[changzuki]

How awful to say I went down this road 30 years ago. I had the Crane (not the Crower) mileage cam. I put in a 1979 Firebird.

The original engine was a 301 V8 (not high compression) but it's replacement engine was a 400cu in from a 1968 Pontiac and it was. I was able to get the 30 mpg on steady state driving however there were a few "adjustments" to make it to that mark.

Due to the cam's long duration, everything requiring vacuum from the intake was affected (power brakes and distributor advance). So I reworked the distributor advance (different springs and weights) and to address the brakes and installed Cranes fast bleed lifters. So, it sounded like an old worn engine at idle due to the lifters bleeding down, but as you increased rpm, they couldn't bleed out as fast and then full duration of the cam was experienced. Roller lifters and Jackson timing gears kept everything tight and smooth.

The rear end was a 2.42 so it had gearing enough to keep the rpm's low. Transmission was a TH350 full manual control w/shift kit and aftermarket torque converter with lower stall speed.

I dumped the quadrajet in favor of the Carter AFB since I had all of the rods and jets to dial it into this setup.

The suspension was lowered a bit and I ran solid wheels (no holes)...
Didn't help with fuel economy, but I stenciled the taillights so only the "RedBirds" lit at night.

A few years later, I went the other way since gas was soo cheap!
.

.
.
~CrazyJerry