Gas mileage?

[curt]

I just got back from a orph car meet, 450 miles round trip. I got 16 mpg with an automatic,V-8, 1955 President. Does the 16 mpg sound reasonable??[?] Head wind one direction and 10% ethenol gas for half the trip.

[StudeRich]

Sound about right to me, is that with a new Edelbrock or stock?

Wow, you live somewhere where there is OTHER than Ethanol! [:0]

[curt]

It's a stock four barrel carb, I think a WCFB, does that sound stock? 'normal' manifolds.

[StudeRich]

Yes a WCFB Carter is stock, with the lock-up Torque Converter I would have expected a little better however.

[Dick Steinkamp]

My guess is 15-19 would probably be an acceptable range...but you will probably hear some sky high numbers from some members [:0].

A few things to consider.

1 450 mile trip is not a real good indicator of actual highway mileage. Terrain, weather, speeds all make a (big) difference. Also, with just a few tanks of gas it is difficult to know exactly how much was burned due to when the gas pump shuts off.

The biggest difference is odometer accuracy. You really need to test your car with a GPS to know how accurate the speedometer/odometer are. They can be off by 10% either way easily.

10% ethanol will most likely not make a measurable difference...

"Fuel Economy: The heating value of neat ethanol is two thirds of that for typical gasoline. For gasoline blends containing 10% by volume ethanol, the heating value is about 3.4 percent lower than for a typical gasoline. (1) This difference in heat content is reflected in a small loss in fuel economy performance for vehicles operated on gasoline-ethanol blends. Based on measurements made by the Auto/Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program, the fuel economy loss for a fleet of model year 1989 vehicles operated on gasoline containing 10% by volume ethanol was 2.6% (53). Recent data published by the Coordinating Research Council on a fleet of 12 California-certified model year 2001-2003 cars and light trucks suggests that the fuel economy penalty for 10% by volume ethanol blend is on the order 1.4%. (45)"

http://www.americanfuels.info/2008/03/ethanol-and-fuel-mileage.html

Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[tutone63]

There are places that don't sell non-ethanol gas? Communism!



1963 Lark, waiting for spring...

[bob40]

Here in Minnesota stations have the choice to keep
one tank(one pump) of ethanol free premium gas should
they choose to do so.The state street rod association
prints a list of these stations so we locals and
out of towners know where to buy the "good" gas
when traveling about.