Today on my quest for work I stumbled upon a large stash of old cars (50+) and trucks from the 20s clear up to the 70s in the middle of nowhere. After BS'n with the guy for a while he ask me if I had any old beaters for sale. I did and after a little bit of wheeling and dealing I decided to trade a AMC Eagle and a rotted out and partially stripped 57 Chevrolet 4 door for a 55 Ford Fairlane. It was the closest to running out of all the old clunker cars he had. Somewhere along the line someone had swapped in a 352 V8 into it. It is backed up by a 3 speed standard. Every FE I've had was extremely thirsty (all were in trucks). Since I already have a thirstmobile for a daily driver (65 F100) it would be nice to have something a little less hard on fuel. Are there any tricks for getting 20 mpg out of an 352? I had a couple of old Caprices with 350s that got 24 mpg. I have a rear with 2.35 gears which I figure should help in the mileage department.
I have had a few FEs over the years and I found out I got better mileage out of the 390s than I could out of a 352.I think that the 352 is the worst of the engine sizes for the FE. You might want to consider putting in one of the overdrive transmissions.
Currently my 64 has stock 352 4v and gets 17 mpg with 3.00 gears. My 68 390 camper special with 2v gets 13 on the high way.
Back in the 70's during the "Jimmy Carter gas crisis" I sold a lot of goodies for the FE's and here is some things that worked:Edelbrock Streetmaster intake w/1850 Holley, Crower still makes a mileage camshaft that works very well the combination of these made some stout low end torque,we used to toss the stock distributors which have a ****py curve and install mallory dual points,these days I would go electronic and if you can find a T-85 overdrive grab it.
My 69 shorty 4X gets around 13-14 running with the 3.50's. used to get around 18 my pop said when it was young, it does have close to 400k though....it is nice that i only drive 3 miles to work
if MPG is your goal, an FE will be a challenge. I have a 390 and 3.0 gears in my '64 Monterey. Merc-o-matic (Cruise-o-matic), Autolite 4100 carb on a factory intake, mild cam spec'd for low-end torque, cast-iron factory shorty headers, Pertronix ignition on a stock distributor, all the common FE oiling mods. This is a helluva great-running FE, built by Bob Lathrop (Top 5 finisher in Engine Masters). I'm getting about 16MPG...when I try really hard and keep my foot out of the secondaries, mileage improves only a tiny bit, I've never gotten better than 17. I think this engine is ***s-in-the-face cool, but I don't have any illusions it will ever be fuel efficient. I commend the guys who can wring 20mpg from an FE, I sure as hell can't.
Find a toploader 4-speed OD out of a '70's pickup or a Torino. 70% OD always helps MPG. FE's are noted gas guzzlers, although some do get reasonable figures. 20 might be a tad over the top, unless you're a Canuck and talking Imperial gallons!
Never had a 352. Currently getting 22 MPG at 70 MPH with 68 F100 and 390 2x4 4-speed. Changing out the dogmatic to the 4-speed was good for better than 3 MPG. Jon.
I'm using the stock 56 OD trans behind a 66 truck 352 in my 56. It's still not on the road so no MPG numbers yet. I'll be tickled if I can get 18-19 MPGs. I'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable. I added a mild cam so economy is not the major goal. The 352s and especially the 360 truck FEs were notorious for poor gas mileage when they were relatively new.
Wow that is really good! I did have a 360 powered F250 a few years ago. I could burn through a gallon of gas warming it up and going 500 feet down the road to dump some garbage off at the dumpster. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It seems like some engines where gas misers from the factory, I just don't get why FE's are so darn bad. I had a 400 Ford that pulled 17.5 mpg in a 3/4 ton truck all the time. This engine sounds like it is going to be a real challenge to get decent mpgs. When I get the car in a couple weeks I got some mods planed. For now I think I am going to change to electronic ignition with MSD controller, OEM style clutch fan, paper air filter, and dual exhaust. JeffB2's internal mods would probably help too but anything internal will have to wait until I get some more money (and a job). The engine is supposedly out of an early 60s Thunderbird which makes me wonder if it has some crazy compression ratio. It oughta make it better on gas but I don't like the idea of having to buy premium fuel. There is E85 available around here so I might try running that old crate on that stuff if this FE is some sort of hot dog variant.
A 352 with high CR is a rare bird. Some in '58-'59 were, but by 1960 they were grocery-getters, the 390 was the performance engine.
I have a good friend with a `57 Fairlane, has a 390 4V with a Tremec TKO600 od trans, when he drove from Indiana down here to MS for Cruisin the Coast last year he got over 21 MPG with it. Not bad for big block power whenever you want it. Plus, he was able to cruise the interstate at 75+ mph at close to 1800 rpms..Should live a good long while at that engine speed.
Only money you say I like to think I am helping out the environment by using as little gas as possible in what ever car I am driving
Manual trans, Overdrive, and 3.00 gears are your best bet for good mileage. The cruis-o-matics are extremely inefficient. The FE has the low end grunt to cruise at 15 to 1800 rpms just fine, so a 3 or 5 spd with a .67 OD is going to become your best freind. Make sure your carb is clean and tuned. Make sure your wires, points and plugs are all clean and tuned up. Remember, you are driving a big block in a 4000+ lb car with the aerodynamics of a beached whale. Getting over 20 consistently will be difficult, but not impossible.
ive got a 396CI FE, performer RPM Intake, 268H Comp Cam, 10:1, Cruiseomatic, and 3:20 Gears, and at 80MPH i make 15mpg. i cant complain. and this is in a 58 Edsel Wagon, thats as aerodynamic as a brick and wighs 2 tons.
Im running a stock all original 352 with the 3 speed cruiseomatic and 3.00 gears in the rear in my 62 merc monterey. only new **** is tune up parts, rebuilt the 2 barrel carb and ditched the points. Have not done the math yet but i know im getting atleast 15mpg and i do beat on it quite a bit.
I haven't heard anybody say anything thing about three twos and a progressive linkage yet! One of the best things when properly adjusted for economy. That and a deep overdrive! Tremac is my brand, but I re financed the house to do it back in the day! But a ford or Chevy T5 and some basic respect shifting would do wonders along with a 3.25 - 3.55 gear.
Help the environment and stay at home.With the new ****ty *** ethanol gas getting good gas milage is not going to happen even the new cars are praising that they get 26 mpg ,big ******** deal,I had a 56 Chevy with 265 -2- barrel 4-speed back in 1965 and got 28 mpg.
i tend to put multiple carbs on things, the way i see it if we weren't using up all this damn oil we'd be swimming in it like dinosaurs in the tar pits! i don't want to be a dinosaur!
I'm as slow as mol***es in January but I hope to submit some info on that in the future. Rochester 2bls, not the Ford set up and the stock 56 Ford 3 spd w/OD. I don't fret over gas mileage... I drive a Lightning P/U but maybe some day I can drive this to Bville and not break the bank. For the present I plan to keep the original rear. 4.11??? unless I can find a cheap 8" or 9" It's a 66 352 with a Comp cam.
My dad rebuilt a 352 from an earlier car and dropped it in his 73 F-100 two wheel drive. It got the same 17 MPG the tired 360 achieved before the swap..oh, and we were towing a little 14 foot wooden boat on a trailer.
I am hoping to retain the 3 speed and still be able to touch 20 mpg. Right now it is shifted on the floor but I plan on converting it back to column shift. I have a sequential two barrel carb from a 2.3 Ford. Maybe I could figure out how to do a two carb set up with another 1 barrel carb for the upper end (or maybe that idea is just retarded). Well I guess that is one way to look at it For me using less gas means a better wallet environment for my hard earn cash to roam free in. I figure there are enough tri carbed monsters out there protecting me from tar pits already so I need not worry about either becoming a dinosaur or repeating their fate.
Way, way back then, my Buddy in HS enlisted in the Navu and bought a 430 MEL in a '58 Merc H/T car, you talk about a road-runner! I ended up with it's big/long Autolite 4-barrel carb thinking that it was a 750 cfm Holley 4150 carb. And right about big truck Ford F-600/361"(?), 4-speed/2-speed and F-750 (391"?) 5-speed/2-speed 6-wheelers with box vans only getting 4 mpg on the road at 70 mph loaded! Anyway, another ol' pdq67 story so read if you want or please move on by.. The old APGreen Firebrick Co allowed the Southbend, IN Gunning boss to sell the F-600 and buy a new 1984, Ford LN-7000 with the (I think??) 3208 Cat V-8 "intra-city" Diesel, 5-speed in it and it got right at 8 mpg!! The small V-8 "over-the-road" Cat! I used to drive around all scales and also pull the throttle out and lock her wide open on the interstates running like 70 mph when it was a national 55 speed limit! Drove the big white Dog from M***ena, NY to spitting distance from the east IN stateline and never stopped her! She had an 800 mile driving range and back then if I wanted to get home, I kept kept her rolling until like 95 gallon a diesel was gone out of both 50 gallon saddle tanks! Took my Boss down to Prattville, AL from Mexico, MO years ago to his Paper mill plastic refractory gunning job. We loaded up, left at I want to say 6:45 AM or so?, anyway, Jack said, "Boy, I wasn't gonna say anything, but don't you think it's about supper time as we were p***ing Huntsville, AL (something like 6:00 PM(??) headed south to Montgomery). Hell, we ain't even had a pee break!!" And I looked over at him and said, "Prattville is about 3-1/2 hours away, then we can pee and eat b/c if the big wheels aren't turning, we ain't going down the road!".... And he never road with me in the big truck again! He, He!! We hit the Holiday Inn at Prattville, ate and I left for my Buddy's place in Shelby CO just north a Prattville, spent the night and got up and drove over to Bastrop, LA to do my job. (Just got back from his place say a couple to three weeks ago).... Jack's job went to hell in a handcart and I was on hold for almost 4 days so couldn't drive back to help him. I got done at International Paper plastic gunning their black liquor recovery boiler at 2:30 Sat night and then called him at 6:00 AM the next morning and asked him if he wanted me to drive back and help him on his papermill lime recovery rotary kiln plastic gunning job and he told me to head north home. I slept until say 3:00 PM, left and hit an open scales in south Arkansas and I will be damed if my headlight pull switch pulled right out in my hand as I pulled out on the road just at dark from the scalehouse!! I jury-rigged hair-pins taped up in the switch on to get to Little Rock, couldn't drive farther so hit a Holiday Inn and just luckily, they cleaned a room up for me because the Hogs were playing football and there weren't any rooms for 50 miles around! Dam, what a trip......... Good luck with your ride. pdq67
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