What is your MPG?
- Thread starter PotvinGuy
- Start date
327 SBC, 350 SBC and 409 W, 11 mpg, 10 mpg, 9 mpg respectively. Rear end gears are 3.89:1, 3.70:1 and 3.89:1, all 3 have 31" tall rear tires. All are grossly over-carburated as most here are, normal off-highway cruising with occasional lead foot when confronted with disrespectful rice-rocket.
deckofficer
Banned
I like it when someone else asks this question. When I bring it up guys come out of the wood work to tell me that hot rods aren't about mileage. Over carbing, radical cam profiles, high stall speed converters, no vacuum advance, low rear end gears all conspire to give poor mileage. Good mileage means good performance. An engine that is over carbed will produce less horsepower and have a crappy low end, but is not noticed as much when that engine is only pushing a 2000 lb car. My Track-T as set up by the builder/1st owner, had a race style Mallory point type distributor without vacuum advance, a Holley double flusher mech secondary carb, 355 sbc, 4 speed Muncie M20, Jag IRS rear with 3.54 gears, a rather thumper type of cam and would get 13 to 14 mpg on long trips at 60 mph. I changed the rear tires from 28" bias to 30" radial M/T, changed to synthetic oil, changed to a little 600 CFM Edelbrock with vacuum secondaries, and changed to solid state ignition and a distributor with vacuum advance. These 5 changes bought me 23 mpg running 5 to 10 mph faster. The low and mid range power is much better and the high end is still the same. Car weighs 1790 lbs with 15 gallons of fuel and is fast and reliable, as I don't even give it a thought to jumping in and knocking off a 500 mile trip.
Mr. Fixit
Member
Well put! Mine (when it was together prior to the re-do) got 10 mpg. 350 SBC two 450 holly's on a hi-ram, TH-400, 9" rear with 370 gears and 31 x 18.5 Hoosiers.
Hot Rod Todd
Member
454 with 671 supercharger, twin 750 Edelbrocks & 3000 stall p/glide. 9 inch with 3.0 gears, car weighing about 2700lbs with me in it. (big rollcage)
Got 13mpg cruising at 60mph on the open road
fitted up LSD 4.56 gears and dropped to about 3mpg around town.
Now upgraded to 540 cube blower engine with twin dominators but havent driven car past a gas station yet.
Got 13mpg cruising at 60mph on the open road
fitted up LSD 4.56 gears and dropped to about 3mpg around town.
Now upgraded to 540 cube blower engine with twin dominators but havent driven car past a gas station yet.
blownt
Member
MPG? WTF's that? It gets empty, fill 'er back up.
Thats what I say. Its a hot rod. You want gas mileage get a diesel Rabbit. Mine is 350 Chevy, 6-71 blower, 2 650 HP Holleys, TH400 trans , full manual, 3300 stall, 4,30 gears, and 10 gallon gas tank. I can get about 8 mpg if I am careful on the highway. But usually on a Sat night cruise I get about 3-5 mpg.
Thats what I say. Its a hot rod. You want gas mileage get a diesel Rabbit. Mine is 350 Chevy, 6-71 blower, 2 650 HP Holleys, TH400 trans , full manual, 3300 stall, 4,30 gears, and 10 gallon gas tank. I can get about 8 mpg if I am careful on the highway. But usually on a Sat night cruise I get about 3-5 mpg.
t-4-2
Member
I agree a hotrod is to drive and not worry about MPG, but to answer your question, I have a 383 SBC Stroker,tunnel ram with 2 Edelbrock 500CFM carbs, a radical Comp cam, Turbo 350 trans mated to a 3:73 rear gear that gets 5-6 MPG. This is with a moderate lead foot. "Happy Cruisn"
fordsbyjay
Active Member
I have a 382 stroker SBF that makes 515 hspr and it seems to get around 10 mpg. I only have 700 miles on it.
Screaming Metal
Active Member
Hey. PG, just PM'ed you.....got mine running, went to Tulsa and back today....392 got almost 18 mpg cruisin. (going up there) about 8 with my foot in it...coming back...but it sure was fun. Everything was raw steel and flatblack paint.....everything worked good.....dawm it rides rough though. Gonna send some stuff out to the powder coaters and chromers after this teardown.....
one finger john
Active Member
Well this is a surprise! When did you get it going? And yes, as RPM said, we need pictures, Please.
John
Screaming Metal
Active Member
Hey guys.....yea, I finished up test fitting everything saturday, spent all day doing the small thing, bending this, tightening that....Cranked her up, had a full tank if fuel....me and the BlueHealer jumped into the T, she goes everywhere I do, at first was kinda scarey....throttle was WAY too sensitive, stopped on the side of the road, put 2 accelerator springs on it....helped. On the road agian, car kept pogo-ing, front suspension was WAY too stiff....burnouts no problem, I had set of Hoosiers on the rear....got them hot, pulled the front wheels a little, so the front springs did work, just got to take some out.....rear was good....I think I threw a driveshaft weight off during my burnout in Muskogee....went about a block, pulled over, then a cop car went flyin' by...
Anyway, back to the shop. I had on a set of fenderwell exit headersI kinda like them, its looks kinda wicked, sticking out there and pointing down at the ground. I have cutouts so I can go open @ the pull of a knob, have the bottom of the collectors piped to some shorty pipes under the car with the real old style turbo low restriction mufflers.....I'm hard of hearing, but dawm....the reverberation of the exhaust under with those turnouts....its like sitting on a bass drum.....you could hear me coming a maile away...so I'm gonna have to redo the exhaust system. I like BlownT's and RPM's....just wanted somethng diff.
I've got her tore down....startedright after I got back....oh....gotta change my oilpan too....just a touch too low.
The frame is gonna be painted black, the body is gonna be satin black.....the black chrome is gonna be on valvecovers, blower drive and such.
When the thing goes back together....I'll figure out how to post pics....I don't surf the net much, except for going by car places...
Gerry
Well-Known Member
Hey
Whooo
Ive seen movies about hot rods with less excitement and content that this reply.
Nothing better than a man who enjoys his T
Gerry
coops
Member
LOL Gerry @ S.M. thats a good one.Well it is not road worthy yet,but I can tell you a 355 sbc,blower,dual hp750's,large cam ;gears and stall not used here, will consume
almost 5 gallons of gas during four different idle sessions (idles @1050 to 1250 tach all over the place)lasting about 30 - 40 minutes each.Someone else can compute that to mpg.I do not know which would be worst,mpg or twlpg (total water loss per gallon)with our miserably hot weather and the radiator bleeding all over the place,but that is another very "edumacated" enlightened story.Do not try spell check for quotations unless you have ...OKIE software.
almost 5 gallons of gas during four different idle sessions (idles @1050 to 1250 tach all over the place)lasting about 30 - 40 minutes each.Someone else can compute that to mpg.I do not know which would be worst,mpg or twlpg (total water loss per gallon)with our miserably hot weather and the radiator bleeding all over the place,but that is another very "edumacated" enlightened story.Do not try spell check for quotations unless you have ...OKIE software.
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