I've got the bottom of the line 350 from GM (I think it's 290-horse, 305 tq), Ancient Edelbrock C3B intake, Edelbrock 600 carb I haven't touched. It needs to be tuned.
HEI ignition, small cast iron ram's horn manifolds, dual exhaust and glass packs.
Manual overdrive trans with .73 final drive, and 3.55 gears with tall tires all the way around. Clutch fan behind the radiator and open element air cleaner.
I average 16mpg combined highway and around town.
I'm sure I can pick some up with dialing in the carb, and I'm also going to put 2.5-inch Ram's horn manifolds on it, and I've got a 3.42 rear gear that's going in it. I HOPE to pick up another mile or two per gallon with just those changes.
then I'm going to turn some attention to the body: Close off the un-used portion of the huge opening behind the grille to keep air from stacking up, seal the openings in the leading edge of the hood, fabricate a filler panel to go from behind the front bumper to the bottom of the cross member to keep air out from under the hood, and fab a short 2-inch tall air dam to put behind the front bumper to direct some air out from under the vehicle. These are all things that are routine on new vehicles, for aerodynamics. Again, if I can get one or two mpg, that'll help nicely.
Lowering it some more won't hurt either!
It's my daily driver, and I put between 15-20,000 miles on it in a year, so a couple extra mpg makes a big difference.
-Brad
