Long story short. I have a 1976 Dart Lite. Build date of 11/75, this one got out with small bolt pattern manual drums, and 3 speed manual instead of the 4 speed OD. Gears are 2.94 in 7.25 rear end

Now that fall is here I am driving it very consistantly. I want to work on tune for better MPG.

I am in the 19 to 20 range right now. Car has recent tune up, stock air cleaner, exhaust that is in the 2.5 range to where the cat converter was, and then splits into duals through old school glass packs.

Images of engine compartment are here:
http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u77/ ... rt%20Lite/

It appears EGR is not hooked up, vacuum reservoir and charcoal canister are missing, etc.

Would I be better off to go to a basic, non DL/FD distributor for better MPG? I am not incredibly strong in timing and distributor areas, but am trying to understand better. As I understand, the Dart Lite distributor without the EGR could be detrimental to MPG. I am not trying to build a prius, but I do drive it wisely, trying to stay at 55-60 with current 3 speed.

I am running the 1945 carb, that has been rebuilt. Current jet size is unknown, but I will probably buy a 61 and 62 as that seems to be the best size to keep it out of the power valve.

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1976 Dart Lite /6 3 Speed

Nice looking car.

Take a look at my set up. Click on the red link by my name and double click on the picture once it's up for full screen slide show mode with caption.

Absolute worst mileage stop and go local driving 4 miles at a time is 22.5 mpg. Average mileage is 23.5 on longer drives. Freeway is 25.5 + mpg. However, I am running a 904 automatic which is worse on mileage than a manual stick.

Some mods that I am running are:

1. Fuel line mod
2. Orange ECU with MSD Blaster 2 chrome coil and MSD resistor, 8MM wires, MO-3000 rotor and Bluestreak Cap
3. Distributor recurve
4. No EGR
5. Water injection at the EGR carb port
6. Heat deflector under carb
7. 1920 Holley Economaster
8. 2.25" exhaust and MagnaFlow Muffler
9. Cold ram air
10. 8 3/4 Auburn Posi with 2.76 gears
11. Electric fan
12. 0-30 Mobil 1 synthetic oil
13. Vacuum gauge and tach
14. P225 14" BF Goodrich T/A radials on 5 on 4, 7" wide rims

A freind of mine had one set up like yours and it would get 30 mpg. We drove it from Bellingham to Portland, 600 plus mile round trips. Nice car!

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

My last tank was 19.17 mpg. This was with tires at 35 lbs, and attentive MPG driving techniques.

I was a bit bummed after the refill, so my brother and I looked around under hood.

A couple of the vacuum ports had plugs that were cracked. The PCV valve was unhooked, and above all the carb was loose. I guess the heat cycles let the nuts walk off. I am going for some lock washers tonight, to ensure it does not happen again. I also had the idle turned up, higher then it needed as it made it easier in the summer to leave off idle without the accelerator pump. We turned idle down, and adjusted air fuel.

A day later I checked oil, and it was way low. I park over rocks, so I did not notice it was leaking this bad. I recently replaced the valve cover gasket, and I thought that solved the problems. I need to find out where it is leaking, and solve that.

Ultimately, it got 19 mpg with huge vacuum leaks, high idle, low oil. I am optimistic about the next tank.

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1976 Dart Lite /6 3 Speed

--What is better ignition wise, the Orange box, etc or the HEI mod?
--What benefit is there to the water injection? Are you injecting directly into exhaust EGR port? Would alky be any better?
--I have the same air cleaner as yours on another motor, I will see about fabbing up the air intake soon, that seems easy enough.
--The aluminum heat block also seems easy enough.
--I do want to do the electric fan, that seems like it will make a difference.
--Vacuum gauge and tach are on the "to do" list, now that we have adjusted the idle down, it is so smooth and quiet, that it is hard to tell if the car is running!
--I have 15" Rallye wheels small bolt pattern, that previous owner installed. Tires are some off brand of radial, with white letters.
--Synthetic, is down the road, once I figure out the damn oil leak

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1976 Dart Lite /6 3 Speed

HEI would be a bit better, Orange Boxes were for more 'rev' than the stock EI box could handle, they are now made with dubious quality material and don't last...

Water injection is an old trick used in fighter planes to fight knock when the engines were pushed past their design limits trying to keep up with the enemy fighters/jets/buzz bombs...water injection fights knock by injecting a compressable substance that can lower combustion chamber temps by taking the heat out of the chamber(water to steam then out the tail pipe), and also introducing an unburnable substance that takes up space thus lowering the total volume of the combustion chamber... EGR does the same thing but on a different scale and doesn't need to be refilled every so often, if either is not dialed in properly you can lose power by doing it.

I would see what happens after you normalize the air/vaccuum leaks, and other things. Also if you are running the feather duster distributor and it is set for the factory settings, and the EGR is non functional you will lose mileage as the engine will be on the ragged edge of detonation all the time. If going other than factory routes, I suggest getting one of the standard distributors like the 1976 "714" distributor or the super six distributor and working your timing curve up from there...

Let's see what your next tank or two looks like first...

-D.Idiot

Backtobasics,
1. There are lots of opinions out there. I am running it since it works well and it puts out 10 volts to the coil at 600 rpm idle which is good for the plug color I am getting the last 3 years.
2. It goes to the EGR port on the carb. When you look at the pictures you can see I have a block off plate were the EGR was on the manifold. Alcohol gives a nice bump in mileage especially in the winter and it also keeps the water from freezing, but in the summer I run just a little water above 2000 rpm only. None below 2000. No steam just a clean motor inside with a perfect steady idle. It is especially nice when running lots of early advance. It is a little more spunky than with out it. After the rebuild I learned my engine loves lots of early advance!
3. Removing the stock fan felt like I got a boost in power. It also lets the engine warm up faster in the mornings bringing up the mileage allot. In fact in the winter months the fan never comes on much. So that is a big plus.
4. The aluminum heat deflector has a couple of benefits. One is it keeps the carb from boiling over, two it acts like a heat sync and three it keeps the number one runner warmer and the #1 plug is the same color as all the other plugs, a very light tan. When you get the lock washers for your carb you may want to pick up a fresh base gasket to be sure it is sealing.
5. I have one oil leak on my engine and it is very minor. It is between the block and the head on the right rear back by #6. The head gasket doesn't quite seal the skirt as well as I would like.

Does your engine ping at all? If so at what point?

Hope that helps.....

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

I have no pinging at all.
I swapped the jet from 62 to 64 for this tank, maybe it might stay out of the power valve?
I was going to pull plugs to take a look, but ran out of light last night, plus rain. I will get that soon.

I wonder if someone has backed timing off to keep it from detonating?

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1976 Dart Lite /6 3 Speed