The 6000 mile summer

[SomeCarGuy]

After spending years on jack stands, the Runner had an eventful summer, logging 6000 miles.

In fact, since 1973, the car has only traveled 28,000 miles- including this summer.

It would have seen much more use if the TOB hadn't fought me all summer. This last one was crap out of the box, sqeaking on the first movement out of the garage. That severely limited how far I would go, and kept me off the interstates for the most part. But we ruled the two lanes.

Having a white car is a MAJOR advantage with no A/C. Today while getting fuel, I put my hand on the car and it wasn't hot at all.

Speaking of fuel, I went through a ton of it. This has been my most thirsty 383 to date and that has been the only real disappointment for this car. I tinkered all summer but never got it above 15. Maybe the odo is off but it sure seems correct. I might need to check it by traveling a know distance sometime(google maps) or check against another car. But that is getting into some effort for something that doesn't matter that much.

The Runner took home a nice Top 30 plaque in the only car show I have ever or will ever enter(unless it is the same one next year).

I learned that the tubes in the K bar are most likely broken loose, leading to some unpredictable handling at times.

I learned that shifter boot screws are a bitch and I ended up leaving it loose, which led to a burnt(sorta) leg at times.

The only break downs I suffered were a blown voltage regulator and a wiper arm flew off one day in a rainstorm. I later theorized that I hadn't sanded the VR or ran one of my patented dedicated grounds to it, leading it to fry in 100 mile or so.

I learned a set of Firestone Indy tires are nice, even though they are made in Mexico now :leave:

I only saw about 5 really dumb moves made out on the highway in all those miles. Strangely, I saw 3 of those things happen today. :huh:

The only negative thing I can say about this whole summer is that I get the feeling that it will be the last time I will be able to enjoy something remotely close to this. Changes in our country and/or future fuel supply I think will dictate that driving a classic car like it is showroom new will be a thing of the past. :cents:

I would like to thank all of you for you help and support in keeping the Runner in excellent shape for this driving.

 

[ACME A12]

That's a lot of miles for one summer...

 

[69hemibeep]

Wow a summer rundown. Its nice to get some use out of them

 

[mcmopar]

Glad to hear you got to enjoy it. As for the mileage - that's about what I used to get in mine the 1st time I owned it. On a normal highway cruise it would always get 15.5 +/- mpg at 65-70 mph with the 3.55 Sure Grip rear end. My first one (dad's Q5 car) was a 4 speed with a 3.23 open rear and it would always average about 14 to 14.5 mpg on the highway - go figure! The only time we ever got decent mileage from that car was the time my little brother was drafting trucks on I-75 through Kentucky during the middle of the night on our way back home to Ft. Wayne from FL back in in 1980. I had a very mild 440 in it at that time and he got 17 mpg. I couldn't believe it. Both cars got 10 mpg around town.

 

[Basketcase]

and with al the little gremlins we work thru with out runners, it's worth it when you're out on the road. I haven't had mine out much this summer with working on the house and the Truck of Many colors, but I've still got time to fix a few bugs.
I've only had one TO brg go bad, and I didn't know it was bad untill the clutch wouldn't work When I got the clutch and PP out, the three fingers on the plate were wore off. :huh: My uncle was there helping me, and we were standing arounf BSing. He had the TO in his hand, and was spining it. The bearing part was off center. So the whole time it was in the car it was riding on the PP lke an orbital sander.

 

[Roadcuda]

That's great that you can put that much milege on your car. But from my point of view, your car is not thirsty at all. I'm lucky to get 10 with my 383 with a 727 and 3.23s. And that's with a egg shell on the go pedal. I just got the car back from the shop where they fixed a bunch of leaks and minor shifting porblems in the tranny. I know both the mechanic who worked on it, who also is a mopar guy who really knows these cars, and my friend who drove the car back to my house, both played a little with it. the mpg worked out to 8.75! :brickwall: And as far as I know it's a stock engine. The mechanic seems to think so also. So don't complain about only getting 15 mpg. I arty: when I get 10, and people think I'm :loco:

 

[Hoosier Bird]

The problem is, your entire hood is shiney...........that really sucks the gas.........

 

[mcmopar]

That's great that you can put that much milege on your car. But from my point of view, your car is not thirsty at all. I'm lucky to get 10 with my 383 with a 727 and 3.23s. And that's with a egg shell on the go pedal. I just got the car back from the shop where they fixed a bunch of leaks and minor shifting porblems in the tranny. I know both the mechanic who worked on it, who also is a mopar guy who really knows these cars, and my friend who drove the car back to my house, both played a little with it. the mpg worked out to 8.75! :brickwall: And as far as I know it's a stock engine. The mechanic seems to think so also. So don't complain about only getting 15 mpg. I arty: when I get 10, and people think I'm :loco:

Is that around town or out on the highway? If you only get 10 mpg on the highway with a stock engine and 3.23 gears something is veeeerrrryyy wrong!

 

[Roadcuda]

That's great that you can put that much milege on your car. But from my point of view, your car is not thirsty at all. I'm lucky to get 10 with my 383 with a 727 and 3.23s. And that's with a egg shell on the go pedal. I just got the car back from the shop where they fixed a bunch of leaks and minor shifting porblems in the tranny. I know both the mechanic who worked on it, who also is a mopar guy who really knows these cars, and my friend who drove the car back to my house, both played a little with it. the mpg worked out to 8.75! :brickwall: And as far as I know it's a stock engine. The mechanic seems to think so also. So don't complain about only getting 15 mpg. I arty: when I get 10, and people think I'm :loco:

Is that around town or out on the highway? If you only get 10 mpg on the highway with a stock engine and 3.23 gears something is veeeerrrryyy wrong!

Yeah, that's basically combined. The guy who just fixed all the leaks it had dosen't think that it has anything other then a stock cam in it. Where can I look to figure this out? It seems that everytime I look at something on this car I find out that the PO did some work on it that, let's just say, wasn't correct. example, I have had a real hard shift from 1st to 2nd that he looked into. He found that the valve body had been changed, and that a spring that controls shift pressure was MISSING! He had a good, used stock valve body that he put in and adjusted the bands. It does shift much better now. But the point is that the PO did a lot of incorrect things with this car and this bad MPG could be the result of one of these things, and I don't know where to look. FWIW, I have a Carter 4682s carb on it, and who knows what was done with that!.

 

[mcmopar]

The only way I know to inspect the cam is to pull the front timing cover and look for the stampings of the face of the cam. There may be other ways to try but I'm no expert on any such procedure.

 

[Roadcuda]

The only way I know to inspect the cam is to pull the front timing cover and look for the stampings of the face of the cam. There may be other ways to try but I'm no expert on any such procedure.

I think I've asked this before so please bear with me, I remember seeing metering rods of several different sizes for sale on the ebag. If these were changed for some form of racing application, could this make a big difference in the mpg for regular street use? I've also heard that to find a cam size you could measure the lift on the intake valve?

 

[Hoosier Bird]

I think you could put a degree wheel on and an indicator on the rocker and get really close on your lift and duration. It may not be perfect but it would get you really close. As far as the carb, if it's not fouling plugs or blowing fuel smoke and runs good, I can't imagine the carb would be way off.......

 

[Roadcuda]

I think you could put a degree wheel on and an indicator on the rocker and get really close on your lift and duration. It may not be perfect but it would get you really close. As far as the carb, if it's not fouling plugs or blowing fuel smoke and runs good, I can't imagine the carb would be way off.......

As far as the carb goes, no,no, and yes!

 

[mcmopar]

As long as your plugs look good the carb should not be a problem. Just remember if you use a dial indicator to check for valve lift you need to use a solid lifter and proper length pushrod because your hydraulic lifter is going to bleed a bit and throw your measurements off.

 

[SomeCarGuy]

I have had several 383s in 69 B body's that got 18-22 MPG. The vert even pulled down 25 one time.

You can check the cam with a hyd lifter if you are careful to keep the indicator on the outside edge of the lifter. May not be easy if you aren't used to such, but I tried on a cam and it matched the card perfectly.

What is your timing?

I'm not sure what app that number Carter is for.

I know what spring you are talking about, if you take it out the shift will be hard. If you block that valve in place it will be even harder. Not something most people would like on the street.

I would e questioning how your timing chain is doing. The gearhead might have checked that but not if you hadn't mentioned poor MPG.

Do you run vac advance? Not running it could be killing off 3-4 MPG I could see.

I always got the best MPG with a X pipe. I put a H pipe in this car since I seem to have to take the trans out a lot...

 

[jays69bird]

Some car guy said,"The only negative thing I can say about this whole summer is that I get the feeling that it will be the last time I will be able to enjoy something remotely close to this. Changes in our country and/or future fuel supply I think will dictate that driving a classic car like it is showroom new will be a thing of the past"

You know I was thinking the same thing,I was driving the 36 Terraplane,which is stock,3" bore 5" stroke flathead six with 4/11 gears,needless to say you are limited to 45-50mph over that your really winding the engine,it never fails the last couple of years you always have some clown trying tto drive up the tailpipe,when my dad restored the car in 78 it was still a slower paced world now Iam afraid of getting rear ended,the roadrunner has no problem with tailgators however I have occasional stumble and hard starting which is due to the fact the gas around here is 10% ethonol the gas I don't know what to do about,the 36 I have read about installing higher gearsets and maybe radial tires and gas shocks just to try to stay up with modern everyone in a hurry to go nowhere traffic.I really think the days of driving these cars in any stock configeration is coming to a close. :brickwall:

 

[Roadcuda]

I have had several 383s in 69 B body's that got 18-22 MPG. The vert even pulled down 25 one time.

You can check the cam with a hyd lifter if you are careful to keep the indicator on the outside edge of the lifter. May not be easy if you aren't used to such, but I tried on a cam and it matched the card perfectly.

What is your timing?

I'm not sure what app that number Carter is for.

I know what spring you are talking about, if you take it out the shift will be hard. If you block that valve in place it will be even harder. Not something most people would like on the street.

I would e questioning how your timing chain is doing. The gearhead might have checked that but not if you hadn't mentioned poor MPG.

Do you run vac advance? Not running it could be killing off 3-4 MPG I could see.

I always got the best MPG with a X pipe. I put a H pipe in this car since I seem to have to take the trans out a lot...

I talked to the guy who worked on my car tonight, and I asked him what he thought I should get for mileage. He said that if everything is set up right I could even get up to 16! He said he can get 14 with his 4 speed Hemi! :brickwall: While he had my car, I had him look at the timing because I couldn't get the timing light to show on 5 btdc. He couldn't either. It's jumping around. So, even though the engine seems to run well when timed by ear, he thinks there may be something wrong with the Accell unit that I have in the car. And it has him a bit confused because it runs smooth and has good power. So I'm going to get the Pertronics point replacement unit to start with and see if that helps any. If it dosen't help then I'll have to look into something else.

 

[ACME A12]

with 4/11 gears,needless to say you are limited to 45-50mph over that your really winding the engine,it never fails the last couple of years you always have some clown trying tto drive up the tailpipe

I went through this just Saturday night a week ago driving home from Old Town in the rain in the Swinger. I'm taking it easy on Highway 98 due to the rain and I get some clown behind me in a minivan that thinks he's Rubens Barrichello...but he won't pass on the narrow, two-lane...HE WANTS ME TO SPEED UP SO HE STARTS RIDING MY A$$ AND FLASHING HIS BRIGHTS IN MY REAR VIEW MIRROR... Mindless, spineless, POS... :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall:
I gave him a brake check from hell...he apparently got the message because that stopped that nonsense...but that was a heck of a gamble on my part...and one I would not have taken without being prepared to NAIL the accelerator...and one that I probably shouldn't have undertaken under any circumstances... All just so completely unnecessary...

Ray

 

[Hoosier Bird]

with 4/11 gears,needless to say you are limited to 45-50mph over that your really winding the engine,it never fails the last couple of years you always have some clown trying tto drive up the tailpipe

I went through this just Saturday night a week ago driving home from Old Town in the rain in the Swinger. I'm taking it easy on Highway 98 due to the rain and I get some clown behind me in a minivan that thinks he's Rubens Barrichello...but he won't pass on the narrow, two-lane...HE WANTS ME TO SPEED UP SO HE STARTS RIDING MY A$$ AND FLASHING HIS BRIGHTS IN MY REAR VIEW MIRROR... Mindless, spineless, POS... :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall:
I gave him a brake check from hell...he apparently got the message because that stopped that nonsense...but that was a heck of a gamble on my part...and one I would not have taken without being prepared to NAIL the accelerator...and one that I probably shouldn't have undertaken under any circumstances... All just so completely unnecessary...

Ray

I do the brake check quite frequently........there is only 1 thing that pisses me off more than a dislocated door bird........that would be someone riding my butt in a vehicle........... :brickwall:

 

[69hemibeep]

The drivers here are wound to tight a brake check can bring on road rage, so I look in the mirror and do a mental evaluation and make sure I'm packin before I would hit the brakes