35 MPG 1966 Chevelle

[RCB]

Originally Posted by 67-ls1

Cummins does have a new generation of smaller, lighter automotive diesel engine coming. You will see them in Nissan trucks shortly.
Once those start arriving in the bone yards, I'm all over one. Plus I know a bazzillion people at the Cummins factory that might be able/willing to help with their ECM.

Yeah I live in Indiana close to Cummins HQ. I've got several friends in the test facility. Once they snap up their own, they've promised to get me in line for one of the new test V8s once they are up for purchase... likely about 3-5 years from what they are saying for bench units to become available.

It's a shame Dodge let that go, but it is what it is. I prefer older iron anyhow.

[ahm1127]

Great idea, would love to do something like that one day. Keep up the great ideas you have & enjoy every minute of doing it. I think you will be very close to the MPG you want. The aero will be something to play with later on. Good luck

[RCB]

Originally Posted by jodydewey

They are expanding into the big tractor trailer rigs now to improve their gas mileage. Think about it....those trucks EACH drive close to 1 million miles a year. Save just 1 mpg and save the owner/operator thousands of dollars in fuel costs.

Truckers look for every cent. There was one trucker on here I recall saying he nearly doubled his mpg by using skirting. That's noticeable money. Though I do think each driver averages closer to 130k a year but I know one who does over 200k a year... or used to. A million miles a year would be tough to get with our speed limits.

[RCB]

Originally Posted by jodydewey

One thing that I think would be an AWESOME swap for a TDI would be a 34 ford coupe....or a model A. Something very small that is lightweight where the diesel could really shine.

I agree. Especially for putting around town. Imagine the looks! I don't know about model A's but a lot of vehicles in the 50s and 60s got into the 20s for fuel mileage... just top end was only 50ish. A friend in high school had a 48 5 window chevy truck. It got 24mpg average. Sadly it topped out at 55. My 66 F100 was my commuter when I still lived in Indy. Got 20mpg no matter what I did unless I was towing a car trailer, but 65 was it. The only AC I needed was the vent windows. I miss that truck and I'm a Mopar guy!

[3304hl]

I've had a pretty good read through the thread and didn't see Smokey's Chevelle mentioned; lots of aero tricks.
just search smokey yunick chevelle...

[Shepherd777]

Being an old Chevelle SS guy (1968 427 L88 Open Chamber) and an old Cummins guy, might I suggest reducing cruising RPM.

I'm beginning to think that is the MOST important factor for hypermiling.

Just my 2 cents.

[67-ls1]

Smokey's aero tricks, from what I understand, went beyond what was normal for the day, mainly to be so disguised that a tech inspector might miss it.
I would love to do this but that would be seriously expensive. I will use as many aero tricks as I can with looking like I'm trying to make the car aero.
I'll use a small front air dam, reduce the size of the grill opening, add fender vents to let air out from under the hood, add side splitters to keep air from rolling down the curved doors to under the car and some underbody streamlining.
The car is already seriously low and I'm trying to be as light as possible, so we'll see where I end up.

[67-ls1]

And I have 3.07 rearend gearing with a .67 overdrive transmission, so my RPM at "MPG" cruise speed should be really low.

[3304hl]

There's lots of little things he did to his race car that you can duplicate easily.
Angle of attack; don't just drop the car but drop the front more than the rear.
Rear spoiler: lots out there that can duplicate this mod with little damage to the original trunk lid.
Rear ROOF spoiler: I think this little trick really helped a lot. Without modding the roof itself, you could fashion one out of aluminum and mount it to the underside of the roof in front of the rear glass. Painted body colour, no one will notice it.
Personally, I know everybody here want to seal their car to the road to reduce drag, but I think cleaning up the underside to make it slippery is the better solution as sealing the car to the road increase the frontal area noticeably.

Flame suit on? - check!

[Frank Lee]

Smokey's best trick was scaling the whole car down 20%.