so much going for it They can't be beat that’s why in Europe most cars, trucks are diesel all of Your over the road freight trucks went diesel in the 50's. They'll run on almost anything that burns.

 

OK we get it diesel is good, but if it is so good why can't you buy a new Ranger or F150 pickup with diesel in this country. Europeans pay $6-7.00 per gallon for gasoline.

I am not opposed to diesel, but I am concerned about the cost of operation. One of the locals tells me that he has to change oil, filter(s), and fuel filters every so often and that alone can run about a hundred bucks, plus it's $.50-.75 cents more per gallon to buy.

I drove a diesel conversion a few years back and that thing was like a 18hp motor on a 35ft boat and had a 62 mph max speed. I know things have improved with electronic control and turbos, but those big rigs that you refer to barely turn 2000 rpms and most have 7-19 gears to change.

My FE pulls all that I require, will get out of the way of a fast ricer when needed, and runs on $.75 a gallon cheeper fuel.

There isn't enough yet for me to get excited over.

I'm sorry but I don't have enough buds changing oil often enough to fuel a truck.


John

 

Two reasons. Number one Your Government is in the way. Ford had the F150 V6 power stroke 3 or 4 years ago then the Law makers pulled the EPA rules forward which meant diesel couldn’t comply in that gvw weight truck. Next year Ford says now?
The other diesels stink! Gas has been to cheap for most Americans to put up with the stink of diesel. It's not the engine it's the fuel. I have two close Friends that run hot shot freight. They were 100% Ford tell the 6.0 came along. I was talking to one of them just a week ago. He has His last two 7.3's one has 600k+ the other has 700k+ on them. Only service They have had were two clutches each. In the long run a Good diesel is very cheap to have. Gas cost 80% of what diesel cost. If I told You I had a fuel that cost 20% more and went twice as far?

 

In the 1980's, Ford offered Rangers with Mazda & Mitsubishi 4 cylinder diesels.

They were the right engines at the wrong time. Neither one sold worth a hoot.

American have never embraced the diesel concept. Will they ever?

btw: Gasoline costs nearly $9.00 a gallon in the UK. In Iceland, it's $11.00 a gallon.

If you take into consideration the devaluation of the (once) mighty buck, gas isn't much more expensive today, than it was in the late 1970's.

And with China & India emerging from the dark ages, the price of fuel, any fuel, will keep on rising.

Today, China has the same number of vehicles the US did in 1915. By 2020, they are expected to quadruple that total.

 

Bill I think GM had about as much to do with the diesel engine debockle when they put the converted Olds 350 out. I have never been able to get my arms around that whole deal since GM had been building Detroit Diesel engines successfully for many years. They should have known how to build a better diesel engine. I remember driving to Washington DC from NC with a friend in a full size caddy that got 32 mpg. Soon afterwards the engines started failing and GM turned their eyes away from their customers and left them hanging with worthless vehicles that they couldn't trade in.

I will also have to agree with the smell issue at the self serve pump. Ladies just aint gonna pump that stinky stuff on the way to the tennis club. A better delivery system would have to be made.

I am all for better fuel mileage. I can't figure how we could put a man on the moon 40 years ago but can't get 25 mpgs average with our new cars.

As far as my government being in the way. please join with me on Nov. 04 2008 and vote the dirty buggers out. They want change, let's make some too.


John

 

It's the Tree Huggers do it to U.S. Vote Them OUT

 

My 1972 F-250, camper special, got 15 MPG with a cab over camper on it.

The Carb was swapped. 390-V8 with a 4b carb, and C6 tranny. Forget what the rear end ratio was, and the tires. It did have splt rims though. (Talk about a nightmare when time for new tires with that thing. $100 just for mounting, and that was back in the 90s.)

It got around 17 empty.

Put you foot into the secondaries it would get 6 MPG. Actually see the gauge move. Would bottom out the 120mph speedo too.

Yes I was young and stupid once. Try and stop a brick at 120mph on a dime.

My 1973 got 12 to 15, with a 302V8, 4.11 gears, T-18.

My 1981 Gets an average of 20 mpg. 300-I6, T-18, 2.75 gears on P225-75-R-15 tires.

As for the odometers being off in these old trucks, that is a good argument. You can check the odometer accuracy relatively cheaply by driving on a road with mile markers. If your odometer reads different than the mile markers, then it is off the difference between the two measurements.

For example, My 1981 is off .10 of a mile every mile traveled. So in 100 miles it's off by 10 miles. This is due to the larger than stock tires I am using.

The slight error of the odometer can add up, or subtract quick!

Use 5 gallons in 100 miles, odometer reading. 20 MPG.

Use 5 Gallons in 110 actual miles, 22 MPG.

Just something to be aware of guys.

 

Not all GM's customer were SOL.

My BIL bought a new 1981 Olds station wagon with one a those "diesel" engines.

He's a bigger SOB than I am, and got GM to replace that engine 3 times.

The 3rd time was "a charm" because he just got rid of the pile last year, donating it to one a those charity causes.

btw: My '65 F100 gets a consistant 22 MPG + on the highway, and even got 28.7 once.

The "secret" is: Borg-Warner T-85N overdrive, 3.00-1 rear end, dual exhausts, Cobra Le Mans aircleaner, balanced and blueprinted 390, t'was the original 352.

I see peeps here talkin' about headers this, duals that, but prolly do little or nothing with the restrictive original air cleaners.