Gas mileage with early 60s mopar 361?

Hey guys, what kind of gas mileage, in town and hwy, are you getting with your early 60s 361, 2bbl, non-hemi? Looking for comparable figures for a 61 Newport.

thx

 

I seem to recall we got about 12 avg with our 67 plymouth with the 2bbl 383, which is pretty much the same engine.

 

is that a mix of hwy and in town? I've seen posts of hi teens on long hwy rides.

 

We never got anywhere near hi teens with that car.

 

I used to drive a 7 ton Dodge truck with a 361, 5 speed with 2 speed diff and it usually got between 3.3 to 3.5 mpg on a flat plain country trip. Those figures I will never forget. The Government was paying for the fuel, glad I wasnt.

 

I used to get very near 20 mpg on the highway with my 1966 Sattelite with a 361 and a 4-barrel vacuum secondary Holley, I never checked in town mileage. None of my many 383's ever got more than 15 mpg.

 

Several years ago, I checked the mileage on my 64 Fury in my avatar. I was getting about 14MPG. It still had the original 2 bbl carb and single exhaust. And I had not gotten around to do a tune up, because it was running fine.

 

12 MPG in my granny's Chrysler - it was a 61 or 62. 8 around town with the AC blasting. Gas was cheap though.

Three main factors I can think of go into this sort of question - how much energy is produced from burning the gas (how efficient the heads are, etc), how much parasitic loss from internal/external friction (includes engine-driven accessories), and how much you are pushing around (and "pushing" includes weight and air resistance from the car body).

The 361 is probably not that much less efficient than other similar sized engines from the era, but may be a little? If you went out of your way to set up engines of exactly the same displacement: for example start with a Mopar 361, .050-over Ford 351, and .060-over Chevy 350, and set them up the same (same compression, rings, bearings, carb, intake, exhaust, cam, porting, etc.) I don't know who would win an economy test. My guess is that there wouldn't be a ton of difference.

 

A 361 will get better mileage than a same-year 352 Ford (Big surprise!) and about the same as a 348 Chev. Of course, a 318 or 283 will top the big blocks, but not by a whole lot. Those `60`s cruisers were built for comfort, not economy!
Had 361`s, 383`s, and 413`s, and later 440`s. Never noticed much diff in gas burning rate when driven easy. 18 Canadian, which is, what, 14 US or so.

 

gear ratio in the rearend probably plays into too. If you got a car with 2.76 gears you'd probably do better on the highway than if you had 3.23 or 3.55 gears

 

Why? Do you expect it to get good mileage?

 

I'd say my '62 880 with the 2bbl 361 gets about 12-14, its hard to keep track as the gas gauge kinda floats around so I don't know exactly when its empty. Also my tires are slightly smaller than stock so the speedo is reading faster than it should.

 

Sorry, I was buried the past few days and couldn't check any of the posts. Thanks for the discussion, it's all very informative. The reason I'm asking is just to get a sense of what I'm looking at mileage-wise. In the teens is what it's looking like, which is about what a 95 Toyota forerunner with auto will get - manageable for a weekend/non daily driver. Plus, the feel and deatil of a big satellite-sled like this is enough to make up for the lost economy, especially since it won't be a daily driver.

Now, I said I'd be putting up some posts; my next one will be on the best route to install seatbelts F/R. Cruising will have to accommodate the kiddos....

thx, Nathan