Rebuilt 350 - Abysmal Fuel Econ

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Nalanthi

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This was a quick n easy job i.e. brush honed for about a minute per cylinder.
I totally forgot what rings I used (yeah... I'm retarded and I should know this). I have to recheck the packaging when I get home. Presumably moly.

I'm not really sweating the oil part - just waiting to see what happens when I drive it a bit now.
 

Nalanthi

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Rebuilt 350 - Abysmal Fuel Econ: A Resolution

Well... I'm a complete retard and at times totally oblivious.

I decide to pick up new spark wires on my way home from work today, convinced that I was looking at a misfire. I slapped all the wires in place, bound them up with zip ties as suggested and fired her up.
Something sounded... off - more so than before, so I double-checked to make sure all wires were snug and pulled my timing light out and did something I never did before (and should have).
I hooked it up to each wire to see what did/did not have a pulse - and much to my surprise, I wasn't just running on all eight... I was running on 6.

*******? Yes I am.

My neighbor, offroad buddy, and damn near brother at this point hands me a spare distributor he was sitting on new in box after I explain what I found - yeah.. I owe his ass BIG time for that bailout. I swap distributors, re-time, and re-tune the 1406 and take her out onto the road.

I left a small strip of rubber and celebrated by facepalming. Irishman, you're right... it's always something stupid, and I'm one of those retards that is retarded enough to admit being retarded.

I was so concerned about pissing my first engine build up that I overlooked the obvious.


Now... let's see what kind of econ it gets. No more smoke, decel backfires, burning oil smell, black smoke...
I'll keep posted just for S&G. I'm also going to have some fun swapping that qjet back on eventually for another chance and some testing.
 

HotRodPC

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hmmm, another thread I should have not missed and I'm late to the party. No sense in commenting now, it would be old news.

Don't worry about being retarded. There's several here who rode the short bus and won't admit it.

Welcome aboard Reno.
 

MadOgre

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hmmm, another thread I should have not missed and I'm late to the party. No sense in commenting now, it would be old news.

Don't worry about being retarded. There's several here who rode the short bus and won't admit it.

Welcome aboard Reno.

I was wondering where you were
 

HotRodPC

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Running internet off my Phone Data plan, it gets expensive to just surf. And seems activity is down as expected in the summer when most are outside instead of on the puter. But I do forget to check, Todays Posts at times, or I just skim them looking for something I can help out in. When it cost $10 for 1 Gig of data, I have to avoid video's. 2.5 gigs come with my phone plan, then I spent another $60 last month and that was avoiding the videos.
 

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Running internet off my Phone Data plan, it gets expensive to just surf. And seems activity is down as expected in the summer when most are outside instead of on the puter. But I do forget to check, Todays Posts at times, or I just skim them looking for something I can help out in. When it cost $10 for 1 Gig of data, I have to avoid video's. 2.5 gigs come with my phone plan, then I spent another $60 last month and that was avoiding the videos.

You need to get on a loyalty plan then you can use as much as you want with out being charged for it. I used to get screwed all the time until I made a big enough stink about it.
 

Nalanthi

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hmmm, another thread I should have not missed and I'm late to the party. No sense in commenting now, it would be old news.

Don't worry about being retarded. There's several here who rode the short bus and won't admit it.

Welcome aboard Reno.

Thanks!

I'll be bumming around here and there - gives me something to do at work.
 

HotRodPC

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Thanks!

I'll be bumming around here and there - gives me something to do at work.

No problem. We have bums around here too. You'll fit in just fine being a retarded bum. :shrug:
 

Nalanthi

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No problem. We have bums around here too. You'll fit in just fine being a retarded bum. :shrug:

Aaaaw HELL yeah! you done tell me do things it not run and...


(I hope to high hell my econ is better than 5mpg now. lol - no excuse for it to NOT be with 31s on 355s)
 

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Nalanthi, your cams not quite big enough, but decal backfires are cool lol. I like the sound of an open header SBC with a cam winding down coming to a stop.

I think if I wipe this cam out that I just put in my monte, and end up pullng heads, I want to go bigger. Yes .489/.504 is plenty big for a street engine, But I want to see if I can make it Clear .600-.650. If not, ill have to wait till I put a bbc together for it and go .750-.800. :) gotta love big cams.
 

Nalanthi

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Confirming between 10-11MPG if I'm driving with a conservative foot on the pedal.

Now I get to experiment with the q-jet I built and jetted to see what kind of econ I'll score from that. Expecting a possible 2-3MPG gain.

In fact, I may have to do a qjet writeup if I get a minute for the carb section of the forum since the 1406 has its own sticky... and the info on qjets seems to be fairly lean these days.
 

rich weyand

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Confirming between 10-11MPG if I'm driving with a conservative foot on the pedal....

You have it all sorted, then. That's about as good as you're going to get with the 1406 in your setup. Excellent.
 

Nalanthi

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You have it all sorted, then. That's about as good as you're going to get with the 1406 in your setup. Excellent.

Hell... thanks to you and Ogre and the Irishman - and all others who responded and helped.
 

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