<VV> Gas Milage

[Tony Underwood]

At 11:40 hours 09/07/2006, Padgett wrote:

>> > >26.5 mpg out of my 110 automatic convertable while running the a/c and
>> > >cruising at 70mph.
>
>Did you fill up in Canada ?
>
>Padgett


I'll confirm Mark's figures.    A while back, I acquired a 110 PG to 
put in my '60 4-door daily driver, after its original 80hp engine 
coughed up a seat and stuck the valve open, piston hit the valve, 
hammered the hell out of it before I got stopped and it chipped the 
piston, gouged up the cylinder, kinda messed things up.

Since running the 110 (with stock sized tires and a 3.55 diff) I've 
noticed that I get a little better mileage than I got with the 80hp 
engine... *as long as I use good gas*.    I keep records of all the 
fuel that goes into the car, and have for years, in a notebook on the 
dash.     I can figure the mileage between fuel stops easily, and 
long term mileage by adding up the odometer mileage (which IS pretty 
accurate according to the Interstate mile posts) and dividing it by 
the gallons of fuel listed, which I record to two decimal points... 
according to the meter on the pump.

I drive it ~40 miles daily, to and from work, a little more than half 
of which is on the Interstate and the rest on non-cluttered (mostly) 
city roads.   I stick to the Interstate speed limits and in fact 
sometimes don't quite meet them, since the car buzzes pretty high at 
65mph with those 3.55 gears.   It *is* in good tune, carbs tweaked to 
the optimum (maybe just a tad bit lean which doesn't help detonation) 
and the timing is where the car really needs higher test fuel to keep 
from pinging.

I'm averaging almost 25 mpg since the engine swap.  The 80hp was hard 
pressed to average much more than 20 on a good day.   If the car had 
3.27 gears I'd likely do better.    My mom's '61 700 4-door with its 
PG and 3.27 gearing managed to pull down almost 30, highway trips, if 
you didn't run it hard.   It wasn't the most brisk car for 
acceleration but it was a gas miser.

So, it's my experience that if the engine has some compression, is in 
good tune, and the car is driven politely, a Corvair should be able 
to manage 25mpg or more.


tony..