[Varn]

Hi MPG van.
We are on our second full sized ford van. A 2005 E150. It is powered by the 5.4 Sohc 2 valve motor and 4 speed automatic. It weighs about 5700 pounds with all the rear seats removed.

At one point we were driving it 300 miles a week and wanted better economy. The best that we could average was about 20 mpg. It required driving 62mph on 4 lane interstate type of roads. Lower speed and higher speed delivered less mpg. We have a ultragauge instantaneous mpg meter in it. Air conditioning is normally off. Our Gen3 E150 had the 5 liter motor and never got to 20mpg. In the early 80's a friend had a Ford cargo van with the 300 ci 6 cyl and 5 speed manual and on road trips that we were on It always got 22 mpg driving 75 mph.

I have not had a chance to test it but we are now running light truck tires instead of car tires. They can be run up to 90 psi I suspect that running 60+ PSI should help. We have 3 metal window screens stuffed between the grill and radiators. The idea was to reduce the airflow through the motor. At one point we installed a black sheet of coroplast covering the grill opening.

The problem that I see with getting really great mileage is the frontal area. Getting real good mileage no matter what the CD is going to have to deal with a lot of drag and weight.