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86 F-150 mileage.........

Hey folks, This subject has probably been beat to death, but I seem to always ask old questions. Anyway, I filled my F-150s tank and drove to Eureka, about 27 miles one way and back ( bout 54 or so miles ). It took a smidge over half a tank !. This has gotta be wrong. I dug out the scan tool and came up with no fault codes, seems wrong too. All plugs look good, kinda slight greyish brown, with no major deposits ( basicaly looking good ). Shouldnt an 86 F-150 4X4, 4.9L six, manual trans, and a recent tune-up be getting a lot better mileage than this ?. At the local price of about $ 2.40 per gallon ( regular, that is ), I can not afford this !!!. Any ideas or suggestion as to how to get the mileage up ?. No, the hubs were not locked and the T-case was not in 4-Low ( actualy looked, it's in 2-HI ). Thanks for your time and any advice.

john

Reply to
John M. Wright
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John, I have an '87, 7.5L V8, 3 speed auto tranny on a 350 chassis. It's a motorhome. GVW is 10,500 lb's. 54 miles on the highway at 65 MPH would use about 6 gallons of gas. Either you have a major problem or a mighty small gas tank. Good luck, Geoff.

Reply to
Geoff

Single tank or dual tanks? Maybe the switching valves are leaking and the return fuel is going to the other tank.

Fan clutch frozen? Fuel pressure regulator leaking? Ignition timing not adjusted correctly? Wrong spark plugs (knock sensor kicking in)? Did it use 9 gallons of fuel or are you going just by how much the needle moved? Bad MAP sensor? Vacuum leak? Air pump not switching correctly/hoses routed wrong? Dead O2 sensor? Tire pressures/wheel alignment? Brakes dragging? Head wind both ways? Up hill both ways?

Reply to
aarcuda69062

Bad fuel gauge?

I have an 85 F-150 with the 6 cylinder, and the gas gauge has never been accurate.

Take it to the gas station, fill it up, and see how much gas it takes. If it actually takes the number of gallons your tank says you used, then you have another problem.

My gauge can say my tank is at the halfway mark and when I fill it up it only takes 3 gallons. It's annoying, and I have to write down each time I drive the vehicle and how far I drove it, so that I can keep a closer watch for actual gas in the tank.

If it was a daily driver I would probably have a better idea of how much gas is in it. But since I only drive it if I'm hauling something, which isn't very often, I'm not going to worry about it.

From what I understand, it's not uncommon for these gauges to be inaccurate.

Brigitte

Reply to
Brigitte

I have a 1986 Ford 150 2wd longbed 19 gal tank.I put everything just about on it. Gets 13- 15 mpg.oh it's automatic c6 tans.I don't drive it much any more.I really like the truck other than the gas milage.I even found a factory new $530 carb.on ebay less than $100.I still have the

rebilt one I paid $238 for at the Advance Auto. Bobby

Reply to
bobby swift

When I first got this truck it was raining the next morning,I was going down a slight grade and when I took my foot off the accel.it backfired and scared the crap out of me.It had a new motor and everthing on it looked new.I ended up spending a fortune in it trying replacing everything on it.Finally it backfired and split the whole exaust system off of it.My wife would even ride in it again.It would leave me stranded on side of the road.I kept on driving it until it started cutting off more regular.So I took it to a garage and put it on a machine.He found 1 of the fuse links green corroded replaced that and replaced my new dist.I just got from the advance auto.It hasn't cut off since then but it did backfire so I replaced the airpump,when it's real cold outside if you take your foot off the accel.too fast it still will backfire.Too long of a story.If it runs good I guess be happy with the gas mi. Bobby

Reply to
bobby swift

The gas gauge on my '87 F-350 is absolutely dead accurate once every fill up. It ALWAYS reads zero. <G>

Geoff.

Reply to
Geoff

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