if you want gas milage and alot of power there two things that work well for that, turbo, and overdrive transmisions. you put a small turbo on your motor with all the right accessories and it will get beter gas milage, assuming you dont floor it all the time, and you will have more power. the overdrive keeps your rpms down.
streat six thanks, by any chance to you have some info on that? i was also thinking about a 2bbl holey, three 1bbl system or a two 1bbl system
you need to have fabrication skills first of all. if you dont find somebody that does. Honda guys usually know people who know how to buld turbo kits. i would probly get a turbo off a 80s turbo 4cly mustang or t-bird. you could also find them in alot of the 80s dodge cars. alot of newer compacts have turbos, like subrus and things. basicly get a turbo off a 4 banger car. this is for the economy aspect. these turbos will be small for produceing high horse power but will be great for fuel economy and lowend and midrange preformance. i am not familuar with that inline 6s in the mavs but i suspect you can have an exhast pipe ran from the exhast manifold to the front area of the motor to locate the turbo. for the intercooler you would need to be creative. you can take the one off of a stock turbo car and adapt it in to the mav. I would probly do a water to air intercooler like what comes on the lighting trucks and cobras. lastly you would need to adapt the carb to be pressurized. A good carb shop should be able to help you or there are lots of shops on the internet that can do this. over all parts wise this will be prety cheap to do. labor wise will be pretty high. good luck
If your going to do that, why don't you do this http://www.fordsix.com/tech/engine/crossflow/crossflow.php every now and then you can find one of those engines on e-bay fairly cheap
thanks, i'll keep an eye out for one but in the mean time i'll use the level 2 street setup from classic inlines.com
I don't know how I did it but I'm getting 19.5 mpg with my 289. This is with a 3.25 gear and 24.5" tire and no overdrive. I know my Falcon is lighter than your Maverick but you're more aerodynamic. MSD, K&N and rollor rockers helped some. Also your mileage will improve some burnning higher octane gas. In my daily driver price per gallon vs miles per tank comes out about the same when it's all said and done
My previous setup did right at 20 mpg on the highway. That was stock 302, moderate cam, single plane intake, decent heads, and 3.80 spooled gear. That is better than either of our daily drivers... It also did 1 gallon per mile at the track I always attributed the decent mileage to the light weight of the car.
That's interesting. My gas mileage seems lackluster. In fact, my previous car, (dare I say it?) a Camaro, which was heavier and also had a carbed 5-liter V8, seems to have been better on gas. I think it got about 13, and had a 3.42 rearend. (And overdrive, but I almost never used it) I think it would have done even better if I hadn't driven it like I did, but I didn't get it for fuel economy. My Maverick definitely has more power, and a smaller gas tank, and I'm driving a little further to and from work, (I moved very shorly after getting the Mav) so those things surely have at least a psychological effect, but one would think with the very high gear ratio (3.00) it would get better mileage than it does. So... Since I have a 26.5" tire and a 3.00 rearend, and an engine that's running great and SHOULD be at about the same if not a little bit milder than Scooper's old one, I'm starting to think counter-intuitively and suspect the lower gear ratio was HELPING fuel economy on his. Maybe since the heads, cam and other mods are making the engine more efficient at higher RPMs than when it's lugging, a lower ratio would help? Am I making any sense? Can anyone tell me if this is likely? Or do I need to just get my foot out of the carb and/or live with it?
Makes some sense, but don't focus too much on my gear. I almost cancelled it out by going with bigger tires. I am running 27" tires now. Not sure what the stock ones were when I had the 2.79 gears. If they were 175/70r14, then that is only 23" or so. My driving habits were very conservative when I got the 20mph numbers. But, regardless, those were my highway numbers, around 20-22 mpg.
Actually come to think of it mine are more like 27" too. I think stock is a good bit smaller. I'm running 235/55/ZR17 all around. And you say highway numbers... Mine doesn't see enough highway to make a difference, so maybe it's not as bad as I think. Mornings I'm in a hurry and evenings I'm doing a lot of brake-and-lurch in traffic. As quick as my car feels, I know it's being hobbled by these tall gears and tires... I think I've about sold myself on making those changes. Now to find a junked Explorer and a friend who welds...
