Re: 318 fuel economy

From: Terrible Tom (silvereightynine@aol.com)
Date: Sun May 11 2008 - 23:29:12 EDT


jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:

> Terrible Tom <silvereightynine@aol.com> wrote:
>
>>So I'm wondering what you folks with 318's have seen for fuel economy.
>>Is it unrealistic to hope for 19-20 on the highway if I drive granny-style?
>
>
>
> In a lifted 4x4, possibly... I've gotten somewhere around 21-22 on
> the highway with my '96 club cab V8. Granted, this is a 2wd with a 5
> speed, but on the other hand, I wasn't driving for mileage by any
> stretch of the imagination, and once you're on the highway with the TC
> locked up, the advantage of the 5 speed would probably dissapear.
> This is also a MPI Magnum which I think (?) is sequential as opposed
> to batch fire, so that's probably a little bit of an advantage over a
> TBI fed Magnum. Assuming a proper tune though, I don't think your
> goal is unreasonable. That tune might be a problem though given that
> whatever computer you end up using isn't optimized for the engine
> you're actually using, and of course there is the locked down Dodge
> hardware to prevent fine tuning. At some point, it might be
> worthwhile to invest in a Megasquirt, which is very reasonable in cost
> as far as EFI goes, but is still not what I would consider
> inexpensive. Not that I'm trying to discourage you or anything, but
> if you are shooting for mileage, possibly something like a 600cfm carb
> with vacuum secondaries could be tuned to beat a locked down system
> like the Dodge TBI setup.
>
> I recently picked up a wideband O2 sensor setup which I plan to use
> to try and tweak the best mileage and power out of the Dart and
> Barracuda; I haven't had a chance to play with it yet though (or even
> take it out of the box). Something like that would be a great tool to
> use when you were out here to tune for best economy at cruise, but
> unfortunately, unless you can actually modify the fueling parameters
> of the TBI computer, the best it could do is to tell you where your
> current setup is; what's needed of course is a way to actually fine
> tune your A/F ratio.
>

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I have to abandon the TBI
project. If for only the fact that I can't afford to put any more money
into R+D - and that I litterally have everything I need to get her
running sitting out in the other garage. I just havn't quite been able
to bring myself to sacrifice the 1995. heh.

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