Actual Mileage

Hit the Lowes cruise last night and spotted this excellent all-metal, true-to-the-spirit hotrod truck.

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The guy who runs it says he’s been working on it 20 years. Had a Heits front end at one time. Now it’s ratted-out splendidly, and could pass for a 1962 effort but for the C4 automatic trans hiding under the floor shift. Great job.

This gasser was pretty sweet too.

So anyway, after towing Bridget to CT and back, running from Milford to Lime Rock and back, and to the marina in Branford, and the Lowes show, I gassed her up this morning . The fuel gauge was bobbing around the “R” zone and she took almost 7.6 gallons. So “R” leaves about a 2.4 gallon cushion. Calculating my miles driven, I figure I’d done about 194 miles. So I got—on mostly highway driving and with very few demonstrations of the roller pedal—25.8 mpg.

That is pretty much what I’ve been getting all summer. I feel like that’s about 5-7 mpg south of what we should be getting. My friend David Stroud reported mid-high 30s running his Speedster from Canada to Florida at 60 mph, and his motor is carbureted. Even with Bridget’s less aerodynamic shape, and my tendency to do 70, and my occasional use of the go-roller for no other reason than to hear the engine rev and feel the wind in my hair, I figure 32 mpg would be about right.

Actually, given my stock FI system and taller 3.44 ring and pinion, I figure I should pull  at least even with Stroud: 36-38 mpg, say.

Hmmm.

The stalling problem we had in Pittsburgh is all but licked–some Sea Foam run through the air idle control valve seems to have done wonders. Thinking now that I’m due and responsible for cleaning carefully every part of the intake and ignition system, lest the previous owner neglected these things–which I know she did.

The plugs & wires are already new, the plugs gapped to spec, and the heads are dipped and clean already. So that would leave only the stuff ahead of the Air Idle valve: the MAF sensor being the only part I know the actual name of.

Meanwhile, my shifter fix has not completely solved the problem. I put proper hex head bolts and lock washers in place of the button-head bolts that came with it, but still feel the whole shifter mechanism move out of alignment, giving me the grind instead of 2nd, and making 4th a semi-lost cause. At least now I can get both gears, and in fact on the way home last night it “adjusted itself” back so it’s perfect. But it’s damn annoying and tells me–pretty sure–that the engine and trans are moving despite my home-made mid-mount system. I might just climb under and try to tighten some, but pretty sure I’m gonna have to shell out the $60 for this (which I certainly should have in the first place) and replace my almost-good-enough transaxle-mount handiwork over the winter.

Sorting things after an engine swap is fun fun fun!