35 MPG 1966 Chevelle

[cosmick]

Brakes isn't the place to go light. Go as big as you can, there's no such thing as too much brakes. And it doesn't have to be costly if you have any metalfab skills. Sell the 6L80E to buy a used T56. That right there will be 2 MPG.

[mcrews]

Smart move w the v6 6speed tranny! Before I read I was thinking a straight six w a manual

[JRMichler]

Originally Posted by ChazInMT

The 2 things that really kill you that can't be modified are illustrated below. The front end is a bull dozer plow. The idea for efficient aero is to have as much of the air hitting the front of the car to go around the sides and top, and as gently as possible, get it headed that way. The Chevy front end is quite the blunt instrument.

The real big issue is that the air will be so disrupted by these 2 areas it will never have a chance to smooth out and take advantage of any aerodynamic enhancements made to the rear of your car. It's pretty much a brick.

Very true. If you are serious about aero, Google "1969 Dodge Charger Daytona" and look at what they did to the nose.

[spacemanspif]

Love this project and say don't let aero be a reason for not doing it. At the end of the day you'll still have a nice car you can drive everyday which is better than I'm doing with my 5.3 getting 17MPG. The swap should be no harder than any LS engine project. I'm sure painless or PSI can hook you up with a stand alone harness and tune. Did you get the gas pedal from the donor car?? To keep things simple its best to get the pedal so you know it will play nice with the computer. Other concern is if the Camaros have electric power steering, not sure if they do but to save more weight and paracitic drag you can the manual steering route.
Don't worry about aero, put a barn-door style air dam on the front like the Bonneville cars, block off and seal up as much of the font end as you can while maintaing cooling ability and start plowing some air! Won't know what MPG its capable of getting until you try. It's nice that you'll be able to use an OBD2 gauge to monitor things too

Last thing: take lots of pics and share them with us!

[darcane]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

Very true. If you are serious about aero, Google "1969 Dodge Charger Daytona" and look at what they did to the nose.

Or even more serious, Google "1969 Plymouth Barracuda Blowfish"...

[67-ls1]

I have a lot of pictures, but this site won't let me upload them because the per pic size requirement is really, really low.

Only so much I can do with aero. I'm not willing to change the exterior look too much. I'm leaving the passenger side mirror off, so I got that going for me.

Weight is about the only thing I can reasonably reduce. Again, nothing that will change the classic looks. And the height. It will be low and slightly raked.

The engine/trans are in, the harness and ECM are being modified for me by a guy in Topeka, KS, brakes and suspension are all done.

I am using the Camaro throttle pedal, MAF/IAT sensor, I am going to run catalytic converters so staying with all 4 O2 sensors, external electric fuel pump feeding the engine driven high pressure pump (this engine is direct injected). Two electric fans (staggered on) will cool the engine. I am not running AC because the frame was in the way and I already had to rake out a big chunk to clear the oil pan.

I'll try to figure out how to take some low-res pics and post.

Dennis

[Frank Lee]

Many photo editors can knock the size down.

[UltArc]

Upload images to somewhere else, right click on the image and get the IMAGE URL, then come back here and click the little landscape icon, and paste it in.

Done!

[redneck]

.

Don't worry about aero, put a barn-door style air dam on the front like the Bonneville cars, block off and seal up as much of the font end as you can while maintaing cooling ability and start plowing some air!

Ditto.

A tastefully done air dam would not take away from the classic look. The grill and other areas can be blocked from the backside with various materials (coroplast, aluminum, plastic, weather stripping) and not affect the classic look.

I had a 1989 Buick Electra Park Avenue Sedan with a 3.8 that was rated at 19/28 mpg (U.S). With a little more air in the tires it would regularly get 30-31 mpg on a trip at 60-70 mph with no aero improvements. It weighed 3,350 lbs.

I think your goal is achievable with some driving adjustments and a scangauge or ultragauge to see what works and what doesn't.

However, what I haven't seen listed is what rear end ratio the car has, and what size tires are you planning on using. (Important stuff)

Cool project...




>

[67-ls1]

I'll try getting some photos up.
And I can do small aero mods that won't change the looks to much. An air dam will definetly be added.
The rear end ratio is 3.07. It came stock in the car. The tires are 26.7" diameter or 782 revs per mile.
I can revise these if need be once I get it running and get e better idea of speed vs rpm.
I had not thought of a scan gauge but will look into them.

Dennis