Motor swap question

You know, I have a fuel injected 302 now, and it just gets awful gas mileage, like 11 or 13. I don't think they're all that good. Overdrive wouldn't hurt, but if I was determined to swap engines I think I'd pick a six instead of a 302. My first choice, if I got 15 mpg, would be to leave it alone.

15 for that truck is actually pretty good. Problem is the truck has the aerodynamics of a brick so a smaller engine will just work harder and you probably won't see a significant improvement in mileage.

He was wrong, or his speedometer was waaaay off. Assuming he had a non-lockup torque converter and no overdrive, I'd guess he was really getting around 10-12mpg.

More like you might get up to 16-18. It's your money, so you have to decide for yourself if the money and time it will take to swap it out will be outweighed by your fuel cost savings. You'd have to drive the truck probably

10-15 more years just to break even. If you just want better mileage you might be better off selling the truck and getting a Ranger or another small truck.

our buddy with the van was smoking some really good dope. No way he got 20 mpg, maybe 17 if he was lucky.

If your not towing look at changing the gear ratio in the rear axle. also while a three speed is great on a dirt track, it really sucks for gas mileage. Options to look at, a four speed, wont help much on highway, but with the right foot on the gas will help in town, a four speed over drive, ford used these in light trucks late 70's through the mid eighties but they are top loaders so if your three on the tree you are going to have to do some floor baord work for the shifter to come through. since trucks of that era had top loaders, you may be able to find what you need floor board wise, or a five speed manual. As for fan options, forget the flex, the damn things suck and are only good for drag racers that have to run a fan becuase of class. Upgrade your set up to a good clutch fan set up. Your charging system is too weak to run an electric fan, and the wiring not designed to run the heavier loads. Not to mention if early fords had a weak point is was their wiring, it flat sucked quality wise, cheap wire and insulation that went to hell in less than 5 years.

Whitelightning

On Tue, 01 May 2007 12:32:02 -0700, Ridin' 4 Jesus rearranged some electrons to form:

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The FE motor is a different beast than the small-block.

If you want to get into the engine, put an economy cam in it. Did this to a FE 390 in a 74 F350 auto I had. Took mileage from 14 -16 up to 18 - 19. Had a lot more grunt down low where it is needed in a truck. ( 0 to 3000 RPM )