what can i do to my 72 200 maverick to gain fuel efficiency? i mean thingsi can do to it, not how i drive it...lol. will an hei distributor help? what about an exhaust? nothing special, just a single outlet header and a modest muffler...what about exhaust diameter? anything else?
random hero i also would like to increase my mpg. i am thinking about putting a 2 barrel carb on to see if that would help. i am also running my tire pressure at max which seems to help. my car is a 69.5 which is the lightest mav built i think. my car has a lower geared rear end as it came with ac. i believe all cars with ac have a 3.08? i am doing good to get 15 to 18 mpg and i could stand to do better. not sure what everyone else gets but would like to hear about others mpg.
There are a lot of things that you can do but none of them will do any good unless you drive like you are paying $5 a gallon for gas. 1. rework the advance inyour distributor and make sure that you are getting 34-36 degrees of advance by no later than 3000 rpm. (not counting your vacuum advance) 2. tune your vacuum advance to add 12 degrees of advance with 15 inches of mercury with it starting at 10 inches of mercury. 3. run enough air in your tires so the tread sits flat on the road - you can test this with some spray pant and cardboard. The front will need more air than the back. 4. use a 180 degree thermostat. any hotter and it will decrease your mileage. Cooler and you wont get as good. 5. Use the lowest octane fuel you can run without running into preignition. 6. with the early Mavericks increase the jet size in the carb by two sizes - they are running so lean that they don't get reliable combustion. 7. Tune the engine at the beginning of the summer and winter - twice a year. Especially if you have points type ignition. An engine with properly gapped spark plugs and correct timing will run better and more economically than one with an old tune on it. 8. Use modern synthetic oil of the lowest viscosity you can in your engine. It helps reduce friction in the motor and it reduces the parasitic hp loss in pumping that oil around. 9. Change the differential oil and manual transmission oil to multi-weight synthetic oil. 10. adjust the bands in your C4 to 10 inch pounds and back the adjustments off to 1 1/2 for the front and 3 for the back bands. This will reduce the friction in your transmission without causing any harm - do not use synthetic fluid in your C4 unless you are running carbon or Kevlar friction materials. Type "F" is the best oil for your stock or after-market C4 not running the hi-tech friction materials. 11. Tune your choke to as lean as you can without causing carb back-fire when starting. 12. set your idle as low as you can run it without stalling. This includes the high idle choke idle as well. 13. install the highest number power valve you can get - this will make the car run a bit leaner as you step down on the throttle but still let you run rich when you stomp on it. 14. keep the car clean - carrying extra weight cuts in on the gas you use so get rid of the junk you carry in the passenger compartment and the trunk. 15. Keep the air filter clean - replace it twice a year with your tune-ups. 16. replace that old PCV valve - at least once a year - even if it rattles it may not be sealing at high vacuum and that will cause poor economy. 17. repack your wheel bearings using a good grease and install new seals - I don't care what kind of grease you use just repack the bearings - then in the dust cup put a 50/50 mixture of your grease and Hilton's Hyperlube - the original without graphite. It will thin your grease down into a semi-liquid and keep the bearings lubed for life. You can repack at 20000 miles if you like but I find that the only time I have to repack is when the seals go bad. This reduces friction and keeps the bearings cooler. 18. If you don't already use radial tires switch to them - inflate as before just enough air that you get a complete footprint on cardboard. Thats about it except for a few tuning notes: 1. if you use points set them with a Dwell Meter to 28 degrees. That is where I get the best performance and mileage. 2. play with your spark plug gap - I get the best milage (and performance) at .028" gap with points type ignition and .030" with electronic ignition. Find out where you get your best milage and it will no doubt be where you get best performance too. 3. If you drive most of your time at engine speeds below 3000 then having your distributor giving maximum advance at 3000 is a waste of time - Set the distributor to give you maximum advance at the speed you normally spend most of your time at - Note: 1200rpm is too low to get maximum advance. Maximum advance can be set between 2500 and 3500 - in most cases the lower the better but your car may be different - experiment! 4. When tuning your engine take the time to do it right - get the tools you need to tune it - don't rely on the guys at "monkey tune" to do a good job. experiment with your timing to see if you can do better with it a little more or less advanced. Gap the plugs to what you find works for you - not to what I tell you or anyone else - see what works best in your car. Keep records of your changes - make them one at a time so you know what works and what doesn't. Always use a dwell meter to set points - that flat or round gauge is great for "emergency" work on the road but not for tune-ups. Keep things clean! dirt is your engines enemy. it causes wear, clogs your air filter and makes your engine look crummy. The inside of your car needs to be clean too - any extra stuff in there uses gas to get transported around too. Just the dirt and sand in your carpet can add ten pounds to the weight of your car - thats 1 hp lost to dirt! Lubrication is a vital part of your suspension and drive train. keep it all lubed to cut down on friction and wear.
paul s thanks for the info. i am going to do tune up today and will play with the timing and the elec choke. not sure if i have acess to dist springs but i will look at inside of dist to be sure that nothing is binding and messing with the flyweights. ihave worked as a mechanic many years ago back when we had to put grease fittings in the old 6cyl chev distributers. cant handle all the new electronics barley could use the scope machine lol. thanks for all the good info. PS iwould like to get the milage that my wife gets in her buick v 6 which is around 15 in town and an honest 28 mpg on highway at 60 to 65 mph.
When I had a 170 in my maverick, i got about 35 mpg when i drove it from Kentucky to Arizona in 2002, in the middle of the summer. 2bbl carb, engine was old and tired. valve train was in bad shape, put rizlone in every fill up to quieten it up, used oil about 1-2 qts per 450 miles. but it ran great and never died on me, and it never really smoked
I've never really considered a Maverick as a fuel efficient car, even if you look at what they were rated at when new compared to what some cars get today. Sell it and buy a Kia.....
Paul offers great advice. My '72 gets high 20's on the interstate with a '71 200, C4, 2.79 gear. I've been tuning and tweaking on it since 2005, it burns so clean there is basically zero carbon up in the engine. Last time I changed the header gasket, the inside of the header tubes were clean... I'm running a Carter RBS carb with the choke removed completely, Duraspark II distributor with the 925D Mr. Gasket spring, MSD 6AL with MSD Blaster II TFI coil, MSD plug wires with NGK Platinum plugs. Single out header which splits off into dual exhaust. Running an electric fan also which reduces parasitic loss. I run the cheapest 87 octane I can find. I tried Sunoco 94 octane in it once and saw a decrease in gas mileage and power.
My 72 4 door with a 200 I6 stock 1V - 2.79 rear end gets 21 to 22 MPG... I swapped the point for the Pertronix electric ignition, plug gap at .035" . High 20's?? Wow..
I’m curious, why run low octane? I thought cars like octane? I’m trying to get my 200 running better and dont want to replace the valve seats till i have to, so i burn non oxy premium. Minnesota loves its crappy ethanol.
Out of all the gas stations in the US, virtually all sell ethanol laced gas, maybe .01% even have pure gas available and those are often farm supplies(Southern States etc)or marinas... There is zero pure gas avail at service stations here in the Norfolk/Va Beach metro area... Mostly all octane does is slow down combustion process, really only necessary in high compression or boosted engines... In a stock 200 6cyl it's a waste of money... If you are worried about valve seats you want a lead additive, other than some some race fuels or aviation blends, leaded gas has gone by way of Doo-Doo Bird...
I put Lucas upper cylinder lubricant (fuel treatment) in ALL my cars. Its cheap, and they seem to like it. My Comet has '68 heads, and I have no idea what kind of valve seats are in it......and I dont want to find out they are un-hardened the hard way.
