1993 bronco 5.0, mileage, upgrades, and other questions

so, after losing my 91 explorer 4.0 to engine failure and rust, i now have a 93 Bronco eddie bauer 4x4 coming via transport. i 'acquired it sight unseen' which makes me nervous to say the least. it was actually a gift from my brother, and its reportedly in excellent shape, so ill save the maintenance questions for later.

for now i want to talk about mileage. i fully understand that this is a big truck with an American V8, so i'm not looking at getting 30mpg, but with a 60 mile round trip drive to work, 20hwy is a realistic and necessary goal.

with my explorer, i upgraded the injectors to Bosch gen 3's, which netted me a serious increase, about 2.5 mpg hwy. i intend to do the same with this rig. assuming a similar result, i can expect about 17mpg hwy total.

heres where the 5.0 gurus come in. what separates this 5.0 from one in say a 5.0 explorer? would changing out the 'truck' top end for the gt-40 heads, lower and upper net me mileage, power, both or neither? what are the choke points on this engine as far as flow, parasitic drag/loss, wasted energy, and counter-productive emissions garbage?

i guess the root my of question to the GRM brain trust is, "wheres the low hanging HP and mileage?"

p.s.-I intend to do a full tune up, and address all maintenance items, as well as swap to synthetic fluids. no need to mention that unless you have a specific recommendation for fluids/filters etc that an average ford guy wouldn't know.

-Jon

The 5.0 in my 1993 F-250 died while someone else was borrowing it (in other words, idk why), so I replaced it with a 2000 explorer engine, and the injectors from a 2002 P71. Mileage has been the same, I think. To tell you the truth I don't pay real close attention, but it was bad before and it's bad now. It does have some decent power now though. I also threw some long tube headers on it while I had the engine out. My only complaint now is that the E4OD is a mushy piece of crap.

Check around the Ford Lightning forums for an E4OD transmission shift kit (nloc.net is one source).

Pay attention what size/type tires you have, and the gearing.

In reply to jmthunderbirdturbo: No chance of hitting 20mpg highway in the Bronco (15 is possible). The thing is a huge brick. I love the Bronco and had a 5.0 with the 5 speed, but they are gas hogs.

Link to real world mileage from owners: http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82041&highlight=mileage

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57416&highlight=mileage

In reply to belteshazzar: thats interesting. i intend to build a gt40 5.0 twin turbo for the bird, but i guess i should be on the look out for two of those engines then...a power increase without a mpg loss is as good as it gets really...

-Jon

I used to have a 1992 F150 Flareside 4x4, and that thing got pitiful mileage, but that was back in the days when gas was still like $.99/gallon, so I didn't care.

From what I remember, the truck 5.0's had the same bottom end as the Mustang GT (roller cam, forged stuff, etc) and the heads/intake were truck specific. The intake has a dual throttle body and longer runners than the car and Exploder intakes.

I'd totally rock a 2wd version of that truck now. I hated the 4wd setup. It was THE WORST to work on.

The Bronco will have E7TE heads which were used on the 5L Mustangs (the Cobra got GT40s though). It also has the "truck" intake. My guestimation power-wise to swapping these to GT40 (or GT40P) heads and Explorer intake would be about 40hp or so. It will also be running the orange (19lb EV1 style) injectors.

Our 97 Explorer with the 302 and GT40 heads is box stock and gets about 18 on the highway if you set the cruise at 70. With the larger frontal area and 4wd drag on the Bronco you wouldn't do as well. So I'm going to guess that swapping the heads and intake is pointless as far as MPG goes.

I thought most of the Broncos were running 351s, or was that the earlier models? I'd love to rock one of the 78-80 models as a play toy.

broncos got three motors that i know of, 300-I6, 5.0, and 5.8. im certain mine has the 5.0, and im glad, cause it's the motor id pick if i was buying it new in 93.

-J0N

Google "Sixlitre Tune up"

The 300 I6 in the F-Series trucks has an actual cold air intake so you can find one in a JY. Stock sized tires with proper air pressure is boring to think about but obvious.

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: In reply to belteshazzar: thats interesting. i intend to build a gt40 5.0 twin turbo for the bird, but i guess i should be on the look out for two of those engines then...a power increase without a mpg loss is as good as it gets really... -Jon

I forgot to mention, the engine didn't have 100k miles on it yet, and was spotless inside when I checked it out. But the salvage yard had half a dozen on the shelf, so the carry-out price was $350 complete.

Does switching from a distributor to distributorless ignition provide any fuel economy benefits? (Or is Bronco already distributorless?)

I say swap a diesel in it, I can't recall what auto magazine did that, but seemed pretty cool and will get better MPG then the Gas burners.

I've got a 1995 5.0 F150 4x4 Eddie Bauer with around 214k miles on it. It runs flawlessly and has a rebuilt E4OD. I'm pretty sure it has a "shift kit" of some sort on it due to the firm shifts. I'm getting at or just above 12 mpg average, but she never struggles for power. Engine is really just stock. Guess its time to check the mileage again.

RossD wrote: Does switching from a distributor to distributorless ignition provide any fuel economy benefits? (Or is Bronco already distributorless?)

It's got a distributor. Anyone with one of these trucks owe it to themselves to do as i stated earlier and Google Sixlitre tune up.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

Your semi-cryptic response didn't make sense to me since they never came with 6 liters, AFAIK. As such, your statement was easily ignored.

Here's the rest of the story: Some guy goes by a forum name "Sixlitre" and prescribed a tune up ignition guide.