How's your MPG?

I don't think it is weird at all. You own and care for a piece of history. One you worked really hard for.

 

True that my friend...very true.

 

My Impala has been getting about 15-ish (city/highway). We just moved though, and she only got about 11 during the trip... but, she was REALLY heavily loaded down, so it was about what I expected.

 

After 3 months with "Ruby" (don't laugh, my kids named the car. The last one was called "Rainbow"!) consumption is steady at 19 USMPG or 12.3L/100kms under my wife's boot. We live on the side of a hinterland range so that's pretty respectable. Under my boot (only drive it on weekends) we get closer to 17.....

P.S. That Satellite is mad! I loveit.

 

That's a nice looking wagon. You wife wears boots?
Our son has a Mackaw named Ruby.
I feel badly, everyone names their cars but me! I just call mine CAR or WAGON. Sometimes things I can't put here!

 

Boots? Depends if I've been naughty......

Thanks for the compliment though. I thoroughly love it though I yearn for something a little less.... erm safe??? This wagon is fast enough, but I want something with a little more classic leanings. Not quite there yet, just a few more things to buy before I can get a resto to lose sleep over.

 

Don't know if this is Mr or Mrs mikmak but when my wife is naughty she wears boots! I always thought cowgirls wore boots. Nite!She's giving me the boot right now!

 

Thanks for the compliment about my green baby!

 

Dewey, how high can you lift that wagon? Like what's your total ground clearance if you want to crawl under there and do some work?

 

Cat, here she is with her skirt up all the way. Under the rocker it measures about 10" from here getting on ramps or a jack underneath is pretty easy.

 

Looks great up or down. That is pretty good clearance all the way up. Wish I could get it up that far!
My old wagon is just on springs and it is too low to really crawl under far. Barely clears my ramps.

 

When I had her non-adjustable I had the same problem, I either had to put 2 x 4's on the ramp approach or do the two jack shuffle. I have a low profile jack but its only a 2 ton, so I always felt sketchy about putting the weight of this monster on it.

 

I'm finally down to fine-tuning my '67 Coronet Deluxe wagon after fixing/updating a lot of the major stuff on the engine. After having my distributor recurved and replacing my nigh-untunable 2 barrel BBD with a 4 barrel and a standard Performer intake with a Summit 6900 camshaft, I'm getting a fairly solid 14 miles per gallon out of my 105,000 mile 318. I'm not terribly happy with it but it's better than the 11 or 12 I started out with when I bought the car. And lordy does it go fast now!
The carburetor is a Carter AVS off of a '71 New Yorker 440 - I'm hoping I can lean out the cruise stage a good bit to get up to 16 or 17 mpg highway at least. People brag about getting high 20-something miles per gallon in their 318 cars with 3.55 gears in the back, I can't be losing that much economy just to aerodynamics...

 

Your intake and cam choices were wisely selected. The carb, however, is far from ideal. It's too big and too old. The primaries are quite large, and the overall carb sized for a 440 is too much for a mild 318. And who knows how worn out the carb is? To tune it, you'll need to find a Carter AVS carb tuning kit with various jets and rods. They are both unique for the AVS, so good luck with that. I would suggest a 500 cfm AFB-style carb instead, either the original Carter or the newer Edelbrock. They are simple and efficient. Get electric choke, so much smoother. You could also try to find a Thermoquad for a 318 or 360, if you are comfortable with them. They are superb carbs, but are more complicated.

In the mean time, ensure that your floats are set correctly, and that the idle mix isn't overly rich. Don't try to loosen the AVS secondary air valve torsion spring, it'll only create a bog.

PS Can you give us the details of how the distributor was re-curved? What was done?

 

It's a 625cfm 4966S with 1 7/16" primary bores, not the bigger hi-po version. I've also got some flat-top covers from an AFB so I can just use Edelbrock jets/rods/springs as others have done. I've rebuilt it and it's in good shape inside. Though with the price of a strip kit I may just resell it and buy a newer Edelbrock at this rate. I had wanted to take advantage of the AVS functionality on the cheap by getting an old original AVS but that was somewhat short-sighted.
The distributor was recurved by Don at FBO - I didn't have much mechanical advance in it at all as it was set up initially, something only like 12. Right now I have 19 degrees mechanical all in by 3100 with 15 degrees of vacuum advance at 18" of vaccum, initial set at 15 degrees. It drives nice and runs like roody-poop when I want to. Nothing at all feels wrong about the setup, it's just using too much gas.