Bowtie Brody's Namesake 96 454

mine made an 1100 mile trip with an empty car hauler. is there any particular reason for concern other than age? your truck looks like its in waaaayyyy better shape than mine was

Well there is an issue where it surges around 70 miles an hour, which it was when I was still on 245s; it would surge between 2100-2200 RPMs. And seeing as how from Indiana to Iowa it's 70 miles an hour, I'd get run over.

There is the route that avoids interstates; and it's only 21 hours vs. 16-18 via the interstate; plus I think it'd be a lot more scenic.
The fuel mileage is one of my biggest concerns really. 10 miles to the gallon unloaded isn't gonna cut it.

My turd gets 10 empty, how does your little truck do the same?

Supercharged111 said:

My turd gets 10 empty, how does your little truck do the same?

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285s and a lead foot I assume.
I'm still trying to figure that out myself. When I bought it and it had 245s and no tune-up I got 14 on the way back cruising 70 the whole time.
After fresh injectors, FPR, cap/rotor, plugs and eventually plug wires, fuel and air filter I expected it to have a little more power and retain the same gas mileage.

Supercharged111 said:

My turd gets 10 empty, how does your little truck do the same?

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I thought 10 mpg was a factory preset for the 454.

Loaded, unloaded, rolling down hill with the engine off...

BowtieBrody said:

285s and a lead foot I assume.
I'm still trying to figure that out myself. When I bought it and it had 245s and no tune-up I got 14 on the way back cruising 70 the whole time.
After fresh injectors, FPR, cap/rotor, plugs and eventually plug wires, fuel and air filter I expected it to have a little more power and retain the same gas mileage.

Click to expand...

285s are probably the culprit, they add quite a bit of mass plus the reduction in force to the ground isn't helping, that's a 7.5% loss.

I know you know this, but a tune should help. Cruising 70 I get 14-15 on 265/75r16s.

just run 80mph if it surges at 70. i do 80-85 all the time, just let up if you see a cop or buy a radar detector

Tavi said:

I thought 10 mpg was a factory preset for the 454.

Loaded, unloaded, rolling down hill with the engine off...

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That's the general concensus, until a 454 mpg thread gets posted. Inevitably someone knew a guy who got 20mpg from one with a TH400 back in the day.

Christian Steffen said:

285s are probably the culprit, they add quite a bit of mass plus the reduction in force to the ground isn't helping, that's a 7.5% loss.

I know you know this, but a tune should help. Cruising 70 I get 14-15 on 265/75r16s.

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A tune is in the works now; along with a Volant CAI, and a set of shorty headers, as well as a few other things like O2 sensors and a couple other sensors.
I would ditch the 285s but damnit they looks so good; not to mention they're like brand new even with close to 10K and a few gouges on the sidewalls.

Biggershaft96 said:

just run 80mph if it surges at 70. i do 80-85 all the time, just let up if you see a cop or buy a radar detector

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Tried to throttle through it, but it just got worse. I do have a radar detector but I could never get the damn thing to work right so a new one might do the trick.

Supercharged111 said:

That's the general concensus, until a 454 mpg thread gets posted. Inevitably someone knew a guy who got 20mpg from one with a TH400 back in the day.

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I'm shooting for at least 15 after rebuilding and camming the engine, it'll be a mild cam with a shitload of other work to help the engine breath and run better, and maybe an 0411 so it can be tuned to perfection or close to it.

Bought some tow mirrors for it. Broke the convex mirror trying to get it apart to take a look at the wiring; so I'm gonna order a replacement mirror and the wiring kit to separate the in glass signal and amber light on the mirror some time this weekend.
Hopefully with all the overtime I've had at work, I can spare a couple hundred bucks to get a tuned PCM from Black Bear ordered.