Thread: Gas mileage king ;)

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Originally Posted by halftanked

Hey Dave, why not just build a dwarf car for the street? Hold back on the engine size a little,add some mileage gears,and enjoy street rod looks with high mileage potential. Hank

They usually run a Kawasaki bike motor. The major drawback of a dwarf car for me is that I'm 6'4".

I don't know what you guys are doing with your diesels to get such bad mileage. On the rural roads I mostly drive I get a solid 20mpg at 55/60 mph. This is a '99 F250 7.3 PowerStroke. When pulling 5/7 ton of hay or my 8,000 lb boat, I get 12 to 14mpg depending on which pass I'm pulling up here in Idaho and Utah. When running 60 to 70 mph I usually average 17.5mpg.

With my '92 F150 351w I average 15. With the cost of Diesel the cost of fuel per mile is a toss up, but there's quite a difference in acceleration and power.

Originally Posted by BigD M

I don't know what you guys are doing with your diesels to get such bad mileage. On the rural roads I mostly drive I get a solid 20mpg at 55/60 mph. This is a '99 F250 7.3 PowerStroke. When pulling 5/7 ton of hay or my 8,000 lb boat, I get 12 to 14mpg depending on which pass I'm pulling up here in Idaho and Utah. When running 60 to 70 mph I usually average 17.5mpg.

With my '92 F150 351w I average 15. With the cost of Diesel the cost of fuel per mile is a toss up, but there's quite a difference in acceleration and power.

A 7.3 is a completely different beast then the turbo 6.0 and dual turbo 6.4 that the EPA has desmogged and forced Ford to make better. So much "better" that they have a 100,000 mile warranty on the driveline to shut the irate owners up. The 7.3 WILL get that kind of mileage and often better. My '92 F250HD/351 would do 12-14 around town and 16-18 open road/empty. With my camper, 10-12.

And mine is NOT a diesel but an '06 V10, 6.8 gasser.

Don wrote:

I'm considering building a car with a motorcycle engine and lots of lightweight stuff like a tube frame, etc.

I've had the same thoughts for years. Even have two Honda Gold Wing 1000 engines waiting (H4's 125hp). Just never seem to find the time.