What mileage does your slant six powered ride get?
'65 Valiant V200 wagon, with virtually the entire innards of several '76 4-doors transplanted into it: 8.25" 3.23 rear end, A-833 OD 4-speed, stock '81 225 with Carter BBD two-barrel manifold, custom hot advance curve, MSD 6A ignition and coil (surprise, way better than the stock box!), Bosch plugs, 1 7/8" exhaust system, dual-circuit brakes with the '76 control arms and disc brakes, 340 torsion bars, front and rear sway bars, KYB shocks, extra leaf and overload springs on the back because I carried tools and parts a lot, synthetic lubes, top-cylinder lube in the gas, 44 psi radials at 38-44 psi depending on the load, full thrust alignment with less toe-in and more caster. 1994-2015 I drove this remanufactured rig about 340K miles in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, mostly energy-efficiency related audits and research projects. Correcting for speedo error, multiple fill-ups: standard highway mileage was ~25 MPG. If I kept the speed under 55 mph for the whole trip, it would do ~27 MPG.
At an apartment complex energy audit on the Oregon coast, I met a retired Chrysler engineer who saw my car and when I told him what running gear I had, he said, "25 MPG, right? That's what we designed the cam to do!"
That '65 wagon rusted away after 50 years as a daily driver. After I retired I did another complete parts transplant into a very pretty '64 V200 wagon a friend gave me, so now that running gear with 340K miles since the original overhaul is in another car. The A-833 (extra ATF to cover the top bearing) and rear axle seem fine, that '81 engine has normal compression and oil pressure (although I did put another head on because of valve seal problems, and a new cam chain set at ~260K, it ran fine although the highway gas mileage had fallen to `22 mpg). I used the 225 that was in the '64 because it only had 120K on it. The '64 is still major fun to drive, and I put a set of Wheel Vintique 6x15 Rallye wheels with 185/65/15 Continental True Grips on it recently. These look like the largest tires you can run on a 64-66 without any rubbing at all, and should be available for awhile because the '06 Prius generation uses this size. Seems like it is getting hard to find top-end tires in 14" sizes. In 2016 this specific Continental out-performed the Michelins in on-vehicle tests, but I should say Michelin tires saved my bacon many times. I always had to show up for appointments with no regard to the weather or season. I never regret spending a few extra bucks for the best tire I can find. Nokians usually end up on top these days.
Irrelevant to the good gas mileage, but the '65 still has the stock AM radio, which has a great tuner section that would pull in stations these modern phase-locked-loop radios can't even find. Here is a tip for the generations: in the old AM car radios the main output transistor is often ballasted by the radio light bulb. When the light bulb burns out, the main output transistor burns out and the radio dies. So you can find a new Si output transistor with bulletproof specs and solder it into the circuit board, replace the light bulb, and the radio will last 50 years at least.
'65 Valiant V200 wagon, with virtually the entire innards of several '76 4-doors transplanted into it: 8.25" 3.23 rear end, A-833 OD 4-speed, stock '81 225 with Carter BBD two-barrel manifold, custom hot advance curve, MSD 6A ignition and coil (surprise, way better than the stock box!), Bosch plugs, 1 7/8" exhaust system, dual-circuit brakes with the '76 control arms and disc brakes, 340 torsion bars, front and rear sway bars, KYB shocks, extra leaf and overload springs on the back because I carried tools and parts a lot, synthetic lubes, top-cylinder lube in the gas, 44 psi radials at 38-44 psi depending on the load, full thrust alignment with less toe-in and more caster. 1994-2015 I drove this remanufactured rig about 340K miles in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, mostly energy-efficiency related audits and research projects. Correcting for speedo error, multiple fill-ups: standard highway mileage was ~25 MPG. If I kept the speed under 55 mph for the whole trip, it would do ~27 MPG.
At an apartment complex energy audit on the Oregon coast, I met a retired Chrysler engineer who saw my car and when I told him what running gear I had, he said, "25 MPG, right? That's what we designed the cam to do!"
That '65 wagon rusted away after 50 years as a daily driver. After I retired I did another complete parts transplant into a very pretty '64 V200 wagon a friend gave me, so now that running gear with 340K miles since the original overhaul is in another car. The A-833 (extra ATF to cover the top bearing) and rear axle seem fine, that '81 engine has normal compression and oil pressure (although I did put another head on because of valve seal problems, and a new cam chain set at ~260K, it ran fine although the highway gas mileage had fallen to `22 mpg). I used the 225 that was in the '64 because it only had 120K on it. The '64 is still major fun to drive, and I put a set of Wheel Vintique 6x15 Rallye wheels with 185/65/15 Continental True Grips on it recently. These look like the largest tires you can run on a 64-66 without any rubbing at all, and should be available for awhile because the '06 Prius generation uses this size. Seems like it is getting hard to find top-end tires in 14" sizes. In 2016 this specific Continental out-performed the Michelins in on-vehicle tests, but I should say Michelin tires saved my bacon many times. I always had to show up for appointments with no regard to the weather or season. I never regret spending a few extra bucks for the best tire I can find. Nokians usually end up on top these days.
Irrelevant to the good gas mileage, but the '65 still has the stock AM radio, which has a great tuner section that would pull in stations these modern phase-locked-loop radios can't even find. Here is a tip for the generations: in the old AM car radios the main output transistor is often ballasted by the radio light bulb. When the light bulb burns out, the main output transistor burns out and the radio dies. So you can find a new Si output transistor with bulletproof specs and solder it into the circuit board, replace the light bulb, and the radio will last 50 years at least.
