El Camino Central Forum banner

1966 454 Overbore--MPG estimates?

5K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  elka 
#1 ·
Hey all! Newbie here from Central Iowa. I'm looking at picking up a 1966 El Camino (restored and ready to rumble). My only hesitation is that I want to drive it often, and am concerned with gas mileage. The car was rebuilt with a 454 overbored to 460, and I'm curious if anyone has a similar vehicle/engine combo, and what sorts of mileage it gets. I know it's going to be FAR from phenomenal, but hey... the info would still be good to have! Thanks, and I look forward to learning lots from this forum!
 
#4 ·
All depends on how it's set up. You might get as much as 14-15 out of a stock 454 with a Rochester, 3.08 gears and a light foot. I got 12 on the highway out of a healthy 427 with 3.55s. My current 454 gets about 6 mpg.

Devin
 
#6 ·
Great replies! Good info. The thing that sucks about me buying a Camino is I want something I can rip rubber with, but I also want to be able to use it as a daily driver--kind of a forbidden combo. Unfortunately, this car is in near mint shape, and for a tiny amount of money (given the condition). Like you all said, I'm probably just going to suck it up and have to live with the 454 (such a sacrifice ;))... Ahhh...
 
#7 ·
Seriously, the th700r4 can be built (reasonably) to live behind the 454 and give you great performance and the overdive can get decent fuel economy---its never going to be an miser but it can be respectable.......................Dan
 
#8 ·
If you have the money and the patience to do the install, you could go with a t-56 6 speed manual out of a camaro, firebird or corvette, which will give you the overdrive and plenty of tire spinning. It would probably be cheaper then an auxilliary overdrive from gear vendors, but might be harder to find in your price range
 
#10 ·
this is going to sound really stupid but I'll put in my 2 cents anyway. if you want to do it a low buck way, what you want to do is find a old holley economaster carburator. these things are rated at 450 cfm and were designed specifically for fuel economy. toss it on during the week you'll probably pick up 3-5 mpg depending on how you drive. swap back to the performance carb on the weekends. I switched to one of these on a camaro back in the 80s I actually picked up 5 mpg. but Im sure the 650 dp wasn't the ideal carb to begin with. Jim
 
#11 ·
I think my 72 may be a tad heavier than a 66 I don't know for sure, anyway, I am running a 461/700R4/3.31 gear.

I ran the first three legs of the power tour and I kept a log of how much fuel I burned for the trip.

Total miles traveld, 1233; burned 85.23 gals of fuel; spent $248.16 on fuel.

The average for the trip, 14.46 mpg.

The best milage I got was on a 2 lane rural road between Perry Ga and I 20 headed towards Columbia SC, at 60-65 mph- 17.1mpg!!! 8)

Next best milage was going down I 95 into Fla, 70-75 mph- 16.6mpg

Worst milage, wandering around Orlando/Kissimmee Fla, lost, in heavy traffic - 10.3 mpg.

My 30 over 454 has a Lunati 280/288 cam, 10 to 1 compression(barely runs on pump gas), headers, 2 1/2" exhaust, with a modified 750 Holley on an Edelbrock RPM airgap intake.

I think that's pretty decent, but be aware, that's driving for milage!!! No full throttle takeoffs and easy acceleation, stand on it and it's all over! :cool:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top