Man, I love this car, but..................

[Joe R.]

The 54 Vette is such a cool car to own. I love almost everything about it.

Took a run with the SACC guys this past Sat. to Paradise Cove in Malibu, CA (this is the spot where the Rockford Files was filmed). The 54 ran so incredibly well that the V8 guys in the caravan were shocked. It ran cool in the 100 degree heat inland and behaved equally well in the 78 degrees at the beach. Started well when the engine was warm (yes, 6 Volt!). So, you might ask, where is this post going?

11.5 MPG!!!!!!!!!!

OK, you BB guys are snickering right now. But please help. Why is this? Can anything be done to improve this to, say, 15?

Joe

[Dennis C.]

Man, I love this car, but..................

Put a catch pan under the side drafts to catch the gas falling out of the carbs after shut down - then pour back in gas tank before you re-start. Dennis

[Stuart F.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Did you have the A/C on?

Stu Fox

[Roy B.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

That's just how I feel about my 55 , which on a good day gets 15 mpg and I have one carb.
You cant change the rear gears, trans gears, and you have three carbs. Like Oboma said to save oil drilling add more air to your tires to get better MPG

[Stuart F.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

This Oboma guy. He seems to know everything about everything. Lets make him Crown Prince.

Stu

[Dennis C.]

Man, I love this car, but..................

Let's not...

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Man, you guys once again have solved my problem!!

Joe

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Yeah Stu, the a/C was all the way pushed open, and at 120 was a little too much.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Seriously Joe; I just can't imagine any Chevy six getting that kind of mileage, even one with the slush box Powerglide. You've got to be loosing it somewhere. If your car was typical of the first C-1 Corvettes, GM would have never been able to keep building and improving them. Granted there wasn't that much emphasis on mileage then, but that would have been down there with some of the worst gas hogs ever built and the Auto Publications would have been all over Chevrolet about it. What have you done so far to try and locate the problem?

Stu Fox

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Stu, I have owned a few 6 cyl cars from the 50's and 60's, and 15 MPG was not far off for a 62 Falcon wagon with a 170 6 cyl with about 100 HP. My Blue Flame 6 was designed as a truck 6 but has 3 one barrel side draft carbs added. Basically, the engine is grossly over-carburated, according to several other long=time owners that I've discussed with.

I've changed the metering rods to lean out the running mixture, lowered the floats to prevent overflow and venturi leakage, and still I get at best 12 MPG. With 8:1 compression and 155 HP, I don't think that 15 MPG as a goal is unreasonable.

I fully restored this car to Top Flight last year, and I will drive it from now on. I'm just trying to get her a little more practical!

Joe

[Loren L.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

This Oboma guy. He seems to know everything about everything. Lets make him Crown Prince.

Stu

Let's make sure that he's available as a "consultant" - for ALL countries.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Joe;

It sounds like you're on top of things. May be it's your lead foot as you try to keep up with the V8's!

The only six I can recall having anything to do with trouble shooting was a 51 Chevy on which we put a Fenton dual (downdraft) carb manifold and headers. It ran like a bear (in it's day), but went through gas like crazy and we could not get it to idle down. Turns out it had a twisted manifold and a massive vacuum leak. Guess it had to run itself real rich to compensate. Once we had the manifold mounting surface milled flat, it ran like a champ.

Don't know if that is relevent or not.

Stu fox

[Joe C.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

This Oboma guy. He seems to know everything about everything. Lets make him Crown Prince.

Stu

Hey, whaddaya think this is, one of them OTHER Corvette websights?

[Stuart F.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Sammy Davis and a wounded veteran?

stu

[Russ U.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

The 54 Vette is such a cool car to own. I love almost everything about it.


11.5 MPG!!!!!!!!!!

OK, you BB guys are snickering right now. But please help. Why is this? Can anything be done to improve this to, say, 15?

Joe

In 1954, Motor Trend reported the 54 Corvette generated 18mpg at steady speeds between 45mph and 60mph, 16mpg at 70mph, and 13mpg at a steady 80mph. You can find other contemporaneous articles regarding performance at the C1registry.com articles database. Good info for checking out how you car stacks up now compared to how the car peformed originally.

My 54 generated mpg similar to those in the articles as I recall.

I have a hard time believing that your car ran great but only hit 11.5mpg. You would have to run pretty rich to get 11.5mpg if you were driving freeways and highways. The gas mileage in my 59 drops a lot, however, when I do a coastal route with lots of ups, downs and turns, which means I am accelerating and braking all the time.

One other thing to consider. Checking gas mileage for my 59 is very hard. The angle of my car when I fill up the tank can make a HUGE difference - a two gallon swing is not uncommon. The only way I can get a reasonably good mpg calc is to fill up my 59 at the same pump, at the same gas station, with my car in pretty much the same exact location at the pump.

I'm guessing that your 54 did better than 11.5mpg. I suspect you tank was at a different angle when you filled it up the second time, and your tank was much fuller than when you started your trip.

Russ