I own a 65 coupe with a 289 .040 over. It is my daily driver and with the rising gas prices it is getting harder for me to drive considering I make minimum wage and am in high school. SO my question is, is there anyway I can get better gas mileage out of my car without doing any drastic downgrades to a smaller engine/carb? Also while I am thinking about it when I start my car I get a quick high pitched sound that sounds like a loose or wet belt. Any thoughts?

 

You could go fuel injection for better mileage.

As for the whine my boss had the same problem, it was his starter not retracting all the way. It just needed a little lube i think.

 

I wish I knew some tricks besides just taking it easy on the gas pedal...which is VERY hard to do.

I get 8mpg, so I can feel your pain. I bet this forum is full of people who feel your pain!!

 

get a couple hundered dollar beater 4 banger

 

No hard starts will help alot. Ease real slowly to speed from a stop.

Of course a smaller carb and some tuning may help as well, it's not too drastic of a change.

I'm currently trying to get a basic figure on my mileage, over the last 2 years of driving I've never bothered to try and see what it gets, but my mom has told me when they brought it up from Texas years ago it was getting about 19 on the highway.

 

Drive slower and smoother.

Take everything out of the car that you can (unnecessary junk, speaker boxes, etc.)

Fill the tires up to maximum psi (Seriously, this makes a huge difference. Even 5 over max is safe. Our '06 Mustang was averaging 18.5 mpg and went up to 21 when I filled the tires to maximum. I got that trick from Bobby Ore, stunt driver and former NASCAR racer. He runs all of his cars at at least 5 over.).

Make sure your air cleaner breathes very well and keep your carb tuned (do it while it's hot and ignore the hard starting.).

Some of these things might not seem like a big deal, but they do add up.

 

I built it to drive it and I have to run premium, I don't care if it is $100 a gallon I'm driving the **** out of it!. Maybe in 20 years we will all be trying to retro fit Honda motors in our classics so we can afford to drive them...NOT!!

 

"Toolwench" hit a key point. Tire pessure. You can drop a mile or two with too low a pressure. Some even say that using Nitrogen helps toincreasethe MPG's also. In my other halfs "Prius" (I know, I know) I noticed she had dropped from about 48 MPG down to 38 after changing tires.I checked the pressure andadded 8 lbs af air to each tire, her mileage went back up to around 50. My F250 6.4 Twin Turbo gets about 11 (that sucks). Between the two we advarage 30.

 

I would never, ever put even the maximum recommended pressure in a tire (the pressure listed on the sidewall), let alone more than that. It is extremely unsafe, especially at freeway speeds when the tires really heat up.Those maximum pressure ratings exist for a reason. Haveyou ever seen a tire tread separate on the freeway? Not a pretty sight. Not to mention,running ultra high pressurechanges the way the car handles, and it makes the tires wear straight down the center of the tread which will likely void any warranty you may have on them. Keep them at or slightly above the recommended pressure (meaning 30-35), but not at the max.

Using nitrogen doesn't increase mileage, it just slightly reduces the slow loss of pressure due to gas escaping straight through the rubber of the tire, keeping the tires at a constant pressure for longer. Since most people don't check their tire pressure ever, they'll get a mileage increase over the life of the tires.

The best thing you can do for milege is keep the car in good tune. Switch to electronic ignition (ie. a Pertronix or Crane conversion unit), do all general tune-up stuff (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, etc), make sure your choke works and is tuned properly, and generally make sure the car is mechanically sound. Oh, and keep your foot out of it:P

Large upgrades like 5sp and EFI conversions, while they may increase mileage, aren't cost effective. Consider how long it's going to take you to recoup the cost of the conversion in gas savings. Upgrades like that shouldn't be done for mileage increases alone, unless you can do them forreally cheap.

 

No. Nitrogen does not fluctuate with temperature change, retains less moisture (corrosion of wheels), and since its a bigger molecule some say leaks less. Would not increase mpg over air..