Here in Quebec it's pretty much always been cheaper than gas... it spiked enough to go above gas maybe once or twice in the last 10 years.

FWIW, I just compiled my fuel bills for my recent Texas roadtrip, turns out I got close to 18 mpg with a '94 IDI 7.3 turbo. That's with half the drive with about 4,000# in the bed... (which didn't affect fuel economy much compared to the empty truck).

460 would've probably cost me twice as much in fuel... I'm pretty satisfied with that old IDI. Of course it depends on how much you drive...

Nice to hear you managed to get your 460 to be that good on gas (~11 mpg)... depending on what you're using it for, it might make sense to keep it even without OD. If you're usually in town, no problem.

 

I think im going to drive it awhile and then keep my eye out for an aod to put in it. Does anyone know how much longer or shorter the aod is so I can get my drivelines done while I rebuild the junk yard aod? And is the aod output shaft on the 4x4 aod match up to the transfer case adapter or will i have to get a different t-case adpater also. Does anyone know of a good site for info on this conversion. There are a lot of bronco sites. but broncos as far as i know dont have 460 and borg t-cases.

 

Here in Ontario, it's been a good difference cheaper than gas for a while now.

When Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel came out a few years ago, the diesel went up, much over gas prices, but after a while, started going down and now finally it's decentlly cheaper than gas.

 

FTE is probably a good site for that kind of info!

I remember seeing at least one thread about someone wanting to replace a C6 with an E4OD in the IDI diesel subsection:

Pre-Power Stroke Diesel (7.3L IDI & 6.9L) - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

(The Search feature should help you find threads on it... there are likely to be several existing ones.)

If you can't find anything, create a new thread (in this subforum, i.e. general 87-97 discussion) for it. Right now, with your question being hidden in a fuel mileage question thread, you're a lot less likely that people with the exact answer (there ARE such people on FTE!) will see it.

 

Cant use a AOD. You would need a E4OD if you want an auto. And it has to be from a 460

 

Im getting like 7-8 with my 351 in my 97 f350 regular cab e4od. With a trailer on it i get like 4 or 6. My truck weighs 6500 pounds with my truck box in it, it has overdrive but i dont do much highway driving. Around here we got hills no matter where you go, so i dont see how people can get 12-14, unless you live on flat landed areas.

 

You have two OD options for the auto trans

1. E4OD, you will need a stand alone controller or the harness, etc from a compatible truck that came factory with a E4OD/4x4 combo.
2. An AOD adapter kit, cost is $795
   

Add in the cost of the JY tranny (call it $100-$200 for a rebuildable core) and the $500 or so to rebuild the AOD to handle the 460 (you can't just do a basic rebuild or the 460 will just eat the AOD like a bag of peanuts!!), another $100-150 for a new torque converter, $120ish for a TV kickdown cable, and you are looking at $1600 plus, not counting the driveshafts, .

Compare that to a Baumann controller w/harness for $600 and another $1200 ($850 trans w/ converter, $150ish shipping, $200ish for the core) for a rebuilt E4OD sent to your door, ready to drop in and for the same $1600 you have the stronger trans with the advantage of being able to program the shifts that you want.

If you want to rebuild your own, figure $100-$200 for a core, $150-700 for a E4OD rebuild kit (basic kit w/frictions and steels to a complete HD kit with solenoids, new rear sprag, etc) $130 for a Torque converter, and $600 for the baumann, and you are looking at $1000-1600 if you do the rebuild yourself.

As for the driveshaft mods, your best bet is to either try and score a couple good used shafts from the JY from a E4OD/4x4 truck to swap in, or wait until you get it in and take the yoke to yoke measurement and then have your shafts modified to the exact size needed.

There is a good step by step on rebuilding a E40D here Complete E4OD High Performance T also

 

One other thing too... since you mentioned you got it up to 11mpg after the tune up, etc.

At 10,000miles per year and $3.00 gallon, you are looking at @ $2727 in fuel cost for the year, even if you swap over and end up getting 15mpg (very doubtful) you are still looking at $2000 in fuel costs, leaving you over 2 yrs to even get the swap to pay for itself, at a more realistic 13mpg, you are at $2300 for the year, a savings of $400, so you are realistically looking at 4 years for the swap to pay for itself. Even at $5 a gallon, you are looking at $4550 for 11mpg vs. $3850 for 13mpg for a savings of $700, so you are still over 2 years for the swap to pay for itself. To get the swap to pay for itself in a year at $3 per gallon you are looking at 40,000 miles.

Just something to think about when looking at the cost of the trans swap.

 

If your serious about keeping the truck, want the overdrive gear, want a quality tranny and want to squeeze a little better mileage from your truck and can justify the cost, I have a 89 F250 extended long wide with a 460, mine is 3.55 with a C6, when it comes to auto tranny's Ford never made one better than the C6, now I am un sure of the longevity of the new 4R100, 5R100, and the new 6R100, but for the older generations, the C6 was it. Look at Gear Vendors under/overdrive transmissions the most awarded auxiliary transmissions., you can get an aftermarket OD for your C6, so you make a reliable, bullet proof tranny a little more efficient. They have all the specs on their site showing what RPM you will be running at with different axle ratio's. The down side is they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. Like I said, you have to be content on keeping the truck to juustify the cost. I am going to do it to mine though, my truck has 90K original miles and still looks like new so I will justify it that way. Could be something to think about if you are going to have half that price wrapped up in an E40D. I am going to take my mileage down this weekend, when I bought the truck I figured empty the best I would ever get would be 10-12, pulling I figure 6-7, but I am a HVAC contractor and have a heavy trailer to pull so I needed the brute power.
I love diesel trucks, been around diesels most of my life, they are definitely worth the money, if you've never owned one though they are maintenance hogs, they will run forever, you just got to have the money to sink into the maintenance to keep them running. Very impressive on getting 11 out of your truck, gives me hope and something to shoot for.

 

Since 2003 we have used an F250 supercab 2x4 460 E4OD 4.10 LS gears. Empty at 72mph with cruise I can get 11.5 to 13.5 mpg. We don't run it empty much and average is considerably less but I haven't ever crunched the numbers to give an honest number.

Tire pressure is a big one especially with a load. Brakes that drag a little cost a lot at the pump. If you are hard on the gas pedal and hard on the brake pedal it will be hard on your wallet.

Overdrive and 4.10 gears are a great combination but early E4ODs got a bad reputation because of a crappy switch that transmission shops used to fleece people. MLPS, bolted on where the shift lever attaches. All auto transmissions get a bad reputation because people believe they shouldn't change the fluid. Pirates are everywhere, don't let a criminal change your transmission fluid and don't do it yourself until you understand the instructions.

Big modifications don't pay unless you upgrade when you repair. Or unless it is all cheap swaps from parts vehicles or the Upull it.