Start with an LT1 350, put a carb'd intake on it and live with the optispark via a standalone controller, they're down low up front and not real noticable anyway. Head design is very efficient to start with, plus good compression (compression = efficiency), and roller valvetrain. Other than the opti & intake, they bolt in like a gen 1 small block. FWIW the block does have a hole, and the cam has a drive gear for a stump that drives the oil pump, so a traditional distributor is a drilled intake hole away from reality. Wanna get extra good mileage? Start with the baby lt1, 4.3L V8 with LT1 architecture. Came in 50% of 94-96 caprices. They make better power than a 5.3 ford or traditional 305. Do the same as above with a small carburetor and don't be suprised to tickle 30.
Why not run an EFI setup with a nice overdrive?? seems to me the injection gets better mileage than a carb. I know it's blasphemy but if you aren't going for traditional.....who cares???
Injection itself does not get better mileage than a carb. It requires less maintenance and can be programmed to work just right under almost all driving conditions....that's why it's on newer cars.
just my 2 cents but a 5.3 out of a newer chev truck, all aluminum, something like 300 horse, enough torque to cruise at a low rpm on the highway. Buy the stand alone controller and a carb or run the injection. You'd probably get the tranny with the donor engine, so 4L60E overdrive. They are cheap and plentiful, should get great mileage, and are lightweight.
This is almost exactly the way I was thinking. I was just hoping to get a few examples of some guys on here running something similar to a Model A with a few different combos.
I'm not sure what the combo will do, but a SBC w/ the overdrive 200r4 or 700r4 and a rear end w/ 3:07 or so gearing. The car will launch very similar to a car w/ a TH350 and a higher speed rear end (3:73 or so), but will get much better gas mileage. Check Bowtie Overdrive website.... Add a fuel injection system and it should purr... I am curious however, at how the combo will do on the highway in a passing situation... Time will tell.
That's almost exactly what I did, (I did add a second carb, with the progressive linkage). Only mine runs 1200 at 55mph and I love it.
....lightweight 2.0L Ecotech turbo motor like a Solstice or HHR SS (my commuter)......TKO 5 speed and 3.25:1 rear end gears. That 2.0L 4 banger has torque at 2000 rpm and it's already making boost (twin-scroll turbo) at that low rpm. I think 40 mpg is not out of the question.....hell, my portly HHR SS gets 27-28, a roadster weighing in almost 1000 lbs less would have to do very well. I guess it's a matter of how high tech ya wanna get.
my 87 cuttlas 307 olds factory roller cam , old rebuilt q-jet ,hei with a super coil, 2004r, and 2:41 rear end got 22mpg on a 250 mile leg of the 08 hotrdpower tour. later i got 23 on another trip gets around 19 to 20 in town.
The 225 slant six in my 67 dodge utiline will get 22 around town, and 29 or so on the hwy. The two barrell on it works well, and I have adjusted it some, to keep the bowl full at higher rpm's while on the hwy. It cruises about 65-70 mph and still has enough punch to get in the passing lane. I would like to, in the future work on a Ford 300 str8 six. They are bomber, and run forever. As for mentioning a "p,p,p,p,p,prius"i can barely say it, i'll stop there.........i said "e,e,e,e,e,enough" I think i'm gonna be sick now..........
played around a bit in the late 70's early 80's with our 55 daily driver. Was a 327, 65 Vette intake, flattops, and a Carter AFB with a power glide and 3:36 rear. Tried alot of different cams (Comp. 260, Crane 266, Isky as well)and carbs but the best mileage and performance was with a Sig TQ 20 cam and the Carter. Wife drove it like this for 5 years--on long trips it would get 20 and sometimes 21 MPG. Still have the car, freshed the motor, new cam (Sig TQ 20 specs on intake and TQ 30 specs on ex.) added 700r and 12 bolt with 3:30 range rear. Runs way less R's at speed but mileage is no better, maybe not as good. Same experience on a 40 Ford with a 327, mild cam, 3:00 gears and a 27" tire. Put in a 200R and with no other changes mileage on the road actually went down a little. Seems the 327 likes a little more RPM for optimum efficiency. Also think that the early 462 head with 1:94 intakes and the early (65-66) 327 HIPO alum. intake have smaller runners than the aftermarket and late model stuff and create more velocity to the fuel mix where you really run most of the time. Also gives very good midrange punch again I think due to the velocity
Your old '67 Chevelle wagon is knocking down 20-plus mpg with a 545-horse 383. You know the deal- if you want to maximize MPG, go efi on that mild motor, and gear it right to run down the freeway at the lowest rpm the cam is effective. With a mild motor, that could be 1,500-1,800 rpm in O/D. In a lighweight roadster, you should easily be able to get around 30 mpg on the freeway, and near 20 around town. If you go Ecotec, go for the turbo version...! Back it with a stick and the car would be a riot to drive past 5,000 rpm, and still deliver 30 mpg. I hope all is well with you and yours Amigo! PM a guy once in awhile, would ya? ~Scotch~
Surprisingly, this is exactly what I have done for my 57' Poncho. U am running a lightly modded L03 305 in my car with a TH700R4 and a 3.36 rear end. 70mph is about 1800rpm. The L03 is a 9.3:1 compression motor with 416 heads, and the old 327-300hp cam in it for more torque. Funny thing is that it is a 1 piece rear main seal roller cam block, but has perimeter bolt valve cover heads, and a flat tappet cam because mine is a GM crate motor. These were rated at 180hp originally. I have lightly modded mine with rams horns, 2" full length dual exhaust with glass packs, 66' 327 intake with a Q-jet, a modded 85' MV4E q-jet from the caprice I took this engine out of, and pretty much no emissions. I figure it is around 200hp now. Last week before the needle and seat on the carb started acting up, I was getting 27-28mpg on the highway with it. Thing runs great and has plenty of umph to get this old beast rolling.
I never see anyone running a Predator carb, I guess theyre not "traditional enough"? In the '35 Ford, Predator carb'd 4-71 blown 350, pushing about 7lbs of boost (I'd guess hp is in the mid 500's to low 600's) backed up by a T-56 (hooray for double overdrive) and 4.56's and I think its gotten upwards of 25mpg. It'll run 60mph+ at idle. A few months ago we topped off the 22 gallon gas tank and headed towards Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a car show on Sat. Morning. After the end of the 2nd day (sunday night), we went topped her off after we got home and it only took 3 gallons for 60 - 70 miles of driving. We run VP110 if that means anything.
I drove my car from OKC to Dallas and back and averaged 13.97 mpg. I was tickled pink to get that. The engine is a 440 with 9:1 compression, 400 ponies, maybe a bit more, 3:55 gears and a Keisler 5-speed transmission. The engine turned 2100 rpm at 70 mph.<O</O Heres and interesting article about the Prius Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage By Chris Demorro The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate green car is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer. <O</O Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius. <O</O The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right? <O</O You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Priuss EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs. <O</O However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldnt be writing this article. It gets much worse. <O</O Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the dead zone around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles. <O</O The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalists nightmare. <O</O The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside, said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper. <O</O All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesnt end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce nickel foam. From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce? <O</O Wait, I havent even got to the best part yet. When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Priuss arch nemesis. <O</O Through a study by CNW Marketing called Dust to Dust, the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid. The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it. So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot. One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.<O</O
LOL, got 58 mpg with my 95 geo metro xfi. After 115,000 miles It got totaled and I lived to tell about it Great little 3 cyl. I thought it would be kind of neat to link side by side 2 metro 3 cylinder engines combined with a clutch that could kick out the other engine for highway use mileage. So I'm a little wierd-I admit it!
I used 3.8L to a gallon. Caprices were known to get 24-25mpg stock, and with no emmissions equipment, lighter car, and much less parasitic drag, it seems to have bumped up the milage a tad. My Exploder gets about 21mpg on the highway and this car easily beats it in milage. If I go above 70mph, then the gas milage drops like a stone.
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