my volvo

[Bman164E]

HI I'm from Connecticut and I have a 1973 Volvo 164. I am interested in ecomodding my car, with my goal being 30mpg. This picture of the car is from when I first got it. I have changed the wheels to alloy which dropped 20 pounds from the car. I also disconnected the airconditioner cable as the air conditioner was no longer functioning. I'm going to get this car back on the road soon. The first thing I will do is take out the air conditioner unit completely.
The next thing I want to do is build a front air dam and put some airtabs on the roof. Does anyone have an old car they are modding? I have a huge metal antenna I want to get rid of but how can I replace it with something areodynamic? Has anyone done this? Any modding suggestions?

[Bman164E]

Also I have been tracking my mileage on fuelly.com just filling the tank and using pen and paper. I drove it 2,000 miles with 9 fill ups
here's what I came up with. I want to get 30 mpg for my average. Hope this is possible with minimum expense.

21.1 avg MPG

23.6 best MPG

[SentraSE-R]

You've got a good baseline to start from. Google window antenna. You'll get your best mpg improvements from slowing down and coasting as much as possible.

[ex-x-fire]

Hi Bman174e, does your volvo have overdrive? I think that was a popular option, well maybe it was after the '73 fuel crisis. Is that year injected or carbed?

[brucepick]

Hey - another Volvo guy! My wife and I drove nothing but 240s for about 14 years. I always had a wagon, auto trans. I did some ecomodding on it and actually got 29 and sometimes 30 mpg on my 1 hour commute.

Tell us about your car. What tranny? Is it carb'ed or injected?

A 164 should be a six-cyl, right? Is it the odd-fire V6, with spark plug terminals arranged in three pair of two? Those are known for upper engine lube failures. But if its a straight six or the even-fire V6, I'd feel better about it. (pm me if you want to talk details)

I can recommend an electric radiator fan. It was my first mod project on my 240 and probably the one that got the most gain. If you relieve the engine of the job of spinning the fan, you have more power available for other needs - or you give slightly less throttle for the same reason. It's not a real easy job for neophyte but maybe you have a buddy who's into auto electrical projects. Hmmm - I'm in CT (southeast corner), but my wife seems to think I should be home on weekends. You get a fan from a junkyard - just make sure it's big enough to cover the back of your radiator. Of course there's a lot more to it than that, mainly the switching of the fan. You might need to put in a bit bigger alternator to cover the load. If your car has a 6-cyl, finding a different alt that fits might be a challenge though.

[Bman164E]

It's a straight 3 liter 6 my car is standard with overdrive. I don't know about how the engine fires. I want to put a megasquirt in and the electric fan conversion sound like a great idea.
Founda useful site on dbbartons car
But not sure how to find out if it would overload the alternator.
Ill ask my volvo mechanic if no one has an idea.
Would the fact that I took the ac out affect the alternator? Is this not connected? I have no idea.