[Uriah]

Several years back I built a 1979 Ford F150 shortbed stepside (aerodyamic disaster but they look great) into a commuter for a 224 mile a day trip.

I don't know if anybody went to Ford Truck Enthiust or the old Ford Muscle but I had some write ups there about what was done and worked, and didn't work.

The truck was a F100 shortbed stepside with the Free Wheelin' (cosmetic) package, AC, PS, PB, radio delete, 302, SROD (3 speed overdrive) and 3.00 gears with a traction loc (limited slip) with white spoke steel wagon wheels and I think 235/70/15 tires on it.

When I got it with almost 150,000, it got right at 18mpg at 65, so I'm assuming they could do 20 or better at a constant 55 that was the law when they were new.

I rebuilt the engine using a stock aluminum Ford dual plane intake, a 480cfm Autolite carb (1.08), roller cam and rockers (later model block), 9.5 compression, Jacobs Mileage Master spark box and Ultra Coil, Mallory distributor, small tube tri-y headers and 2.5 pipes into walker dynomax mufflers. The engine itself was balanced and blueprinted. I forgot the exact cam specs but it was a custom grind that would have been fairly close to a 260 High Energy.

I used a Ford Taurus electric fan and a manual controller (unless the AC was on, then it was automatic). The heads had a full port and polish and slightly bigger valves, basicly just cleaned up decent but stock castings.

The only aero mods were a tonneau cover over the bed, just a canvas one. It averaged 24.3 in over 80K miles. About 90 percent highway with the cruise set at 62.

Not that it matters, but it ran a 14.8 in the quarter which kinda surprised me with the gears and the SROD. I loved that truck.

Anyway, my 2003 F150 supercab 2x4 with a 4.6, automatic an 3.55 gears can barely get half of that mileage on the highway, 14ish. It's rated for 20 and has never gotten close. It's a much bigger and heavier truck, but still. Slightly smaller more modern engine and much better aerodynamics. For whatever reason, there don't seem to be much you can do with this generation truck to get much better results.

I've thought about a Ranger but I still haul and pull a lot of stuff. Bigger stuff then a Ranger will haul/pull safely (if at all). If I didn't ride a scoot alot the 2003 would be hard for me to run daily.