could i get decent gas mileage (as much as or close to a 250 i6) out of a 4bbl 302? my maverick has 2.79 gears in the rear end.
one question to be asked is what kind of gas mileage do you get now and what is your driving style, do you putt around or are you always at WOT
with the 250 i guess i get around 20-25 mpg. i take it easy when im driving (except on friday nights when the girls come out lol )
well i don't think you will get that good of gas mileage. i have an 87 mustang(EFI) and in town i can get about 15mpg. now this is not stock and with a different cam it might be a little better but i think 20 would be a little higher than you would get.
302 the 302 i plan on using has a whole buch of racing stuff on it from a previous owner. im going to remove all of it and return it to stock setup. a guy on a hot rod forum gave me a list of parts to install on it to get better gas milage in a stock setup do u want to see it?
"weight has a big effect on mpg. Installing a mild 302 v8 in place of a in-line-6 should not decrease mileage since the weight of the car is the same. In fact, it could increase mpg with the right selection of parts (cam, intake, carb, ignition, and exhaust)." "Install a set of small tube headers with 2 or 2-1/4 dual exhaust with a set of dynomax mufflers, a short duration cam (200 to 206 degrees at 0.050", a stock 4bbl intake and a spread bore carb (in good condition), an electronic ignition system with the proper timing curve would get better mpg than a stock inline 6." thats what he told me (whats in quotations are his exact words)
I think you'd sacrifice some performance doing that... I knew a dude who put log manifolds, 2bbl carb and an RV cam on a 454 in his Camaro to improve mileage, which I'm sure worked, but then I had to wonder why he went to the trouble of installing the 454. That advice is not wrong, but I guess it depends on where you want the balance to be. How much performance you want to sacrifice for gas mileage? And also, how much money do you want to spend to save gas? Depending on how much you drive, cam and headers might not be the most cost effective way to get where you want to be. Are you trying to save gas, or save the money you spend on gas? There are a few things you can do that will help BOTH performance AND mileage - High-flowing air filter and electronic ignition for instance. If you're running points the electronic ignition will do wonders for you. I went with one of these and could not have been happier, especially for the price. Later I added an MSD box and that helped even more with the low RPM power. If you can do things to reduce parasitic drag, that might help too without hurting performance. These may or may not all apply: Different pulleys (be careful - don't want to spin your alternator too slow) manual steering, don't run your AC all the time, don't use an excessively thick oil, check your tire pressure too. People neglect that a lot but it can make a big difference. What kind of carb do you have? Accelerator pump can be adjusted, idle mixture, things like that can help too... The most important things you can do for gas mileage though are make sure your car is in tune, timed right and firing right - sparkplugs, wires, etc are good. And ultimately, the big one, keep your foot out of it.
ive got a 250 in my maverick. if you want to improve milage that much you can just come over here and we can swap engines agree with the weight theory. i went from a 307 (180hp) to a 350 olds (300? hp) in my cutlass, but looking at my mpg's youd never know it
if you are getting 20-25 mpg. now why would you want to go through the time and money to...detune...a motor to get the same milage and performance you're getting now? ......
Ditto 71 Gold,besides without a very tight engine and a very good fuel/ignition management system you will not get much better than 20 to 25 MPG with a souped up V-8.You can do it but, if you are on a tight budget(who isnt??)you wont be happy with the results.
Our '95 Mustang (internally stock 200,000+ mile 5.0, EFI, T5, under drive pulleys, cold air intake, 3.73 gear) gets 22 in town driving it like you have a raw egg under the gas pedal, and can get high 20's on the interstate going 65 mph, which I thought was pretty impressive. Pretty quick car, has no problem beating up on most of the fart can Civics, though it was smoked by an 80's turbo RX7.
on the way to and from the Carlisle AFN last year, my fresh, moderately built 5.0L was averaging 22mpg @ 75-80 keeping up with traffic, but I do have a t5 in the puppy which I think hels a lot, no guts in 5th, but purrs like a kitten
torquemonster six i have a 250 I in it now. you know what i have another 250 behind the garage that i had thought about beafing up, i'll just use that. thier good for low end tourque witch will be good for the streat and plus i have a whole list of inline six mods and setups that i can use to go by. it wont have 200hp but it sure will have a whole lot of torque. i read that how much torque and engine has makes a difference in acceleration a not HP.
