bought a 75 elky from AZ drove home to Minn. and got bad gas milage I think?

hey man

i jsut bought a 73 and i have a freind with a 74 cornet u gonan get abou8t 8-10 in town if u are lucky and about 18 on the state depending on what engine u have

i have a 350 so i dont get very good bu tthen again i hav eliek a 24 gallan tank

My 80 elco has a BBC 402 and I get 8 in town and ~16 on the highway.

What's in your 73?

well, on the hiway thought it should do better then that, maybe with a new intake and carb with a new ignition i hope it will do better. thanks!

I get 14-17 with combo (city & highway) driving .

I stopped calculating the gas milage. Unless there is a hole in the Elky's gas tank, it seems normal "NOT" to get great gas mileage :(

Yea, I guess it's NORMAL for these trucks to get such bad gas milage. Hell, my 69 350 in my 80 is freshly rebuilt with only a 650 on top, and I'm lucky to get 150 miles to the tank! lmao
It's a good thing I don't go far. :-)

I had a 75 SS454 once that got awful gas milage till I added headers and duals and recurved the distributor. Even then it was pretty thirsty. The 4th gens are heavy which adds to the problem.

Later I had an 84 with a 305/4barrel that did quite well on gas just like I bought it off the showroom floor. No reason it should not do well though as long as I drove it conservatively.

I think what happens is high milage engines just aren't efficient. Also mods made along the way such as overcarburating and/or overcamming the engines does nothing to improve fuel economy. It also helps to use some restraint and not keep the gas pedal pushed to the floor.

Other factors include gear ratio, type tranny used, tire size and inflation, ignition system, and on and on.

If you want the best fuel milage possible you'll need the very latest computer controlled, fuel injected, overdrive equiped, road geared car you can build.

But, if you're careful, you can get respectable results with a carburated engine, even with a little more cam and carb than you need.

Partly by design and partly by dumb luck my combo works quite well. My 454/700R4/3.31 gear 3rd gen elky will get almost 20 mpg on the highway and about 14 in the city. I have a 750 Holley with the choke carved off, a Lunati 280/288 cam, headers, 2 1/2" exhaust, 29" tall tires, and a Mallory Hyfire 6 ignition box. I also installed an AF ratio meter and vacuum gage to tune the carb and I drive like there's and egg between my foot and the gas pedal(except when it's playtime).

Probably more than you wanted to know but sometimes I get on a roll! :lol:

BOY! I wish I had that gas mileage!
I've got a 402 that doesn't even get that.
Do You think headers would give me an advantage with mileage?
I've got the stock 15" (but wanting 16-17") wheels, T400 trans and 2.73 rear.

DAMN James! I'd feel sorry for any ricer, or even any muscle that comes up and wants to mess with you! Sounds like you have Swarzenager under your hood. 8)
Thanx for sharing what you're runnin. It sounds pretty sweet. I'm not really worried about my gas mileage. Like you said, this is just my toy. I LOVE the way it sounds and runs. It's fun to drive the hell out of it. Still waiting patiently for everything to seat up, so I can REALLY find out how she runs. I think she might be Christine. Last weekend I was working on our company truck, and the elky blew out the coil JUST as I was headin home Sunday night. lmao
I'll be hittin the drag strip some time in the next month, and going to an actual dyno shop for $75. I've never had a muscle car, and I"M LOVIN IT!!!!!
LATER
dug
P.S. As far as I know,(and I'm no cam head,,, not yet anyway)I have a '69 350 bored .030 since the fire, a 442/420 blue racer cam, edelbrock 650, STRONG 350thm with 4-in-1 street fighter gears(not a shift kit) and 383 gears in the rear, limited slip. It's got a little chop to it, but it sounds mean. I'm SURE it's up around 380 hp at least. I'll know soon. What do ya think for a rookie? :oops:

BOY! I wish I had that gas mileage!
I've got a 402 that doesn't even get that.
Do You think headers would give me an advantage with mileage?
I've got the stock 15" (but wanting 16-17") wheels, T400 trans and 2.73 rear.

Headers will help but not dramatically.

The trick is gearing and ignition/carburation efficiency. Tall tires(larger diameter) make the gear ratio better for milage as opposed to short tires(lesser diameter) regardless of the rim size. The best thing I did for fuel milage was adding the overdrive tranny.


That sounds like a good combo there ElCafreak! Pretty close to what I was running before I dropped in the big block. With a gear in that range you should have some fun!

HE he HE HELL YEA! It's a RIOT driving this thing! The chop the engine has is pretty mean sounding, chripping second is music to my ears, and the rear end get's me moving pretty quick. A 13 second car is possible. Maybe I'll check out some 17s, they might be in my future.
I put some 92 octane in today, $1.85/gal and am gonna drive the HELL outta it this weekend!
80el, the headers WILL make some difference, and like what was said before, the only way to get BIG results, is to go fuel injected. You can better it some, but not a whole lot, as far as I know. But I'm not a cam head. lol I'm sure they will have more good advice.
LATER
dug

Yeah, possibly i was thinking of putting on a kit that converts/replaces the manifold into a injected engine.

And yes the tire chirp in second it SWEET. With the low end torque our BBC make I can chrip the tires at 3100.

HOW ABOUT YA'LL?

Yeah, possibly i was thinking of putting on a kit that converts/replaces the manifold into a injected engine.

And yes the tire chirp in second it SWEET. With the low end torque our BBC make I can chrip the tires at 3100.

HOW ABOUT YA'LL?

My supercharged 350 with a 3.73 does that :mrgreen: Yes, it is fun. Especially getting a little sideways when it shifts around a turn (it's controlled though :wink:)

86, what is your beauty rated at, hp wise? Does your charge kick in instantly, or does it take a moment or two? I'll bet you can watch your gauge slowly drop while you're tromping on it huh? lol
80,,,, you said you have a 402? What year is it, and what do you think it came out of?
My bitch will hit second automatically, with a little weight on the peddal. I haven't tried flooring it in L1 yet, and still need to hook up my kick down.

86 I bet that 3.73 rear helps with the lowend chirps. Mine has a 2.73.
The engine was out of a 72 camaro with a measly 240 HP stock. We replaced the manifold and cam along with some other things. With the upgrades it has an extra kick in the pants.

86 I bet that 3.73 rear helps with the lowend chirps. Mine has a 2.73.
The engine was out of a 72 camaro with a measly 240 HP stock. We replaced the manifold and cam along with some other things. With the upgrades it has an extra kick in the pants.


Yeah, for me, even after the supercharger was installed, the 2.73 were holding it back. The new 3.73s make a world of difference and all the gears seem to have the right ratio now. I have a 700R4, and it's perfect. rpms around town are about 1100 or so and on the highway they're about 1500-1800. It just seems better than 900 on the highway! It used to sound like it was coasting! Oh well, there goes my gas milage (not that there's any thing wrong with that)

yeah I was wanting to put in a 700r4 when we rebuilt my t400. my rpms on highway are about 2400-2500. If that sounds high I'm in FLA and the limit is 75.

i like the idea of over-drive tranny i spose a few mods come with that!!???

i get about 8 mpg in town and theres no feelin better then gettin a lil sideways in second gear