Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
So if I have it all correctly figured out, ALL the extraordinary mpgs this Ford got were due to the extreme gearing, as there are no modded fuel "systems" or really, anything modded that would impact fuel efficiency, other than the gearing. So the truck has pretty much standard weight, standard aerodynamics, maybe a little better than average rolling resistance from the ball bearing axle but standard- not even oversized- tires (not needed because of that extreme axle)... and possibly because you were always in there wrenching on it, it had a high state of stock engine tune, right?
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Right! The carburetor was a 2150 Motorcraft, which turned out to be significant because it can be a very efficient carburetor, and the engine had excellent power so in spite of the high gearing, it operated pretty normally. It wasn't 'gutless' at low speeds, but I never had to worry about smoking my tires because it simply wouldn't do it.
All the 'performance' was at high speed (60+ mph).
A short story: I once went from a dead stop to 5 miles away in 2.5 minutes. The guy riding with me never rode with me again, and frankly, I never drove that fast again either; that was too hairy (think Hot Rod Lincoln).
He looked at his watch at the stop sign and said "we have 5 minutes to make the bank" I said "we'll make it" and held it on the floor for about 3 miles, which was a slight downhill straightaway. He looked at his watch again as we passed the 40 mph sign coming into town.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
What are the particulars on this one?
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This is the 1974 GMC pickup my brother and I used to build the system described in my 'Extreme Mileage, 101' book; which I will make available for free as part of my ecomodder contribution. It started as a 1/2 ton with a 252 ci engine, and an automatic transmission (Carburetor Enhancer book). I converted it to a 292 ci engine and a 4 speed manual transmission (Extreme Mileage, 101 book).