surprised

I had to drive 600 miles round trip to pick up 2 of my kids on LI NY
I had an issue with Mini Van so I used my work truck Doge 1500 318. ( rusty one )
The MPG surprised me . I was expecting to get rolled under the coals & did not even bother to keep track of miles
I figure I'll just keep pumping in the fuel . after 125 miles I noticed the Dodge was doing fine . After I got there I put some fuel in and realize and could see it cost no more if not less then my mini van.

Nothing like a true HWY run to understand MPG with a V8 and the mild to decent aerodynamics of the Dodge 1500
I did empty the truck for the trip and had the back door off cab . Of course in true scrapper mode I came back
with 300 pounds of short . 5 pounds Brass . 2 motors and a power cord from vac
also found 240 pounds (4 bags) potting top soil & one living evergreen tree in a pot (5 foot tall ) amongst a bunch of dead ones . I figure from a Gardner

I love that Dodge, the confused looks from people in LI NY of trusty rusty paled to my utter smug altitude of this truck that does it all for me when the chips are down .

Depending on configuration, V8s aren't bad. I own a 1987 Chevrolet with a 305- I can usually get 22MPG out of her. That's not too bad.Sadly, my Ford 300 I6 costs more to run than the Chevy V8, and isn't much cheaper than our 1 Ton with the 350.

I think the V8s do better, since they don't have to work as hard as a 6 cylinder would.

Originally Posted by matador

Depending on configuration, V8s aren't bad. I own a 1987 Chevrolet with a 305- I can usually get 22MPG out of her. That's not too bad.Sadly, my Ford 300 I6 costs more to run than the Chevy V8, and isn't much cheaper than our 1 Ton with the 350.

I think the V8s do better, since they don't have to work as hard as a 6 cylinder would.

The Ford 300-6 was originally designed as a hi-torque work motor not as a gas saver an equal ford motor would not be the 302 but the 352 and 350 cevy. the dodge 318 on the other han was designed as both a truck work and a high out put racing motor just different tuning just some interesting inf.

With V8's the trick is let them float at the meat of there toque rpm's . naturally heavy foot them
and your toast .
I had some 250 Chevy six's and found just ok on fuel & still ok heavy on the peddle but not much performance Chevy 250 was slow if geared tall , I did have a 66 Chevy van once with the 250 and 4.11 's that had Zip off the line .
Always wanted a ford 300 just to see

My 1995 F150 is just a gutless pig, it seems. I can't seem to get above 14 MPG on the highway, and it has the M5OD. I think it was in an accident early in it's life, though. Maybe something is a little out of whack?

Those 4 barrels aren't too bad for economy. If I keep my foot out of the one on my Dodge's 360, I can get decent mileage for a 30 year old 3/4 ton truck. Open up the secondaries, and man, that thing will pull.

The older, carb'd 300s were better for torque. The EFI ones were more for highway use, so they used a different camshaft in them that led to less torque.

I don't know much about the newer engines, but we've pulled heavy trailers for hundreds of thousands of miles (All on gasoline engines). The larger one not only is more fuel efficient, but they generally seem to last longer.

Makes sense to me!