Quote:
Originally Posted by DANTIP
A friend of mine is an engineer at Ford and specializes in port fuel-injection system design. We have had many conversations regarding carburetors, fuel-injection, fuel mix ratios, etc. My wife doesn't hang around long when we talk. Basically, gasoline engines operate properly when the optimum mixture of fuel and air is maintained. These guys get into enormous detail but it comes down to mixing the best/optimum amount of fuel with a given (or measured) amount of air. He admitted the best performing carburetor for road-driven vehicles is a properly set-up Quadrajet. Their testing shows a Q-Jet can approach port fuel-injection performance and economy.
Claims of dramatically better fuel economy with different gadgets aren't real.
My friend did convince me to buy a digital read-out system for carburetor set-up. These devices rely on an O2 sensor (you have to weld a bung into the exhaust pipe) to give you a mixture readout. With this and a setup procedure for the Q-jet, you can feel good about your carb performance. Indiana does not require any testing of tailpipe emissions, but I'll bet the mixture device could help you nail a lean setup that would aid in passing a sniff test.
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I bet he will also tell you that even if a vehicle is 100% efficent, you'll still only get 30-40mpg due to wind resistance and tire to road resistance. It takes that much gas to keep it moving. Anyone will tell you this that has done the math or understands physics
Edit: this only applies for full size trucks, smaller vehicle #'s can be higher.