Hello All.

I have had this 1999 F-150XL V6 Standard for about 2 yrs now. Bought it with about 112k and now its up around 148k.

I have no trouble doing any mechanical work if needed as long as i have the proper guides and info. Oil changes dont regularly every 4K miles...It rides really smooth and shifts great....

Now Living in CT we get the occasional nasty snowy weather....truck is super light so i drop about 150 Ibs in dirt sacks in the bed....

My issue is the my passenger rear tire seems to do all the pushing, especially noticeable when pulling out from my parking space and one tire spins from the getgo.

Is this something I should be concerend about? Be nice to make both wheels sping rather that just the one....some helpful ideas or links to similar posts would be great...

Winter season is obviously almost over but during the early spring i plan to do a a decent amount of work on the truck like: change clutch and fluid, drain the coolant replace all freezeout plugs and use the Orange coolant. change water pump, pulleys, and alternator seems to be going too....sighs....

Now this project is dead last and only if it is a worthy investment...obviously this truck is a V6...with a roughly 24 gallon tank. I can avg on the full tank with my habit of driving close to 450-500 miles.
Now i would liek to squeeze out some more fuel economy and not lose power maybe gain some and Someone mentioned to look into supercharging the enegine...Is it worth it?

I am ever so humble for any and all helpful insights!

Thank you in advance!

 

Look at your door jamb code under the AX box to see what rear you have.
Maybe you have an open rear as the reason one wheel spins.
It's most often the right will spin because the torque lifts weight off that side more than the left.
Your doing well for fuel mileage as it is.
Develope the habit of not applying excess throttle when not needed such as cresting a hill going down the other side with needless throttle applied.
There is no good worthwhile change to get more fuel mileage without high expense. Might as well spend the money on the gas in the first place.
Run your tires hard as you can tolerate and check that the thermostat is not running the coolant temperature less than about 195 in temperature.
Other checks to see if anything is marginal is use a scanner to look at the live data for coolant temp, Ox sensor performance and where the fuel tables are running at.
I know this is all new but that's where it's at to get the most out of a good thing.
Good luck.

 

There's no sense in supercharging the v6 and honestly if you wanted to add power adders your better off doing a Lighting 5.4 swap or at least swapping in a 5.4L from another F150 preferably 99 or later so you get the PI heads.

I agree on finding the axle code to see you have limited slip and if you don't then maybe as a side project you add a locker or a trutrac to your rear end.

btw welcome to the forums.

 

Thank you BlueGrass and Hybris! Both information is a great start....

I looked at the info and Under the "AX" heading reads an '18' and doing some research it seems the 18 = Conventional Non-Positraction Differential with a ratio of 3.06

im hoping i read it right and researched it properly..


So if im gonna save an xtra buck and not go nuts, what can i do to simple get it work so I can have a slip differential....not a fan of knoqwing only one tire is doing all the work

 

find a rear end assembly from a off road or an fx4.. just do the swap. i have the bigger rear with 3.73 and a ls.. worth it to me if u have a good parts truck.

 

your doing great for milage and the one tire drive is NOT a problem. If you are getting stuck or need more traction, put 400# in the back not 150#. Take it out as soon as not needed to get your milage back.

 

All you need is a cheep L/S diff. Don't wast any money on some fancy locker (close to 500 bucks)!
Something like this.
Ford Racing M-4204-F288 - Ford Racing Traction-Lok Differentials - Overview - SummitRacing.com
In the snow, this will give you plenty of traction and both wheels will spin.
Your MPG are GREAT. Don't change a thing..lol

 

If available, burn no-alcohol gasoline, you will get better mpg with that than with an alcohol gas mixture. Whether or not your cost per mile driven goes down depends on the cost of pure gas vs. gasohol. Many parts of the USA, you have no choice.
In the summer of 2010 I drove 300 miles up I-75 from TN to OH on tank of 100% gas, fully loaded, A/C on all the time, that was the first and only time I ever got as much as 21 mpg on my F150.

 

artfd makes a good point.
I noticed the benifit a long while back but now all the gas has alky in it in my area.
The OX sensors detect the extra oxigen level from the alky and richen up fuel injection.
The 'law makers' thought they knew better that this would help clean the air but it is countered by burning even more fuel and raising the cost of bread and anything corn is used in and for.
It's all political.
I always said the motors would have to have their compression ratios raised to take advantage of alky.
Most of the new engines do now infact have higher compression ratios.
Some are well over 9 to 1 now.

 

Thank you for the info Everyone! I am happy to save a buck with info you posted phil6608...is this LS the proper one for my truck? I rather spend a saturday putting it in and getting it done right and not get shafted cause of a mix up....and my good work truck is SOL.

And also this whoel gas issue...never thought E10 to pure gas was such a big deal....i guess with enuff trend followers they will start selling salt water at the pump and stupid ppl will buy it rather than going to the ocean and get it free :-p

well thanks to my long drive i do ALOT of coasting so that alone saves me on fuel....but someone days I just gotta drive home like a mad man b4 i start prairy ******* it and being a former coast-to-coast trcuker...there arn't any truck stop on the back roads of CT that I know off hand to hit up the head.....lol

this CAM2-racing fuel is there anything special about it compared to what I buy at the pumps here in CT....i dont ever recall seeing anything at any pump that saying Pure Gas, or racing fuel/Cam2 mostly the E10 sticker./.. though i remember in Milford, CT near the mall was a gas station that sold either 94 or 95 octance...been years....

So one last thing...is it a good thing to be USING 87octance on my pickup...should i go a step higher...i mostly shop at CITGO since i see the best prices..

 

On gas octane, the motor and PCM program are set up to run 87 octane.
A higher octane actualy burns slower once ignited.
This would require advanced igniton timing to take any advantage of sleightly more torque production.
The combustion chamber shape and compression ratio are the most mportant items in design, then the program is designed to run with the hardware design..
Since you can't change either, it's a waist of money to run higher octane gas.
Actually the alky in the mix does have higher octane rating but not enough to make a differnce and does respond to a raise in compression that you still cannnot change.
Also the alky has less BTU content so the end result is no advantage.
As the alky content by volume increases, it gets away from the peak of the OX sensor design response that was for straight gas in terms of air/fuel ratio.
I have run straight methonal in race engines and the gains are about 5 to 10% dispite the lower BTU heat content of the fuel. The gains come not from the heat content of the fuel but the fast cooling effect enabling the motor to draw more air with the fuel.
The net result is sleightly more power.
I have to tell you that running on 100% meth is dangerous to the motor because if the motor goes lean for just a few seconds at high rpm it's instant piston crown melting time but we do those things when racing to get any advange we can, to win.
Good luck.

 

In some places there is no requirement to post the alcohol content of gasoline. 100% gas usually costs more than E10, and the station would do well to advertise why their price is higher. I ran my 2010 comparison between E10 & E0, there was a very large increase in gas mileage on E0, and it more than canceled the higher price I paid for E0. I've never read of an increase in mpg from using higher octane gas, more likely you are just increasing your $/mile. I've always & only run on 87 octane.
See the website Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada for more discussion on E0. CT & MA are two states where they have no stations listed that sell E0.

 

Your truck ,with the V6 has an 8.8 rear in it.
According to the site,it is the right one.
(Off the site)
Axle Model - Ford 8.8 in.
Axle Location - Rear
Make - FORD
Beginning Year - 1983
Ending Year - 2010