Buying new v8 or v10 engine help

[Gh0ztkid21]

Originally Posted by ctb

When trying to decide what to order v8 or v10, I went in to one of our local Ford dealers and went back to the shop and talked to a couple mechanics. I basically told them that I would be towing anything, but driving in the mountains, back roads etc...they said that a
v-10 won't have to work as hard but will burn a lot more gas, and a v-8 would work harder, but use less...they said they would rather have an engine that works a little harder more often than a bigger one that doesn't get used as often...one of them said, "That v-8 likes to work hard." So I went with the v-8...I've only had to putt in the slow lane a couple times on a LONG serious grade...but, while fully loaded (water, gear, canoe,stuffnthings)...We average about 13mpg, but we drive her fast to get there...10+ hours to get anywhere away from Iowa i.e.. mountains, Boundrywaters, etc... Good luck in your search!

Great thanks for the info, what gearing and tore size are you running on your van?

[Gh0ztkid21]

Originally Posted by chetubi

My 08 Quadvan 5.4 V8 4x4 with 4.30 gears and 285 70 17 tires and SMB interiour and penthouse top will give me 14 mpg when travelling at 70 mph. But in the city or in mountains it drops to about 11 mpg.
For me the V8 is more than sufficiant.

In germany we tend not to understand those discussions. Here we have sprinter vans carrying big loads with 4-6 cylinders and about 160 horsepower. No commercial van has a V10 or even just a V8. ... And we do have mountains. They Drive the vans with up to 105 mph.

All possible. So this "is a V8 powerful enough" topic is very very US specific i think. (Apart from towing very heavy loads perhaps)

That is great to know. Thank you for the response, that is great gas milage, the van I am looking at has 3.73 gearing right now. So it might have to move with 4.30 as everyone has been suggesting

[ctb]

Originally Posted by BajaSportsmobile

Not to belabor the point, but the first thing to do is confirm that your speedometer and odometer are accurate - you can't get an accurate fuel mileage number if the distance you traveled is more or less than you think.

If you do not have a GPS to do this, you can download an App to your Smart Phone.

I check the speedometer of every vehicle I drive... don't want speeding tickets.

My brand new SuperDuty was off by 6 percent from day one. I confirmed this with actual highway mile markers, over 100 miles, on a trip to Utah. And, confirmed it with my GPS speed reading and trip distance.

I put just over 90K miles on that truck and recorded every expense in an Excel Spreadsheet that confirmed, over and over that the trucks computer was reporting false distance traveled and consumption.

It reported that I traveled farther than I had...

I always wondered about the Warranty ramifications - 3 Years / 36,000 Miles could be really 3 Years / 33,840 Miles actually traveled. Add that up over the millions of trucks sold and... someone is lessening their liability.

I'd be interested in you actual results vs. the Lie-O-Meter and actual speed vs. your speedometer.

Agile dude...Your additions/comments on here are sooooo helpful! And cool, and genuine, and so on and so on...you're a real asset on this site...just pointing out the obvious, but always great to read when you chime in! Still thanking you for sending us to the forum/site where I got to read Chris' 'complete' adventure through the West...learned a lot, added to dreams and spots we have marked to 'do'!! Just been wanting to acknowledge that! Thanks again!!

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by Gh0ztkid21

So the door jam sticker says axel 34 which when I looked it up its gearing for 3.73. So I'm assuming that is the gearing left? Or would quigley change the gearing when they did the lift?

The sticker would be the original gearing from the factory. One way to easily tell if the gears have been changed is by the speedometer error. With 373 gears and 32 inch tires, mine was way off ( determined with a stopwatch on a measured mile). When I changed to 410's the speedo was accurate within 1 mph at 60.

[ctb]

Ooogs...Right on-right on!!!!!!!!

[ctb]

Originally Posted by Gh0ztkid21

Great thanks for the info, what gearing and tore size are you running on your van?

17 inch I believe...I am one of those SMB'rs that finally just said to my Quadvan dude/Jon, "what do you run on your 4x4 350?" He said, "Goodyear's and (again, I think) said 17 inch rims...." (if you look at my garage, there is a pic of the well/rim and you can zoom in to find exact size)and since I am NOWHERE near the smart as some of our talented Forum friends, I let myself go and go with what the suggestions...and took a sigh of relief that I didn't have to overthink it anymore....I left that for the 'style' of rim search....pages upon pages of possibilities... ...and (again) just added all the other suggestions, electric pop top, furnace, on and on to make our bad a#@ Sporty...oh yeah 4.30 on the gearing...

[Gh0ztkid21]

Originally Posted by ctb

17 inch I believe...I am one of those SMB'rs that finally just said to my Quadvan dude/Jon, "what do you run on your 4x4 350?" He said, "Goodyear's and (again, I think) said 17 inch rims...." (if you look at my garage, there is a pic of the well/rim and you can zoom in to find exact size)and since I am NOWHERE near the smart as some of our talented Forum friends, I let myself go and go with what the suggestions...and took a sigh of relief that I didn't have to overthink it anymore....I left that for the 'style' of rim search....pages upon pages of possibilities... ...and (again) just added all the other suggestions, electric pop top, furnace, on and on to make our bad a#@ Sporty...oh yeah 4.30 on the gearing...

Yeah that's how I am. I don't know much, I research what I can but go to others that have the experience and go with what they suggest. I looked at all the pictures in your album love your rig! If you get a chance post a few more pictures of your interior!! Love the layout and walk through concept. I saved some pictures and tried enlarging them to see the tire size but it's too grainy to see the tire sizes. If you have a chance to check it out and let me know would be great.

Thanks again!!

[Taylor3633]

Thought I would throw in my $.02 on the v10. I jumped at a well priced 1997 e350 EB SMB last fall and flew from MT-OR to make the purchase and drive home. The van currently has 205k miles on it with ~20k on a new v10. The van is pretty fully loaded with a penthouse top, walkthrough configuration, 55 gal. fuel tank, fresh water storage, front and rear bumpers, winch, etc... In other words... HEAVY. On the 900 mile drive home I averaged 12.8mpg and have held in that range on the next 5000 miles I have put on it. I am pretty darn pleased with the mileage I have experienced.

[Gh0ztkid21]

Thanks Taylor I appreciate the response. That's great to know, by any chance do you know what gearing you have? Also what size are the tires you are running?

[rltilley]

I have a 2013 V10 4x4 RB50 and typically get around 9 mpg. I am currently running a 91 octane 5 star tune which seems to have bumped this up a bit. Only one tank on it so far though. I did get 13 mpg once but that was in Yellowstone where the speed limit was 45 mph. My van only has 7,000 miles so it likely isn't fully broken in yet.