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460 Gas Mileage

132K views 26 replies 18 participants last post by  Uncle Nick 
#1 · (Edited)
This is my first 460. I love Fords and know a little about the 351 but nothing about the 460 except what I have read here so far.

I know its a joke asking for more gas mileage out of a 460, but there are tricks out there that work. I just need to know what works for a 460. Keep in mind its a daily driver not a racing engine and I drive 10-20 miles city a day.

I'm working with a 1995 Centurion C350 4x4 4-Door Bronco w/ 200k miles. Under it all its a f-350 4x4 auto w/ 4:10 gears. It's running 285/75/16 tires that are 3.5% larger than stock. It could use a tune up but I'm getting 10-11 city mpg. Hwy seems to be about 10 mpg running 65-70 mph.

On my 2-door 351, I did a tune up and advanced the timing to between 13 and 14, with a little extra gap in Autolite copper plugs, high po wires and coil, new cap and rotor. I picked up 2 mpgs and lots of bottom end. A better air filter and better breathing exhaust helps.

So will the same tune up help the 460?

I know the air filter will help it breath. I read the exhaust needs work. I'm considering a custom y-pipe w/ 2.5" mandel bends into a 3" high flow cat and 3" single stainless exhaust. Don't know what muffler, but I can't stand the sound of a flowmaster. The factory had dual 2" from the muffler back so single 3" is a slight improvement.

As unreachable as it sounds my goal would be 13 city and 15 hwy.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
 
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#2 · (Edited)
This is my first 460. I love Fords and know a little about the 351 but nothing about the 460 except what I have read here so far.

I know its a joke asking for more gas mileage out of a 460, but there are tricks out there that work. I just need to know what works for a 460. Keep in mind its a daily driver not a racing engine and I drive 10-20 miles city a day.

I'm working with a 1995 Centurion C350 4x4 4-Door Bronco w/ 200k miles. Under it all its a f-350 4x4 auto 4x4 w 4:10 gears. It's running 285/75/16 tires that are 3.5% larger than stock. It could use a tune up but I'm getting 10-11 city mpg. Hwy seems to be about 10 mpg running 65-70 mph.

On my 2-door 351, I did a tune up and advanced the timing to between 13 and 14, with a little extra gap in Autolite copper plugs, high po wires and coil, new cap and rotor. I picked up 2 mpgs and lots of bottom end. A better air filter and better breathing exhaust helps.

So will the same tune up help the 460?

I know the air filter will help it breath. I read the exhaust needs work. I'm considering a custom y-pipe w/ 2.5" mandel bends into a 3" high flow cat and 3" single stainless exhaust. Don't know what muffler, but I can't stand the sound of a flowmaster. The factory had dual 2" from the muffler back so single 3" is a slight improvement.

As unreachable as it sounds my goal would be 13 city and 15 hwy.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
After being sure everything is tuned-up right...
A free flowing LARGE DIAMETER "Cat Back" DUAL exhaust system is the best mileage improver you will find. Use the longest, straight through Dyno-Max mufflers you can fit.
A 3" SINGLE is not free flowing enough. If going the single route get the diesel 4" or even aftermarket 5" system.

EDIT: A good FRESH AIR intake system is next.
 
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#3 ·
There is one thing you can do right now and it won't cost you a dime. In fact you don't even have to turn a wrench to make it happen. It is kind of tough to do in man-land though but it WILL work. Don't drive 70 mph on the highway. Drive 55 mph. It WILL save gas. I know it is tough especially if the speed limit is 70. I kind of doubt that you have cruise control on there but if you do USE it. Cruise control is far more efficient than your foot. ....especially if you set it at 55 mph. That may all sound like a smart butt answer but it isn't meant to be. I'm totally serious. It will help.
 
#7 ·
Kind of a short and sweet statement, but I'll give my 2 cents to it.

I spent quite a while playing around with driving for good gas mileage. I do believe that if you just use your foot and drive with a "speed up going down hills and let it slow a bit up hills" method, you'd do better than cruise.

If you're talking maintaining an exact speed up and down hills and not disrupting traffic, I don't think anyone's foot can compete with cruise unless it's a REALLY bad cruise control unit.

The problem with speeding up and slowing down for mileage is that it's extremely disruptive to traffic. If I'm behind a car that is in the middle lane going 75 down a hill and slowing to 60 going up every hill (there's a lot of hills here) I'm going to be getting pretty angry and a lot of cars are going to be passing and getting bound up behind them.

If you do it in the right lane, you've got the same problem but with semis.

I'd rather a person do a steady 60MPH instead of 70MPH than speed up and slow down.
 
#5 ·
This one is loaded, so it does have cruise.

I drive like grandma in town or my city mpgs would be worse. Hard to believe but rarely cross 2,000 rpms.

I'll try driving slower and see how much difference it makes on the hwy.

I'm also going to insulate the intake from the grill to the throttle body.
 
#8 ·
On a fuel injected motor you can get better mileage on cruise. The computer sets the system a bit leaner because there are no unexpected power or fuel demands.
 
#9 ·
What you describe is when I first started to do aroud 40 years ago and took it up a notch.


Do it right and you still maintain a steady speed I find the only people usally up set are blonds doing 90 or better in SUVs. Then there are the ones that get in the passing lane and do under the limit and wont move over ever. Then the ones that slow down to pass or afraid to pass a semi. The semi that pulls out a few inches infront of you to pass. The guy weaving in and out of traffic reclessly. The guy that passes you then slows down or the ones that speed up as you pass. Some of them I speed up slowly to see how far over the limit they will go before the realize there going 30 over the limit or more. I spend a lot of time reading traffic so as not to interfere with others. How about the ones that flip open there cell phone and slow down or can be seen texting.
Most of the time if vehicles are backed up behind me so am I
 
#10 ·
I wonder if narowing the runners in the intake would speed up velocity making smaller carburetors more effective. I have seen heads that had been reshaped with some kind of filler in the runners. This of course wil make an engine peak at a low RPM. It always seemed to me the intake ports are huge on these engines. How do you maximise volumetric efficiency to the weight and engine speed of a given combination?
 
#11 ·
Sounds like you're doing pretty good on MPG already, around town anyhow. For comparison my '86 Supercab lifted on 35" tires with 3.55:1 gears and ZF5 (~2000 RPM at 70 MPH) gets about 12.5 MPG unloaded highway at 70-75 and 10.8 MPH highway pulling 5500 lbs at 65-70. Truck weighs in around 6000 lbs with two full tanks and myself. Around town and mixed I've seen as low as 7 MPG. Depends on how much I drive and how much around town towing is thrown in.

Comes to about 6 GPH towing, which interestingly enough is what my boat burns while wakeboarding at 21 MPH tipping the scales at 5000+ lbs how I ride (ballast). Boat has a 454 with an 800 DP, truck a 460 with a 750 DP. Just thought that was interesting.

When my '86 was bone stock height and bone stock 351w with a C6 it could squeeze about 16-17 MPG highway at 70-75. I believe a stock height truck with a 460 and a ZF5 should be able to do the same.

If you want more MPG you need to increase compression and get the RPM down on the highway if highway MPG is what you're after. Big block around town MPG will always suck, nothing you can do about it. Getting a 6000 lbs truck rolling takes a lot of fuel. Those 4.10 gears probably help around town but kill the highway MPG. Does this thing have a C6 or E4OD? What is your highway RPM at what MPH?

I don't know much about fuel injection aside from that I won't drive anything with it, but compression and lower RPM will help so long as you stay out of detonation. Some exhaust porting and headers will likely give some gains too.
 
#12 ·
E4OD and I think it's about 1950 rpms at 70mph. Taking a 6 hour trip tomorrow, all highway. I insulated the intake tubes and box, replace the coil, and dropped in a K&N type air filter.

It's running about 11* timing and I wanted to push it up to about 13*, but the damn distributor is stuck! I didn't have much time to mess with it and didn't want to break it being in a hurry, so I just left it and tightened it back down.

Any advice on getting the distributor loose without breaking it?
 
#25 ·
Any advice on getting the distributor loose without breaking it?
If the repeated soaking with appropriate solvent works that's fine. Mine didn't. I had to use a pair of appropriately sized bolts with coupling nuts on them to "press" the distributor out. Always balance the load between the two so as to not crack the distributor. After it comes out, carefully clean the distributor and mating surface so as to not drop any crud in the engine. When replacing, coat the mating surfaces with anti-seize compound to make future adjustments easy.
 
#15 ·
I am pushing 6 to 8 MPG in town now. Stop and go driving wit ha 460 one situation needing to press the pedel a bit realy sucks fuel have done as good as 9.5 but rare. Truck weight 5800 to 6000 lbs dually 4.10 gears empty loaded with trailer empty or loaded with 6000 or so lbs a ton in the bed now between 10 and 11 high way. crusing close to 75.

All my vehicles have a record of miles, economy, conditions, were driven to from, changes that affect performance at each fill up.
 
#16 ·
Posted a strong 12.5 mpgs running 70 mph with the cruise on. Half the time was running AC and the other half windows down. Thats with the intake ducts/pipes and air box wrapped in insulation and the drop in air filter.

Can't wait to finish the tune up and work on the exhaust!
 
#17 ·
MPG

Everything I ever put AMSOIL in used less fuel over time, The Rear diff is a MPG hog too some AMSOIL in there as well does a nice job.

Of course I do not own any 460s ever but I sure have built a few for folks, a 460 is alot of cast iron that heats up nice, lube selection is always critical

if your money really counts.
 
#18 ·
Don't know if you could do this on a fuel inject it motor dont see why not here go's in the late 70's we had a 72 ford 302 3 in the tree Dad took a square 3-5 gallon jug put it under the hood took a bunch of copper tube and wrapped it around the exhaust manifold filled the jug with water and rubbing alcohol Tee into the fuel line with valve I was only 14 at the time but I think this worked best on highway not in the city anyway I guess the exhaust manifold heated up the water alcohol and like I said tee into the fuel line and we took a 1 gallon jug of gas to see how far we could go on a gallon he said we went 32 miles to this day I'm not sure I believe that part but we did use it on long trip for a few years till we got rid of the truck
 
#19 ·
I'm putting a new engine in my 66 F250 with a 4:11 gear setup and plan to use a 5 speed Tremec transmission. I'm considering a 351w/427 or a 460. Obviously, this site is biased towards the 460...but, looking for a little more information comparing and contrasting the two engines. One area I'm unsure about is the difference between the two from a gas mileage perspective. Assuming the two are fairly evenly dressed up and driven similarly, what numbers/ranges could you expect city and highway between the two? Thanks in advance.
 
#20 · (Edited)
What your asking is a very tough question to answer given the info you provided. It depends on the power level of each motor. The motor turns the gas into power. If you are talking 500 HP for each motor then they are going to use about the same amount of gas to make that 500 HP and will get about the same mpg.

Some motors are more efficient in making power (depends on the build) and will use slightly less gas to make that 500 HP but they will be very close and either way it goes your gas mileage is going to suck.

And by the way... Welcome new guy!
 
#21 · (Edited)
AND, the brand of gas you use has an effect on your mileage.

When my wife had a V10 Excursion, the computer compiled average hung around 11.8 MPG. One day while checking things out I noticed that the computer compiled average was 10.2 MPG, so I asked her what she was doing that was different. She replied that she had switched from Shell to Admiral a while back because Admiral was 17 cents a gallon cheaper. I did the math, and told her that it was less expensive to run Shell. And besides that, we had lost a piston a few years back using cheap gas as the cheap gas had left deposits in the injector orifices , leaned out the mixture, and cut a hole in the piston. As a result, we use only tier-one gasoline.
 
#22 ·
Gasoline has a huge impact. My F-250 will get 2 mpg more if I use non-ethanol premium gasoline instead of the oxygenated stuff, even with the same octane rating. I've tested it multiple times, with the same results every time. It's about 30 cents more a gallon here, but makes up for it, plus the truck runs much, much better on it. Also, when I moved to Alaska a few years ago, I found that I'd get 6 mpg towing all my stuff in an enclosed trailer if I used an Esso station to fill up, and could get 8-9 mpg using Shell or Exxon.

Lucas
 
#23 ·
I get about 15mpg on highway but at 55-60mph. above that the mpg drops instantly.
466, 9.5 comp, edelbrock performer lame *** cam, weiand stealth, holley 750vac, hooker 6126's, dual 2.5" with some sort of stainless steel chamber mufflers in a 5000lbs '76 thunderbird with an open 2.73 gears

and yes I know that stealth is total overkill for my combo >:)
 
#24 ·
Aside from being sure your tune up is right, and that your vac advance is hooked up on older cars/trucks....

One thing most people overlook, and it's free, is tire pressure. It can make a huge difference. For long highway trips, running at the sidewall max pressure can be a night and day difference. Ride quality sucks, but it's a fair trade.

Another is gearing. Not a cheap change, but whatever you can do to reduce rpms will help. Taller tires can have a major effect on gearing, but can be offset by increased wind resistance from being higher up in the air. Taller tires and lowering the suspension should net a gain.

Synthetic fluids will also help....engine, trans, and diffs.



.
 
#26 ·
FWIW and for reference: 1993 F-350, DRW, 4.10 rear, E40D. Timing bumped to 12, all fresh tune, new high flow cat. Drive it 65 or so when I drive it unhooked. Maybe 10 MPG. With 10K on the back (extra tall 34' race/RV trailer) 6.75 more or less. Dual tanks, when towing we go 90 miles on a tank then switch, then at 50 miles start looking. I note the beast is light, only 5800 lbs on the scales.
 
#27 ·
Mr Nick W Wiese Senior

I have been doing all sorts of service on Foreign cars for over 50 years now and am perplexed why my 460 ford is such a dog? It is called an F350 with a C-6 auto and Duels towing a Honda car & best 8MPG, So I am trying to sort out why? Here is what I found after looking at the Valves, the Cylinders, Crank & Bearing shells ( I gave it a new Oil Pump last year) also did a compression test. The bigest single thing you can change is the Cam Timing, it is reasonable to set it up with 8 or 81/2 degrees for cam timing on #1 intake valve opening. the parts you get from an auto parts store will not usually do this! Comp Cams will. It is possibe to change the timing gear set in the front without to much trouble. many of these engine are factory detuned! they suck gas and pollute the air! Now it is reasonable to change the Cam as well, however what type is best for you? and this is a much bigger job, So I am simply suggesting you replace the timing chain with an aftermarket unit first not last in terms of work & money, and this will wake up these big engines a lot, of course spark timing will need to adjust as well. good luck! On all rigs that have a computer you need to find out how to reset it after you work on it, Look it up! Nick
 
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