[Fot] gas milage, etc.

[Bill Babcock]

I bet the gas mileage could be substantially improved by tuning the  
carbs. Most older cars I have worked on run amazingly rich. When I  
show my plugs to other mechanics they generally freak out a little.  
Every car wrench wants to see some brown, or at least tan. The only  
place I want to see that is a little in the base circle of the  
insulator.

Sure, that's a holdover from racing motorcycles but these water cooled  
engines should be even more forgiving. If you showed plugs with tan on  
the nose to Bobby whatsisname (the guy from Champion) he'd say "you're  
safe" which meant "you have no idea what you're doing and I won't help  
you".

There's a lot of horsepower and some mileage between slightly rich and  
just right. I suspect these cars were deliberately set rich to cover a  
bunch of owner maintenance ills and make them run better when they  
were cold.


On Jun 25, 2008, at 6:40 AM, Ed Major wrote:

> My TR3A jumped 4 to 5 (from 21 to 26, open road) mpg after  
> installing a
> Pertronix and a dizzy clean up.
>
> Ed Major
> '58 TR3A, '68 TR250
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <emanteno at comcast.net>
> To: "Terry Stetler" <tlizzard at msn.com>; <fot at autox.team.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [Fot] gas milage, etc.
>
>
>> -------------- Original message --------------
>> From: "Terry Stetler" <tlizzard at msn.com>
>>
>>>> I get 18mpg in my normal around town and short trip driving. On the
>>>> highway
>>> at a steady 70 mph with OD engaged it will get about 24mpg.
>>>
>>> All in all pretty poor milege really. I suspect the major culprit  
>>> is the
>>> less
>>> than economical right foot, at least in my case.
>>
>> FWIW, on a trip to a VTR Convention one year, I checked mileage  
>> with the
>> top up and the top down on my TR6. On that trip, I got 23 mpg with  
>> the top
>> down, and 27 with it up. Even on our brick-like cars, aerodynamics  
>> makes a
>> difference. of course, I'd rather get crappier mileage and drive  
>> with the
>> top down.