New fuel tank and sending unit weirdness (Questions)

OK, I'm back with the results of my fuel sender modifications:

I put approx 180 miles on the truck, and the fuel gauge had dropped back down to "E". The needle was just starting to cross over the white mark above the "E". Fill up took almost 12 gallons. I'm actually pretty happy with this. I could have driven it father obviously, but didn't want to take any chances since I didn't know how much I really had. So I'll keep trying it until I find out where the magic spot is on my gauge where it takes about 14 gallons to fill.

I'll consider this case closed for now. I'm happy with how it's working.

Oh, and I managed 15.25 mpg, mostly all short city trips, and almost no time in 5th gear, so hopefully I'm still up in the 18MPG range on the highway.

Well done!  I think that's going to be "just right".  And, your MPG is excellent, especially for the around-town situation.    

Good job! And yes I’m jealous of your MPG!

Before I installed the bed I dumped 5 gallons in each tank to see where the needle would fall, not that I remember now.
For me with 2 tanks I can "test" how far down the needles will go before it runs out and still make it to the gas station

I would be happy with 15 MPG and more so if around the city.
Dave ----

FuzzFace2 wrote

I would be happy with 15 MPG and more so if around the city.
Dave ----

Yeah, I was pleased with that. I'm really hoping to hit 20mpg highway with it, although I won't be getting into mpg and AFR tuning until spring 2020. I was on the highway a little bit yesterday afternoon (drove out to the junkyard and back...lol) and the truck runs pretty nicely at 2000 RPM and almost 70MPH. That seems to be a nice highway speed at a decent RPM. Maybe I'd end up at 1900 RPM and 65-ish MPG, not sure. I'll try to find the sweet spot where I can get the best MPG with it.

As for the fuel gauge, I am so happy now that it working correctly (or, better than it was at least). I'm going to keep watching my fill ups until I get it visually calibrated where there's a couple gallons left in it. That will get me approximately 250 mile range per tank, and I'll be happy with that too.

The only downside to all this, and it's nothing to do with this thread, is that the 302 is still a little bit of a dog at 1900-2000 RPM. It doesn't seem to light up until somewhere around 2300-2400 RPM. Between the 5spd and the 3.08 rear end, the final drive ratio is pretty tall. It just feels like it would roll into the power band much nicer if I was already cruising at, lets say 2300 RPM instead of 1900-2000. Maybe I need a 3.25 geared diff, I dunno. Ford did build these trucks with this same 5spd and the same 3.08 diff, so what I have here is not an unusual combination.

It always goes back to what I call my "351 Envy".

Anyway, more to come on this next year when I finally get into fine tuning this thing.

That's apparently just a bit too much cam for good torque on a 302 below 2K.  But if you use 5th for just cruising it should return good MPG, and you can drop to 4th for "fun".

I'll bet it sounds sweet!

I was wondering why we did not see you on the forum much yesterday, you were getting in truck time LOL

With that 3.08 rear gear is like having OD just in 4th gear LOL and you still have a 5th OD to use.

In moving my truck from my garage to the house I can tell the 2.75 rear gear is pretty tall.
Let the clutch out all the way and with a 900 rpm idle it takes off, need to lower that idle.
Dave ----