great info on real life stuff not theortical thanks guys.

 

Ok I'm gonna be the black sheep here with the "newer" truck, but I've been trying to squeeze every mpg I can out of my Ram since it's my daily driver. I have a basically stock (minus all the smog stuff) TBI'd 318, and had a 904 with lockup converter, and either 2.76 or 3.23 rear (~2200 rpm @ 70). Running about 70% city, 30% highway, a/c always on, I was averaging 15 mpg. However I fried that tranny a couple weeks ago and now have a 904 out of a '71 Satellite (non-locking converter). This tranny seems to shift way earlier than my original did, which might be bogging me down a little around town, but I'm hanging in around 13 mpg now.

 

You guys might've convinced me to get a big block instead of putting my 360 in my Satellite...dad's gonna be pissed hahaha

 

Have you considered an overdrive 5 speed ????
But along those lines my brother in law had a 3/4t 70's Chevy
PU he improver the gas mileage by swapping the 350 for a 396 Didn't have to work as hard

 

). This tranny seems to shift way earlier than my original did, which might be bogging me down a little around town, but I'm hanging in around 13 mpg now.[/QUOTE]

Adjust the throttle pressure linkage

I had a 68 T&C wagon 440 auto I could get 14 mpg on the highway

 

im wondering this as well, i have a 7.2L 440 im putting in my roadrunner,and id like to keep my mpg in the teens.

my boy has a 9.0L 572 chevy BB in his 69 camaro and he told me he gets 4mpg, so i dont think bigger is better in some cases

 

Well the 77 Newport in town would get between 12-14mpg... hyway use was around 15.5. But that was after the lean burn delete I did.... Its geared with 2:91's i think... i know its in the 2:9x something range. But now car is fubared so its sidelined now... :/

 

had a bone stock 71 runner with a 383 automatic. only non-original part on the car was one size smaller carb. dont know what size???? original owner replaced it. said it was the
same brand carb only one size down. i used to drive the car from san diego to arizona to visit my dad. tires were 255/60 15. if i kept it under 60mph i would get right about 20 miles per gallon on premium. really! that was pretty flat terrain. so i could be very light on the throttle. i dont think the car could go much slower in 3rd gear. it was around 350 mile tirp.

my 66 mustang used to get over 20mpg with a jacobs ignition installed. but it quit working and now i have an msd installed and it only gets about 17-18 right now. but i did some work to the carb myself. 289 2 barrel auto.
i could sure tell the difference when that jacobs ignition was working. the car was faster and completely different throttle positions to attain the same speeds. it only worked for about 12 months though.

 

An easy-to-live-with big-block that could run on pump gas and make way more ... with a goal of achieving better gas mileage than the small-block we took out.

 

My 66 New Yorker gets around 9 to 10 per mile combined HWY/Town
I suppose on a trip I would get 10 to 12

Tom

 

I've gotten 15.1, 17.2 and 15.4mpg on the 3 full tanks I've burned up since getting my 361 big block Plymouth Satellite, 3 weeks ago. All stock, all original, 2bbl, 3.23 rear end.

That 17.2 was a small trip up north from me, cruising at 55mph. About to make that trip again today and will have to fill up, so will have another tank burned up.

Edit:
Got 16.2 mpg's on that small trip mentioned above.

 

I built a very efficient 512 / 440 , ported heads etc & it dynoed @ 398 Hp & 460 ft lbs at the tires on a mustang dyno & with 3.54 rear & 833OD we have squeezed 17.8 mpg on the highway ... best of everything !!

 

My big ram loaded or not gets 18-20 mpg anything less than that would be not acceptable. I like to drive not pump gas. Get a small block 6 speed.

 

Then again that tuned 440 sounds close to my set up. My Cummins is so efficient its just built to run and run just keep the rest of it up and you're set. The point is if you engineer it right you might just get the best of all world's reliable, efficient and bad ***! I looked up this thread because the 440 is a cool engine but I figured it was a pig like the hemi but I guess not if set up right.

 

I would suggest you start your own threed, this threed has been dead for eight years.👍

 

Thanks for the suggestion but i like this one!