alternative engines, WARPED

[Todd....!!]

Thanks for that input Gary!,

Good to know the potential/average gains BEFORE going into a mod
project, ya know?

I only have 4.10's with 295/50 15's on the back...

I've gotten up to 16 mpg with a really leaned out 800 spreadbore double
pumper on the highway at 50 mph the whole way from Bryan/College
Station, tx to Houston and to Waco and places, these are about 100-120
mile trips...

I've since found out that that 800 holley was way too lean and may cause
damage to my new 440 short block and have since parked the carb in the
garage while tryin out a bunch of other carbs, from a single 600 vac to
a 750 dbl pmpr with the secondaries disconnected, to a vacuum 750 to a
race 750 dbl pmpr with teh power valves blocked off!!

Worse case and latest average was 'tween 6.1 and 6.5 mpg using 93 octane
Super unleaded... whilst driving on Houston Freeways at tween 50 and 60
mph...

As for tuning, I'm not one to gripe about gettin down and dirty when
workin on a vehicle, matter a fact I was just diggin into my 83 5.0
t-bird just last night, it has a crank triggered ignition, but shouldn't
according to all the books, and the TBI went baa by on me so I swapped
IT out for (Ya'll may wanna smack me for this) an alum intake and Holley
600 vac!!
However, NOW the timing is REALLY retarded due to the computer not
knowin what to do with the timing and all

I EVEN went to the juink yard this past Sunday and picked up a (Ya'll
are probably gonna wanna smack me again for this) picked up a single
point distributor so I could have some sorta sontrol over the timing!

Well, did ya'll know that all s.b. 302 Fords are NOT created equally?

The single point distributor out of an old EARLY 70's LTD behemoth
didin't fit into the 83 t-birds 5.0 distibutor hole!

The first large diamter area of the single point distributor with an
o-ring on it is too big in diameter for the hole and will not fit unless
I turn the diameter down a bit...

Back to the crank trigger's real prob..

Ya see the crank triggered ignition systems pickup coil is stuck in a
holder that is cast into the block and is NOT adjustable!

I was going to rig my Mopar magnetic star and pickup into the original
Ford gutless distributor, even got the spark to work using Fords
computer with the Mopar electronic distributor wired to it...

I've droped that idea and will take the points diestibutor back to the
junk yard and try and swap it out for a newer electronic distributor,
one that fits this 'newer' type of block this time!!

OR, do ya'll know how to adjust the timing on a Ford's 5.0 TBI injection
computer?  There are probably NO good signals being fed to the Ford
computer currently, and I wanna keep this simple....

This is all that's wrong with this t-bird and would like to get it
runnin soon, I bought it REALLY cheap, it had collapsed lifters, I
replaced em and it ran SUPER til the TBI went ba by on me... It has
REALLY GREAT a/c, this is the reason I bought the thing!

Thanks for any help!

Sincerely!

Todd....!!






Gary Derian wrote:
> 
> If this is a typical drag setup with 4.56 gears and a Torqueflite no way
> you're gonna get 20 mpg.  EFI will get you 10 to 15% economy compared to a
> well tuned carb.  If you can get a carb setup to 15 mpg, then you can get 17
> mpg with EFI.  You will need overdrive and a cam that works at low rpm
> (1500).  If you can't or won't tune a carb, how are you going to tune EFI?
> 
> Gary Derian <gderian at oh.verio.com>
> 
> >
> > I get 6.1-6.2 mpg on the highway currently and MUST correct this
> > situation ASAP or else get even poorer and maybe lose electriciy, water,
> > phone etc.. due to the fuel bill overpowering my other bills, I've GOT
> > to get to work SOME HOW ya know!
> >
> > I believe I CAN get over 20 mph with a mild 440 in a 3700 lb car!
> >
> > What do ya'll think?
> >
> > Thanks for any positive(real,useable) input!
> >
> > Sincerely!,