Like in the '70's, putting small econo motors in cool rod will be a fad. Big block anything or built to death small blocks or full race flatties are here to stay!! Joel
Ok...the lil womans 95 T/A with the LT1 and 4L60E gets like 26mpg at 80-85mph and the AC runnin. I also know for a fact that it drops into OD at 135mph on the speedometer. So if that get-up, all stock right down to the single exhaust, was stuffed in a kool ride what could someone expect? I'd have to say the same thing. And going on long trips would be the cat's ass, wouldn't it? Put that in some low slung 40's ride all covered in exterior tradition...or under the hood of a 30's Ford street rod...or how about nestled in the rails of a 54 chopped and sectioned Bel Air? That is if you care about mileage on your hot rod.
I wasn't born yet.. maybe I should say thank god.. don't know about those pants.. speaking of fuel economy I know this may hurt a few eyes.. maybe not many but yeah.. Nissan RB26 Turbo..
Damn, its all relative. When gas was $1.25 to $1.50 a gallon a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk were both under a buck- both are over 4 bucks today. Yeah, there's no cheap alternative for gas- but it's simple inflation. When my dad was payin' $1.50 to run his new Ford big-blocks and get 8mpg (25-30 years ago) he was actually spending MORE money than I do to get 22mpg with my new Hemi powered truck. Something to think about.
The price of gas going up just about double in three years isn't inflation, it's we need to nuke Opec back to the stone age and cut this crap permanently. Or, slightly more realistically, drill for oil in thr Gulf and Alaska. Why slightly? It may require nuking Washington to eliminate all the politicians against that. Anyhow, my old '60 Pontiac would pull close to 20 MPG out of a 389 with a 2-barrel and a hydramatic. If you put it in a lighter car, gave it an overdrive 5th gear - make it a manual so the motor has still more power - I wouldn't be surprised if you had a car that would really haul ass and still get close to 30 MPG, with no fancy electronics and no giving up cubic inches. I did give up power steering and of course no AC, but I sill loved driving the car. Seems to me the Mobilgas economy run was won in '60 by a Pontiac with the low-compression motor and a manual trans (and in '61 Chrysler got it with a 361-powered Newport). That's why if I get this A pickup I'll build it with a small V8 and run an overdrive trans, although if no good small V8s turn up the '60 motor may get put back to work in it for a while instead.
I love doughnuts, I have lots of whitewalls and numerous gas guzzling fire breathing V8 monsters and thank God no Nissan bee in a bucket sounding 4 cyl.
on the topic.. I did see a rod run @ IRP a couple years ago with a grand national motor.. now that was cool.
the ONLY reason I thought of putting a 4cylinder engine in my rod was so I could afford to drive it around North America.If I was just putting around it would be a V8. I'm on DB and can only work part-time so money is the issue.
To beat a dead horse and make an obvious point, a junkyard SBC or something similar is a few hundred bucks. If you stay clear of fuel injection, computers etc the money you save by using a simple setup will sure buy a good deal of fuel.
It all depends on what circles you hang in. People who can afford $100,000 + street rods are gonna pay the extra bucks to play with their vroom-vroom toy. An average joe who can barely afford to participate in the hobby, it might affect. few long distance trips to shows or de-tune thier hot rods.....smaller cam and less compression so you can burn 87 octane or maybe a stock EFI V8 or something even smaller. My firetruck project is gonna get mothballed even longer. Even with "cheap gas" it was lookin' like it was gonna be gonna be difficult to feed 1,790 cubic inches of V-12 .....no way in hell now.
It seems to me that most peoples hotrods are more of a toy than a daily driver anyway. So for most it's probably not a big enough difference to even worry about the economy of it. That said, gearing and overdrive can = good milage in a hot V8 ride.
Haha! Just think Mini-vans w/side pipes, hood scoops, shag carpeting w/ pot smoke scent and naked women/eagles/dragons painted on the sides.
theres a guy around desmoines w/ a t-pickup and he is runing a ford pushrod 3.0l he made his own intake and installed a small 4v and also made a points dizzi fom a ford i-6 fit the v6 hes got some lakes headers on it perty fricin sweet he said it will keep up with a sbc!! the motor tranny and rear end are out of a late model ranger
Our gas here is a around 99p a litre thats nearly 5 quid a gallon approx $9 a gallon so were used to it ,most of the money is tax.....
Hang on a minute...... what about us Limeys? Thanks to an eco-obsessed government (which also has no understanding of any types of cars) we are paying around £5 per gallon - aand of that price around 95 percent is tax!
I'm gonna just keep driving my 390 powered Ranchero daily driver until either it or me jus' cain't go no mo'.
Four bangers and sixes can be fun, but with the od transmissions, the right gears and a well tuned engine theres no reason you can't get 20 to 30 miles per gallon and still be plenty fast, and I no it's not too popular here but fuel injection can do a hell of a lot for milage too.
The Jalopy Journal
