How's your MPG?

Discussion in 'Fuel Economy & Emissions' started by Stormin' Norman, Aug 12, 2008.

  1. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    There are many types of fan clutches. Make sure you get one for your engine. They are made to let the fan free wheel to save fuel and not over cool. Mostly they are made to cool not look Kool.

    Don't believe everything you read in the speed parts catalogs or the internet. Parts companies are there to make money. The internet is made to confuse people or maybe the other way around!:slap:

    Then again your local autoparts store has counter persons working there because they hate working in fast food places. Not because they know about car parts.
    Be careful when you order a clutch fan, fuel injector, or burger.
     
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  2. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    Thanks.

    ModelT1, inaccurate car parts? Sounds just like a "cold air intake" that sucks in air from the engine bay instead of from outside the vehicle.
     
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  3. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    Well that sure sucks!
    My son put one of those cone air intake setups on my Dodge hemi truck. The chromed plastic intake tubes replaced all of the bulky original box and air cleaner. At first the cone fell short of going next to the radiator where it would get fresh inlet air. So for awhile it was a hot air intake.
    By the time we got it done right the Hemi went from 14-15 MPG to something like 17-18 MPG. Not great but it also seemed peppier.:chirp:
    So the better running engine made it tempting to get on it more which seemed to lower the fuel mileage again. (?) A truck sounding like a Kirby sweeper was more fun than a quiet one. Still, on the highway it did fairly well. If I'd wanted MPG I'd bought a Subaru !:rofl2:
     
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  4. Grizz

    Grizz Are we there yet???

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    I've thought about doing the k&n air filter for that very reason as well. The air box and all its components take up the entire right side of the engine bay. I just can't work my self up to forking over the cash
     
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  5. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    We got a fake K & N set up at our local Florida Advance Discount Auto. I remember when they were just Discount Auto. Apparently Mr Advance joined in.

    It really did look roomier in the Dodge truck without all that plastic just for a square air cleaner. There's the main problem. Air doesn't like bouncing off square corners. Air cleaners have always been round!

    I'm not even sure my Impala has an engine. All I can see is a bigger plastic box.
     
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  6. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    At least you could tell what's what in older vehicles.

    [​IMG]

    Sure, it wasn't powerful and you could have gotten hurt bad by the fan. I know that spark plugs and engines, oil and filtration got vastly better for longevity since 1945 but the old engines were also vastly simpler to work on.

    2017 (may not apply to all makes and models: ) Jack up engine to get at some spark plugs.
     
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  7. Grizz

    Grizz Are we there yet???

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    Hahahahaha. My wife got free tickets to a car show downtown at the new convention center. I thought it was going to be classic cars but it was just the new models for that year. Maybe 2015. I told her well we're here I'll just go check out the new corvettes and camaro and we'll go. They had two camaros a green one and a red. I walk up and here's these two fellows staring at the open engine bays. I stood there while and finally said "what are we looking at here guys?! I guess I like the green engine cover."There was nothing to see no fans, air cleaners, alternators, nothing. Then you got some of these high end foreign jobs where you need a special tool just to take the plastic engine cover off! What have we been refined to?!
     
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  8. 69wag

    69wag Member

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    I get 10 on the highway and about 6 around town. 1000 cfm hp holley. thirsty bitch and likes the good stuff. that's a Canadian gallon by the way.
     
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  9. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    Great (sarcastic,) well that might be what you get when people are too lazy to look in the manual and then they put antifreeze in the transmission, brake fluid in the crankcase or power steering fluid in the master cylinder.

    OTOH, maybe they made it more complicated for money again; Synthetic oils have come a long way since the 70s, after all. I looked under the hood of a current year or recent year Cadillac and I literally couldn't tell you where the oil fill was without looking in the book. I did see the coolant fills though. I wonder what the Cubans think of this, seeing how their car culture is.
     
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  10. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    My first car, 1949 Dodge engine bay looked much like this, minus that modern alterator. The fan was more in the open. This appears to have a fan shroud added. I could be wrong. Of course this engine bay is a pick up truck.
    Most smart shade tree mechanics only got hurt bad by the fan ONCE.
    It was always fun cleaning and changing the air cleaner oil bath filter and pulling the oil filter out for a new one without getting oil everywhere. (Maybe new is better!)
    It had two large trumpet looking horns in place of that one. I'm fairly certain the same six was used many years. With a Fluid drive tranny it was a little faster than riding my bicycle to school.

    As far as MPG I have no idea and I drove in a lot in town back then.

    Look Andrew, ground wires on the goose neck. Cheap plastic wire connectors and an inline fuel filter.
     
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  11. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    There's a 41 Dodge Truck in the garage here, I still don't have the title for it but it looks a lot like that 46. I would say the 46 pictured above does have a partial fan shroud added. Strangely enough though, the 41 has no oil filter. It's not the original engine and the Straight 6 was made for decades, particularly for farm equipment, so maybe whoever bought it got it from some farm.

    On the air filter, I was just monkeying with the filter in the 41 a little to get familiar with the truck then the oil spilled all over my hand.

    Somehow I feel like that old engine would fire up fairly easily if I tried working with it. Then again, the oil smelled like gas so it probably has severe blow-by.
     
  12. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    Also maybe a bad fuel pump.
    Those old Dodge trucks look nice. You need to get it running and legal. A lot of early engines had no oil filter.
    I was always amazed at all the butterflies and other bugs in the oil bath. Just imagine driving in dirty fields and on gravel roads with no oil filter or maybe no air cleaner. No wonder the engines didn't last long.
     
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  13. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    I have had dreams of driving it legally. One dream showed me how bad the original brakes would be, I personally have no experience driving one but that same dream of just driving it in the Walmart parking lot? Wow.

    I'm imagining the same thing for old Model Ts; after all, oil filters weren't (to my knowledge) invented until 1923 (the same year as Marvel Mystery Oil, interestingly enough?) and it seems as though oil filters weren't standard on all cars until the 1950s.
     
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  14. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    Driving anything old in a Walmart parking lot could be dangerous. If someone backing out at 30 MPH don't get you a stray mobile shopping cart could.

    I've used Marvel Mystery oil for years. An ounce in the gas tank of my old Harley panhead kept the clicking sound out at higher speeds. Helped make older engines smooth again.
    It was first used in carburaters to clean the jets and engine carbon.
    I don't remember Fords having oil filters until after the early V-8's. I'm thinking even the early Chevy 265 didn't have an oil filter.
     
  15. 101Volts

    101Volts Well-Known Member

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    I think they would have to worry about the structural integrity of their cars more than I would of that 41 Dodge though, assuming they hit me head-on at 10 MPH.

    I haven't tried MMO for anything yet, I thought it might be useful for older engines however; if I ever get the Dodge running I might use it for the fuel.

    On other fuel additives:

    I bought a gallon of RLI (Renewable Lubricants; a vegetable based lubricant, including motor oil, company) Injector Cleaner and I've been using an ounce of that at each fill for the 01 Impala (with a 3.4 V6 engine) since we got it, I don't know if it did much to keep them clean and maybe they were clean already; we did get it just over 33k after it sat a long time.

    I also used Amsoil P.I. (Performance Improver) a few times and it may be best for injectors; it didn't seem to do much of anything in the carbureted Caprice when we had it. After I used P.I. in the 01 Impala about 1,600 miles ago we got the best fuel economy I've ever seen in that car: 33-34 for the first 2 tanks; I thought "What? Are you kidding me?" when I saw it the first time. Granted, 100 miles on each tank were long distance trips but the efficiency was surprising; the car's rated by the EPA to get 32, not 33, HWY. I don't think all of that efficiency's from the fuel additive though since I'm using a synthetic 5w30 oil but wow, does better fuel atomization mean THAT much of an improvement?
     

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