my truck is really heavy with just the mods and then I tend to really over load it I put almost a ton of gavel in the bed several times hualed a 18' ski boat over the mountains and kept up with my buddies hualing their boats with super-duty fords and I had almost Identical milage!!! my vote is on the v6 its got as much power as a small v8 and is super reliable (a moter shoulded be going into passing gear just trying to haul its own wieght around) the v6 doent have to work as hard so I would think it should inherently last longer.
I drive a 92 ford escort to work it gets about 30 to the gallon. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />