Hey guys (and girls?).....

New to the forum. I don't have a truck, though. I just bought a 1990 E-150 conversion van with a 351W-FI and this forum seems to be the best around. Apparently my van is based off the truck frame so there's a lot of similarities. Cool....

I'm in Bothell.

 

hello welcome,where you located,and what is it you have?4x4 van?

 

Welcome to WAFTE!!!

 

I have lived in Bothell. I's not bad. I liked my stay there.

 

Im stupid sorry for not paying attention where your from...lol

 

LOL. No big. I do that quite often on some of the other threads because I find myself in such a hurry to read through threads....

I wish I had a 4 x 4 van, but it's not in the cards. I wouldn't mind someday converting this one over to having LSD in the rear though since I will be towing a boat. I hate spinning wheels on a wet boat ramp.

 

WELCOME TO WAFTE!!

What you should do with that van of yours is go find a solid front axle from a late 70s bronco (Dana44) plus the transfer case and lift that sucker about 6" slap some 35s in there then add a, proabably, 4" drop tounge on the hitch then you can tow your boat and go 4 wheelin. Or you could be like carsh1 there and make a dang monster truck... That'd be awesome.

 

hey monsters are fun when they work tho..lol,and the van idea is a good idea thats what i did to mine back in high school and loved it but nows it retired entill i find a good body for it again.

 

I remember when i was in highschool they would host the high school drags at the local strip and there was always a burn out contest. This one guy had some sort of van either a chevy or gmc or something, i don't remember and it had a spray can paint job with flames and all that, and he kept winning the contest throughout the day. It was pretty cool. Also we have a Performance exhaust shop by my work and they have a parts van that has been slightly lifted with bigger tires on it. It looked kind of cool.

 

Well, I don't think I'll be putting flames on the side of my van anytime soon.... at least not on purpose.

I am looking into designing a custom exhaust system. Okay.... you can snicker at me, but..... I have had fun all my life trying to get the best mileage out of my vehicle as possible. I figured that starting this summer (if not sooner) I am going to be taking some long trips with this van and I am hoping for 20 mpg. Yeah, I'm probably dreaming a little, but I have a few tricks up my sleeves.... I figure that if I shoot for 20 mpg, 18 isn't out of the question.

Wish me luck!

 

Well good luck with it, and i don't think it is impossible honestly, i could probably even get my bronco up to 15 if i really poured money into it but it isn't going that way,

 

Well, first, I change the intake so that the motor has the easiest time getting fresh air. I'm close to finishing my double cone filter set-up (pictures to follow on a different thread). next, I rework the exhaust so that the engine doesn't have to work hard to push exhaust gas out. I advance the timing a tad. I keep it well tuned plus use SeaFoam with every oil change to keep the internals as clean as possible. I also use Z-Max which, don't get me wrong.... I'm not a big believer in most liquid additives, but I do like this one. I use full synthetic oil in all of my cars. I will soon add an aftermarket grounding kit which I think helps. I even have a trick with the tires in order to run a little bit higher pressure without causing uneven wear. I'll use an aftermarket coil for a little bit hotter spark. I also buy only super-unleaded gas which tends to give you better mpg (this is also why I can advance the timing a little without getting pre-ignition or pre-detination). I'll take out seats that I don't use so that I'm not carrying around unnecessary weight. I use bigger diameter spark plug wires to ensure a better, bigger spark. With every oil change, I use GUMOUT down the throat of the throttle body so that I clean out any carbon build up. I know there's more but that's all I can think of right now.

 

Holy moly guy thats a lot to do to get good mpgs.

 

Really... it's not that bad. It's not like I do it all at once. Besides, like I said, this is almost a hobby of mine. I did stuff like this to my 1988 Mazda 323GT (1.6L DOHC FI 16V turbo) and even though the car has 276,000 miles on it (engine was rebuilt around 200,000) I'm getting better gas mileage than the original EPA ratings when the car was being sold new. Highway mileage it was rated at 28mpg. I've gotten 31.5mpg on a road trip from Seattle to Portland holding 70+mph most of the way. Oh yeah, I also put the 5th gear from the Mazda 626 in it so I'm running about 500rpms lower than stock at highway speed.

 

Wow thats pretty good