karrdiacarrest

Hey guys, just created an account here. But I live in Georgia, and my truck is getting about 7.5 miles to the gallon, and OBVIOUSLY this is a big problem. I have replaced the intake and exhaust manifold, radiator, battery, spark plugs, spark plug wires, installed a tach, and have a thrush glass pack. It has a ford 300 single barrel carburetor and is a 4 speed trans. Im mainly looking for fuel economy mods or tips. But i also want to upgrade it for better performance as well

Braggs

7.5 mpg is pretty low. You might smell the exhaust for excess gasoline (kinda feels like a sharp pinch in the nose like smelling vinegar). My pickup was doing the same and it was because the automatic choke wasn't coming off resulting in excess gas being sucked into the engine.

Carburetors are a different animal than the newer fuel injected engines. On my pickup during cold weather I have to tap the gas pedal to close the choke flap, crank the engine, and let it run on choke idle for about 10 minutes until the engine heats up. Then I tap the gas pedal again to kick the choke off. After that, I'm good to go. Took me awhile to figure out the process after 15+ years of not driving a carbureted vehicle.

burnthelight88

Most likely you are due for a carb rebuild. Mileage should be closer to 12-15 with the 300 depending on exact setup like gear ratios etc. I'm not very familiar with the single barrel carbs, but in general carbs aren't terribly hard to rebuild as long as you're good about labeling things as you pull them off. Rebuild kits aren't very expensive. I'd start there, its the most likely place that you're losing fuel economy. Google "Mikes Carburetor Parts" and check out his site. The kits come with pretty good instructions and I did my first one without much trouble at all.






10 minutes on full choke is really excessive, even in the cold. You might want to check the choke to make sure its operating how it should.

karrdiacarrest

Thanks for the advice guys, and I'm sure I'd the carb, because it even runs rough sometimes. The electric choke is really annoying, so I want to install a manual one. I'm looking at carbs, and I find a brand new one for pretty cheap.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/162044223725?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

Not sure if it's any good, but its brand new, and it seems pretty good. It's just the new carbs from Summit and everywhere are expensive, and I've rebuilt plenty carbs for briggs and stratton engines, but this is a whole nother beast with allot more parts, and my transportation on the line.

karrdiacarrest

Hey, I've been doing research all night, and I've found a few carburetors. I'm wandering weather the carter yf or the yfa would be better to put on my truck. I think it has the yfa right now. And by the way, I'm not worried about emissions.

burnthelight88

As a general rule don't buy car parts from eBay. I see that they say it comes from CA/NJ, but that posting has so many misspellings you know it can't come from a reputable company. That's foreign as can be, probably china. Unless yours is cracked, you can rebuild it much cheaper than the cheapest knockoff you can buy.

karrdiacarrest

I know the rebuild kits are only like $20-$30, but I'm not sure if id do it right, let alone have the tools or chemicals to clean it right. There are some guys that work around me that rebuild carbs for a living, so ill see how much they would charge, because they do it professionally.

karrdiacarrest

But what is so bad about these cheap carburetor though? They have decent reviews

burnthelight88

I try to avoid parts that aren't reputable brands or ford/motorcraft because dependability and doing it right the first time is important to me. Plus I'd rather keep my stock setup and just rebuild things that can be rebuilt. But I guess if they have good reviews and that's the route you want to go then go for it.

2000xl_toronto

Even if your buddies can't help you if you remove the carb yourself and take it to a shop that still knows how to work on carb'd vehicles they can rebuilt it for you for cheap and then you can just reinstall yourself.