View Single Post
Old 06-24-2014, 05:19 PM   #10 (permalink)
drainoil
EcoModding Apprentice
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: mn
Posts: 237

Vader - '15 Dodge Grand Caravan
90 day: 23.13 mpg (US)

Cmax - '13 Ford Cmax SEL
90 day: 40.92 mpg (US)
Thanks: 10
Thanked 19 Times in 16 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcp123 View Post
Lean burn should be as common today as VVT. With 40 years as a learning curve (remember Chrysler had lean burn cars in the 70s, with noted FE returns), this could be a huge driver for saving folks fuel with bloated fuel prices and a huge balance of payments problem vs. those oh so friendly folks in the Middle East. Fracking will only go so far.

But the hippies bellyache when the emissions are too high. Then they complain that due to emissions, the FE has to drop. Ironic that lean burn was killed by the very people who to this day lobby for better FE, and indeed urged higher FE standards for automobiles, which I argue led to the rise of the SUV's popularity. Perhaps they should be schooled in combustion theory and then decide what is important?
I remember driving a late 70s Dodge that I was considering at the time. Think it was the 360 or 318 with lean burn set up. For a v8 it was slow as a turtle as most cars of that era were. I don't recall the advertised mpgs as being anything special.

Pre efi, Ford had a variable Venturi carb, 2, maybe even a 1 barrel. My neighbor had one and he always complained it never ran right and the mpg wasn't any better than a regular carb at the time.
  Reply With Quote