How to make a 61 Starliner less of a gas guzzler....

A 1961 ford country sedan cost around $3000. and gas was .31 cents a gal. I was making $16 a day.. A house went for about $12k, same one today was $280k. My gran marquis gets 20 mpg on the hiway. Its all relative.

 

Put the tallest pair of cheater style tires out back, give it a cal rake and you sir, are Done!................

 

Why not grab a 4.6L OHV V-8, OD transmission, wiring harness and PCM out of a late model wrecking yard Mustang?

 

Trade it to me for my wifes Honda Civic.

 

I have a built 428 4-speed (2:93 rearend ratio) in my 1956 Ford Mainline Business Coupe. I get 16 MPG on the road. Gas mileage around town is another thing, 'cause I'm usually driving like a 62 year old teenage idiot. (wait a minute, I AM a teenage idiot, ...I've been this way since 1963).

 

Wow.... just an observation here.... but I read throug hthis whole thread and only one person mentioned a y-block. A lot of of newer model engines were mentioned. There was a time on the hamb when mentioning a sbc or sbf would get you laughed out of here. How things have changed.

 

A guy here in town has a 64 Ford with the 4.6 mod swap. I think his father has Painless Wiring or something to do with that company. I heard they used his car as a "buck" to make up the wiring harness. Probably could do such a thing with the 61 just as easily since the 64 is probably pretty similar electrically.
I'm a diehard FE man but I don't have anything against that swap, with a ratty exhaust system they sound so cool! I heard the coolest rackin' glasspack sound a while back and turned around expecting to see a hotrod of some type taking off and it was just a late model Crown Vic! Couldn't believe my ears.

 

Hmmm... a properly tuned carb can get fine gas mileage, the only advantage I have found with EFI is cold starting and ease of tuning. The biggest secret that I have found with trying to get a carb to get decent mileage is a good ignition system.

A good hot spark goes a long way in actually helping out. Electronic ignitions help out a bunch. I've been a fan of the MSD stuff for a while. I've been getting low teens with my 425 equipped Buick. And I drive the shit out of it.

I have better luck with Quadrajets and Carters/Edelbrocks on the street.

 

Certain 429s had Q-jets, oddly enough.

The 4300/4360 Motorcraft spreadbore pattern is interchangeable with nothing else. There were only 3 or 4 sets of jets for it...most of the tuning was done with metering rods, and I believe they are no longer available, though some places still have them.

Man, this is an old thread. Good info, though.

 

Starliner that gets good gas mileage??

Wanna buy some ocean front property in Nevada while you're at it?

 

take the motor and trans out, put some holes in the floor boards buy some new converse sneakers and you could call it the Flintstone Starliner

 

Think Kia just came out with a car called a soul. Could join the tuner crowd.

 

A friend of mine's got a '70 Torino 429 with a factory Q-jet.

 

I agree. Starliners were built when good gas was cheap (relatively) and were meant to be sporty, comfortable cruisers. Some were bad ass too...namely the 375 and 401hp 390s. Just do as 428Tbomb suggests, and be proud that you have such a desirable piece of Ford history. Anyhow, that's mho.

 

I know but the computer controlled stuff gets way better gas milage. I dont like computers and stuff but they just do. I cant help it.

 

what is way better? I only see a couple MPG difference at most between a EFI car and a well tuned carb car. Just for reference the 1949 Hudson with a straight 8 and 3 on the tree got 27 MPG. That was on shitty gas with points.

 

and, a 54 ford with a 223 six and a 3speed OD got close to 28...

dont give me that EFI is better shit... it just aint always so.

 

Why not a Y Block for the starliner, trad and range from 239 - 312 and sound and look great.

 

I agree with Malcolm. The EFI small block do pretty good.
My 55 F100, which is not the most aerodynamic truck gets 22 mpg. It has a 88 Crown Vic EFI 302 with AOD and a 8" out of a 66 Fairlane with 3.25 Ratio.

A good friend of mine's 56 gets 26mpg. Running a 4.6 engine and tranny out of a 91 Towncar.


Another one done by Ford Motorsports.

Engine Shot

One of my all time favorite cars. Scroll down the page and click the download button to read the full article. I doubt if it has problems pulling. I work in a salvage yard part-time. The 302's, 351's and 4.6 out of Grand dad's car can still be had reasonably priced. They havent been dogged out and put away wet in most cases. Give it some thought. Best wishes with whatever way you go.
http://www.superrod.com/ME2/Audienc...1F8E61&AudID=0CBB6B9BFBA748EA8B90D7672A976D29

 

Naw, it's not different. Unless you get all your parts and labor for free the money you save on better gas mileage will be eclipsed by the time and labor spent changing the drivetrain.

Now if you want to spend that money, 'cause you got it and want the challenge, great! But the economics of justifying it becasue of higher gas mileage just doesn't add up.

Reminds me of people who sell the car they own and buy a new car on credit to get better gas mileage and SAVE MONEY? WTF? Do the math.

This is the HAMB. Could we stop talking about increasing gas mileage?

 

Im sick and tired of all these european and overseas hambers bitching aboutwhat they pay for their fuel.

you cant even compare the 2 places. First of all, you have government paid public transportation. so you dont have to drive if you dont need too. 2nd the distances you people travel to get to a decent place is nothing compared to what we have here. I have to travel 300 Miles to get to my first town with over 100,000 People in it.

Cars a an damn near mandatory thing here. hell iun NDs biggest town, the MAT (metro area transit) is just getting its feet off the ground. and its funded by the people. not the government.

 

Simple solution:

Swap in a 5.0/aod out of a late 80's Grand Marquis or Crown Vic, which, in my opinion, are some of the most reliable, bulletproof cars that ever rolled out of detroit. We impound quite a few of them every year from ghetto apartment complexes, and they ALWAYS RUN. And I mean ALWAYS. There is a reason that these are the most popular cars for cabs and cop cars....they're reliable as a freakin' anvil.

You could probably buy a whole, running car for like 5 bones, have a bulletproof drivetrain that is quite comfortable pulling a 4000 lb car around & probably capable of running ANOTHER 100,000 miles without any problem, and still get money back scrapping the rest.

I had an 88 Grand Marquis back in the day that got like 20 to 22mpg on the highway.

Oh, by the way...you guys with your "the is the HAMB and we're so fucking hardcore we can't talk about gas mileage here".... you guys are sooooooo cool. You should all get together and congratulate each other.

 

The Mileage maker 6 with a 3 speed.

 

If you want milage buy a Honda and drive the Ford for fun. It will cost less than an engine swap and you can still open your hood with pride.

 

While some engines are natural gas guzzlers, gas mileage still depends on the driver. When I was much younger (quite a few ice cream seasons ago) I read an article about the Mobil Gas Economy Run in a Motor Trend magazine. The article went into depth about tricks the drivers did to get good gas mileage. They did such things as coasting down hills with the engine shut off, shutting the engine off at stoplights, and even went so far as to drive barefooted to better feel the gas pedal. But there was one other simple trick that stuck out in the article. I tried it and it works.

The drivers trained by using a vacuum guage plumbed directly to the intake manifold and mounted in the interior on the dash. A vacuum guage will show the slightest movement of the gas pedal as you are driving. While driving with the guage in plain view you try to keep the needle at its highest reading. It does not take long to learn how to feather the throttle on take off and at cruising speed. A one hour trip with a vacuum gauge temporarily hooked up will teach you how to get better gas mileage. The lesson learned will stay with you the rest of your driving career.

 

Heck, my 63 Bird gets 16 on the road with nothing but a change to a new Edelbrock carb. Need to take into account how much it will cost extra to get 4 to 6 mpg better and how much driving you will have to do to pay for the upgrade! I like the old motors in the old cars. I will be rebuilding my 390 soon and wouldn't think of changing to late drive train. My .02

 

to get mileage with a carbureted engine, get a good ign system, go .080 on plug gap to ignite the lean mixture, lean it out and give it massive amounts of ign advance, advance to just before it pings

i did pull 17.something on 355 chev running 2800 RPM on a trip to FL it suffers a HP loss from being lean, you got most of this old stuff to point of mileage it does not have much power and can sometimes suffer driveability, been doing this mileage tinkering seince 1968 then it was easy ,just put the guts of a 55 chev carb in a 307, of coures now we have much better ign. systems
actually the 302 either carbed or injected will be a good deal and the AOD is good to keep the engine RPM down, got a 5.0 in my model A anxiously waiting to tinker with that one when it hits the road

 

I time all of my trips in strict accordance to the rotation of the earth and it's tilt on it's axis. Now all of my trips are downhill no matter where I'm going and my mileage has increased tenfold. Sometimes I don't even actually start the car. I just roll down the window and make loud "Vvrroooom" noises as a I coast wildly.

If I really need gas, I siphon it out of my neighbors patrol car. My taxes pay for it so I don't think it's really stealing. I also steal food out of his refrigerator while I'm there though and I'm pretty sure that IS illegal.

Run the big block. Whatever it costs is simply enjoyment tax.

 

OK- let's just call it "volumetric efficiency" since everyone's so offended by discussing fuel mileage. It's about keeping the motor in that "sweet spot" where it's making the most amount of torque at the lowest cfm. It's mostly about gearing- OTR trucks have 15 and 20 speed transmissions for a reason.

I think common sense applies here:
Late model 5.0 with electronic ignition and fuel injection. Some kind of overdrive transmission with a steep first gear and an overdriven top gear (t-5, AOD), and a high 2-series gearset in the axle (maybe 3.00 for a heavy car).

The most important difference between big and small blocks isn't just displacement- A "Big Block" motor will typically flow more air at any given RPM than a small block per same displacement. The cylinder heads have larger volumes: bigger intake/exhaust runners and bigger combustion chambers. Cam grinds for BB motors always have significantly more valve lift.
Your common sense should tell you that a smaller is better in this case- as in the smaller primary venturi's on a spread bore carburetor.

 

You are reporting on gas mileage, so I'll assume that it is a runner, and that you have actually accumulated enough miles on to know the mileage, and of any engine, or drivability problems?
I say that because a lot of these older "collector" cars often set for months, or even years, of infrequent use, and cannot really be accurately judged without first racking up a few thousand miles in regular daily use. If it stands up to this, and everything checks out good, and gas mileage is the only real complaint.
Then it's best to just learn to love it for what it is, love that FE. Why give up all of that cool tradition, and that class just to gain a couple of lousy miles per-gallon?
It would take enduring decades of reduced performance to recover the cost of an engine swap through gas savings, Plus it will make the car so much less desirable to those who actually want a '61 big-block Starliner.
Just not a good platform to try to make over into a cheap-ass economy car, I'm sure you could sell it to someone who would appreciate owning it even at 10 mpg, then you could use the money to buy yourself something really economical like a '61 Falcon 170, or a '91 Festiva.

Seriously though, swapping in an o/d trans, with around a 3.50 rear gear, Pertronix ignition, and a modern 500 cfm carb, along with a few of the other mileage tweaks mentioned, will give you better performance along with increasing the gas mileage.
The car is already quite rare, in a decade or two, -someone- will certainly rue the day that it was deprived of that good 'ol FE.
Even now, I hang my head in sorrow, on even hearing of such an idea.