35 Ford Speed & Mileage

R

robert shreveport

Senior Member
What speed can be normal and gas mileage for a original car in today's roads? What rear ratio came in them, what size flathead came in these cars? Can the radio be sent somewhere and converted to "AM/FM/CDD" and run on 12 volts? I bought the 35-36 Ford book and read about the heaters, they seem to be part of the exhaust system can a box heater be improvised? What yr. Car would you try to get one from and stay 6 volt?
 
I have a 36 pickup with the stock motor and 6:50/16's in the rear and a 411 gears.
in town I get about 10 mpg but out in the country I get about 15 to 17mpg
 
Robert-

This can be a highly variable response! Meaning, if you were to ask ten people you would probably end up with 11 different opinions. For what it is worth....

Speed and mileage. Typically about 70 mph and 14-15 mpg with a 4.11 axle. However, I wouldn't be surprised if top speeds might approach 80 mph and 17 mpg with a 3.54 axle.

Original radios can be converted to AM-FM. Conversion prices are scary $400+. Beyond that if you want AM/FM/CD you will need a modern radio. What I have in my '35 is a stock '35 radio (which plays) and a separate AM/FM/CD radio under my dash. It is powered by a 6-12 volt converter which is behind the kick panel. I have the radio mounted in such a way that it can be easily removed for display purposes. No holes were required to be drilled. Total investment under $100. I also have something similar in my '36.

Heater- Most heaters were dealer installed. These were primarily gasoline fed, exhaust gas routed and water. For me the simplest and most trouble-free is a hot water heater, which I also have in my '35 and '36.

As suggested, this is my opinion. I am sure others have their favorites.

Tom
 

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The Ford specs were based on newish cars in good tune, so that a dealer could make a call on a car brought in for a mileage or power complaint. So...if your new '35 couldn't hit 84.5 MPH, it needed fixing. If it could hit that your complaint of not enough power could be dismissed. Likewise the published high-gear acceleration and steady state mileage, they provided numbers that a stock car in good shape should be able to meet or beat. That was the point. A '35 4.11 with a top speed of 70 needed work...but of course the 84 was not intended as a cruise speed! Those Ford performance bulletins provide a lot of food for thought, allowing some organized comparisons of the effects of different gears and potential for mileage and acceleration. The specs I have found go up to about 1940.
 
Hey Robert...sounds like you brought something new home. If so, throw up a couple of pics. :)
 
Not yet Heard but time is getting closer.
Flathead fan I was wondering about what speed these cars would run in every day traffic. When they are in there comfort zone.
 
If your going to run in every day traffic I'd at least change rear end gears to 3-78 or even 3-54. 4-11 gears are pretty low to travel 60mph. Your winding the hell out of you engine. Walt
 
My `35 is all stock with 3.54 gears and it will run 70 mph pretty easily. Never pushed it much beyond that. The 3.54 gears made a big difference.
 
Robert-

Both my '35 and '36 seem "comfortable" running at a prolong 50-55 mph. Over that the engines seem noisy which can be due to a lot of factors such as the fan and related air filter noise.

Another consideration is braking at these higher speeds. The '35 has vacuum booster hydraulics. Braking is not a problem at any speed. The '36 is a different story. It still has mechanicals (with floaters) and speeds above 50 gives me a lot of pause for thought.

Hope this helps.

Tom
 
I have 3.78 gears and 7.50x16's on rear of my '35 Fordor. It seems to be happy running at 60-65 on the interstates. Getting 16-17mpg.
 
JM 35 Sedan said:
I have 3.78 gears and 7.50x16's on rear of my '35 Fordor. It seems to be happy running at 60-65 on the interstates. Getting 16-17mpg.
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This is encouraging! I just installed 3.78 gears in my '36 Fordor rearend -- the car is NOT drivable just yet. I was hoping it would cruise along at 60 miles an hour without overheating or beating the engine up; sounds like it will. Your fuel economy isn't bad, either.
 
I increased my fuel mileage from 14 mpg to about 17 or 18mph,just by switching from regular gasolineto mid grade. Running the standard rear end(4.11?). Byron.
 
OK, the speed and gear ratio issues have been pretty well covered, I'll touch on the radio question..
There are several companies across the U.S. that advertize the conversion of old 6v radios from AM to FM and CD.. In all cases the conversion is very expensive and in my opinion over-kill for what you get..
I know several guys that have come up with a very simple solutions to the old 6v AM radio problem.. Eliminate the old radio box up under the dash, retain the original radio head and cables in the dash.. Purchase a inexpensive manual control AM/FM/CD radio, not one of the high end digital models... Mount the radio up under the dash, in approximately the original position.. Remove the knobs from the radio, modify the shafts so that the original shafts from the head will attach to the radio. Run the power supply from the original head to the new radio. Syncronize the dials/cables together.. The original radio controls the new radio, inserting a CD may be a little difficult depending on how the radio is mounted..
The whole conversion can be done for under a $100. and a few hours work...
 
Bill, when you do that modern radio conversion with the original radio head, can you get back to us with the results?
It'll be interesting to find out if it makes a difference in the fuel mileage. :rolleyes:
 
Blucar, I would like to do something like you are describing except I would rather gut the original radio box and mount a modern AM/FM, and maybe a CD player, inside the original box in its stock location. This would also use the original control head mounted in center of dash at least for the AM/FM. There was a guy posting here at one time (Al Corbin) who did this modification like I am suggesting, but probably cost more than the $100.00 you mention :).

Alan, I'm thinking with a modern AM/FM/CD player installed, the current draw on the system will be significantly less. By my extensive calculations, less load on the generator (= less loss/hp) during use of the radio/CD, equates to ~ 0.0000251 increase in the average MPG.:rolleyes:;):p
 
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A 39 Ford with 60 hp can get over 20 mpg going at speeds of 65-75---radio on, or off ---and it has a 4:44 rear, kept below 55 and it went over 25 mpg

Got 15-16 out of 46 1-1/2 ton truck with 2 ton load, next owner reported 15 mpg average on a 3 day coast to coast trip with an airplane hanging out the back---I doubt he was driving under 50, that had no radio, but did have 5:14 or so gears, stock 49 Merc engine.

There are radio conversions that use the original tuning /control system and are installed in the original case ----there is probably room in an original 35-36 radio box for a multi disc changer and the radio conversion ---I would think the original radio could be gutted out and a "modern" radio hooked to the original control with erecter set and speedo cable parts
 
Byron Warwick said:
I increased my fuel mileage from 14 mpg to about 17 or 18mph,just by switching from regular gasolineto mid grade. Running the standard rear end(4.11?). Byron.
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Dream on about getting a mileage improvement from switching to mid grade. The only improvement made was improved profit for the oil company.
 
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