Not in trouble with me Richard, I'm in your court.
I've had my '50, 3604 with it's original 216 for almost ten
years now and have 'logged' about 16,000 miles in the book.
Check the mileage at every fill up, a habit I formed when I
was flying to keep track of engine performance and condition.
I don't baby the old gal, my typical shift points
are at about 3,000 rpm and I do drive it in traffic and at
55-60 a lot of the time. 4.10 gear and 8.75R x 16.5 tires
which are somewhere over thirty inches tall.
Best I've ever gotten was 15, worst was about 10 and on the
average I run around 12 to 13 mpg.
Engine is rebuilt, Carter W-1 is rebuilt, distributor is
rebuilt engine runs fine, I've posted youtube of it on the
road recently, judge engine sound for yourself.
My new Silverado and I'll quote: "Chevrolet Silverado and
other full-size trucks, General Motors improves the fuel
efficiency of its mainstream 5.3-liter V-8 engine by
switching off four of the cylinders when they aren’t needed."
and it averages just under 16 mpg. Talked with other new truck
owners and Ford owners and 17 mpg is a good average for the
new truck. Most full sized cars struggle to get their mileage
in the low 20's.
Air drag is proportional to the square of the speed. So when
claims are made of high mileage at 75 and 80 mph it has to be
bunk unless you have run the design thru a wind tunnel.
Pushing a Chevy AD truck at that speed is like pushing a barn
door thru the wind, and that takes a lot of energy, which
translates to large fuel consumption.
So when I hear of high gas mileage on a 60 or 65 year old
vehicle, I say show me the numbers....all of them, over a long
period of fill ups.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 06/15/2015 6:25 PM.
