Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix'97
So, what do you any of you think about these ideas to modify my second-generation LT1 motor for better fuel economy and a good enough increase in the "seat of the pants" performance.
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To be quite honest, I haven't read word for word through everything in this thread, but I've skimmed most of it. I have to wonder, though, that if this (above) is the main goal of the discussion, we haven't gotten a bit far afield.
To Phoenix'97, I humbly suggest that you take a look at the thread on my Caprice station wagon:
94 Caprice Wagon 5.7L project--46 MPG so far
My car has the same engine as yours, except for the cylinder heads and camshaft. The heads are iron instead of aluminum (although it's been well established in the performance community that the iron LT1 heads flow better than the aluminum ones) and the stock B/D-body camshaft favors low RPM torque over higher RPM horsepower.
My car is also significantly larger and heavier than yours. Considering that yours weighs about 1000 lbs. less, and has much less frontal area, in theory, you should be able to achieve significantly better numbers than I have.
I can consistently achieve
46 MPG with my wagon on long trips in warm weather. And the modifications that I have made are very simple and very inexpensive--no radical engine building, no hybrid conversion. I can even get well into the 40's MPG when I have my super-heavy, 14-bolt 4.10 ratio rear end installed!
In my opinion, the best thing you can do, given your goals above, is install a kill switch and learn how to pulse and glide with engine off coasting. You could "warm over" your car with a bunch of bolt on mods, increase its "performance", and still achieve 40+ MPG under normal "non-performance" driving conditions.
Just my two cents. This is probably all that I'm going to contribute to this thread, but...there it is.
-Funkhoss