That's about what I get now. I'm sure it'll be an upgrade from the little 2bbl I have now.

Highway mileage is where I would like to see it the most. If I can cut down on the amount of fuel it takes for me to take it on trips out of town then that'd be great.

Can you put the guts from a 1405 into a 1406?

 

I'm pretty sure you can, from what I heard the boosters are different as well.

my MPG is a lot better if I drive all at once and avoid multiple cold start, short trips and back home. First time I calculated mileage I drove 17 miles (about 10 of those in one day and 6 miles on the freeway the next day) and got 14.7 MPG, this time I drove about 9 miles in about 5 different trips, then to town and back totaling 18 miles - 7 MPG is what it came out to when I filled it back up.

Needless to say the 7 MPG got me a bit stirred up lol.

 

Short trips are a killer, that's where most of my gas goes. Same with all my vehicles, if I'm on the highway, they don't use much fuel, but if I'm just going around town running errands, the needle drops in a hurry.

I'm not expecting crazy improvements in mileage but if I can get it to at least keep a proper fuel mixture and not gas out people behind me, that'd be fine with me. Unless my mileage goes DOWN then there'll be a problem. lol

 

Haha, do you have an intake manifold picked out?

 

I looked at the Stealth one you pointed out, but I may just pick up an Edelbrock. Not sure yet. I'll hit the JY up first to see if I can find an aftermarket intake before I put out the cash for a new one.

 

Yeah, I like the stealth intake that's on my 351W, I just got lucky and the guy threw it in with the truck for free. It says it operates from idle to 6500 I believe.

 

That's right where I need it. With the 2.75 gears I'm cruising around town around 35-40 in 3rd and it's only turning about 1100RPM.

I may regear later on.

 

Man I'm turning like 1500 RPM at 35 MPH lol

 

Trade ya. That little 302 doesn't make power til about 1500-2000. I literally feel it come in lol

 

Mine is sort of a slug until I hit 40 MPH, then it has all kinds of power.

 

I reeeaaaaalllyyyy need to keep this topic more up to date, lol.


So in the past few months I've gotten quite a bit done...



1. Rebuilt and installed an Edelbrock 1406. I found a nice rebuild kit on eBay for $26 and while it didn't include every single replaceable part, it had all the gaskets (including a very hefty base gasket), accelerator pump (ethanol\race fuel ready...hehe) and high flow needles and seats. It wasn't hard at all to rebuild and I had it done in a day's time. The kit's quality is excellent, equal if not better than the Edelbrock kit.

2. Adjusted timing and unhooked vac advance. After switching to the 1406, I had to advance my timing a little bit. Had quite a bit of trouble getting it just right, since if it was off just a hair it would run horribly. Once I got it right I noticed I was still having trouble at highway speeds. It felt like it wouldn't get out of its own way, like it was struggling to run smoothly. Had trouble holding speed on hills too. Once I unhooked the vacuum advance, however....it ran like a lowland gorilla with a third degree burn. Acceleration is vastly improved, the engine runs smoother and has much more power, and at highway speeds it's smooth as silk and can hold speed on hills no problem. It doesn't seem to have affected gas mileage much if at all.

3. Flexplate broke. Right around the time I installed the 1406, I was having issues with the starter being noisy. Made an awful racket if I tried to crank the truck, and advancing my timing for the 1406 didn't help it either. Ended up breaking all the welds on the flexplate and the ring gear separated completely from the engine. Installed a used OEM one (with good teeth; mine had a flat spot which was what was causing me to go through starters). A local starter and alternator shop replaced the bendix gear on my starter for $10, and they said that the starter looked brand new inside. I had tried to get it warranteed at O'Ghetto's, but the manager was exceptionally rude to me, blaming me for the failure and not replacing the flywheel sooner. I no longer do business with them.

4. Installed a Hughes Fuel Miser torque converter. In the process of removing my old flexplate, I had trouble getting the stock TC off, and I damaged one of the threads. I posted on here about considering getting a new one and Gary Lewis kindly furnished a brand-new Hughes Fuel Miser. It stalls at 1200rpm, a good bit lower than stock (around 1500rpm), and it's helped acceleration at all speeds as well as firmed up the shifts. My gas mileage seems to have improved some as well, which is one of the advertised benefits of the FM. I couldn't find any reviews on the interwebs about it so I'll be writing one up soon. Needless to say, it performs as advertised and I love it.

5. Hooked up my tach again. I've heard it said that my MSD 6A wouldn't work with the factory tach in my truck, and that I would need a special ($60 worth of special) adapter to make it work. NOPE. I hooked the green wire up to the tach terminal on the MSD box and it works fine. Appears to be accurate as far as I can tell.



Next on the agenda is new ball joints. The passenger side lower joint is buggered beyond belief and I'm taking it real easy on it til I can get them replaced.