Ian made me reply to this. Yes the superbowl is on. I had the Trutrac installed spring of last year. I got a 9c1 rear end from the boneyard and new axles and brake parts online. Then loaded it all up in the back of the 91 RMW and Jess followed me out to Dayton. Mikey Harris did the install, and a mighty fine job he did too. I was going to help him, but he insisted we take the weekend to do some sightseeing. Babied it the whole way home before beating on it, quiet as could be no gear noise at all. The first time I romped on it, it caught both of us by suprise. I was coming off an entrance ramp rolling about 35 and I floored it. It downshifted and lost traction (sticky Kumho summer tires too). I let off a bit and got back on it, then the 1-2 shift was enough to make Jess's head smack off the headrest. I can't wait to autocross it or do some road racing. Thats where the gear based LSD's are really supposed to shine.. </thread hijack>
Yeah, the car smelled horribly of gear oil for days and the roadtrip was horrible for me driving my 91 wagon (Smurfy)
Well Martin, with the 455, 350 turbo and 3:42's, 28" tall rear tires get 11 mpg in town, on the highway, and 10 to 11 towing the Airstream. With the 3:90's I drop half a mpg across the board. I'm swapping out the original rear diff for an 8-3/4 with 3:55's before the spring cruising so it will likely hover in the same mpg range but will be interesting to track it. Two of our buddies we towed with where we did a mileage check got as follows: 55 BelAir hdt, 454, 700R4, 3:42, don't know tire/wheel size but I think 26" got 9 mpg pulling a 26' trailer. 35 Ford Fordor, 350/350, 3:23, 28" tire to 12 pulling a 17' trailer. Same fellow also has a '54 Ford wagon, 390, C6, 3:00, 26" tire and he gets 14/15 towing the same 17' trailer, and his non-towing mpg is in the higher teens (I hate that). I really would like to get better mileage but in reality we don't track it often, only when we are towing with others who are so we end up doing the same. Usually it is more the $ difference to fill since we all use the same grade of gas and fill up at the same time. We just know we want to go somewhere and it's going to cost some money to get there and oh well...... If I can make it cost less then fine but for us it is do we really want to make the trip and if so we figure we are saving enough loot using the trailer versus moteling so great, let's do it. I must admit though, when my '05 4x4 truck gets mid 20's doing the same thing I get the thought that I should be putting one of those powertrains in the wagon and that may yet come to pass.
I get about 10 on the highway, squeezed out 12 once! In town I've noticed it's pretty inconsistent (all depends on speed, traffic, lights, ect...) but I get from 3-8 mpg... If I drive it a little hard, it's more like 3-4... Towing though I don't really lose much mileage. We used to tow a 68 Mascot 17' camper, load it up with luggage for 5 and about 1 ton of toy trains. Never really was any worse than driving without it, except stop and go uphill... That lowers mpg REAL fast, like a worst of 1-2 gpm... I agree with the thought of, I want to go here and it'll cost money so I'll spend it. But, I also have other cars like my dad's 60 plymouth which gets nealy 30 mpg highway/low 20's city, my cutlass and even my dad's t/a get better mileage than the wagon. So unless its a long distance haul, we can take the others, and the wagon only comes out when I can afford it. Being in high school with no job (trying to fix that) a 20 gallon tank of fuel at $4 a gallon adds up fast when it only gets you to 3 or 4 cruise nights. I do love driving her though, and during the summer I try to take her out at least once a week. Last summer didn't work out that way, but this summer I'm hoping for more.
For a long time I had a 389 with tri-power in the car and got great mileage - high teens mostly. I honestly can't figure out why I sold that. I have a spare intake so just need to round up the carbs and swap that on and see if that makes a difference. As much though for appearance as the mileage although as you say, with fuel at 4 bucks a gallon, up here that's like over 5, it may make sense. We'll slam a lot of miles on the car this summer but won't even think about swapping out carburetion/manifold until next winter. I still think those folks with the Prius' are great for the rest of us. They leave us more fuel to play with.
Yep. My daily gets high 20's city and low 40's highway, it's a 91 acclaim. I drive that daily so I can afford to drive the others when I want to. But I couldn't see a $30k car note being worth the fuel savings... The payments negate the savings. And how long would that prius last? My daily is 19 years old, and in that time has gotten an exhaust and otherwise just maintenance. I got it for free from my grandma so long as it's taken care of, which I do. 3x2 bbls may save fuel for a good reason. I know on mopars it's a small 350 cfm center carb that you run off of, and then you have 2 500 cfm carbs to open up over 1/2 throttle. So under normal driving you save fuel because you are feeding off a tiny 350cfm carb. On the same note, on a single 2bbl setup, you get better mileage with a small 4bbl, because it will run off the 2 small bbls of the 4 instead of having to ALWAYS run off the 2 big bbls of the 2bbl. The 4bbl's primaries are designed for economy, and the secondaries are not, whereas the a 2bbl is an attempt at a happy medium. Anyway, hopefully we don't go back to prices where they were 2 years ago. I was paying $5.60-$5.80 a gallon of premium. That wasn't fun, last year I'm pretty sure we stayed in the low $4's. Why can't we have winter prices all year long, last winter(maybe 2 winters ago?) we had $1.90 a gallon of premium! For a very short period of course...
Oh, if it only worked out that way. My 6bbl 440 gets about 11mpg, at best. The good thing is romping on it, it only goes down to about 7-9mpg. LOL
My '67 326 averages about 15.. Not bad. The 70 455 gets about 10. Worth every penny. The mpgs aren't great but the Smiles Per Gallon are!
Anybody ever see the video of the English guy who has that show about cars? He was driving one of those amazingly fast two seaters, (I forget the name of it, but they're supposed to be mind blowingly fast.) Anyway, he's driving it and his face gets hilariously distorted from the wind and g forces. I'll see if I can find it.