General Category > Quadrajet Carb Talk and Tips

72 Olds daily driver best MPG carb?

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Seff:
Currently driving a '72 Olds Cutlass Supreme as a daily driver, 350 CID, low compression, stock in all aspects except after-market HEI and headers. 5 mile round trip to work. The current carb is a '71 Q-jet rebuilt with one of Cliff's kits, but has a dying vacuum choke pot, leaks/drains, and the engine pops at slow idle. Casting number 7041250. Current mileage highway is 14.8 MPG.

I have two 17057253 carbs lying around, apparently 1977 Olds manual trans Q-jets. Would it make sense from a mileage perspective to rebuild one of these instead of the '71? Given that they're born with HEI engines, and apparently have newer technology than the '71 carb, they COULD conceivably have better mileage characteristics. They're of the M4MC type.

Shark Racer:
I like the M4MC carbs better as APT is easier to get at and the castings are a little sturdier over all.

I believe Cliff's opinion is similar.

I'd recommend building the carb with a good kit from Cliff as well as one of his choke pull-offs. I just received one and it's ready-to-rock for performance unloading.

How is the car currently geared? That mileage would be a little weak if you're running a tall gear like a 3.08 or 3.36, but is actually quite good for a lower gear...

Seff:
It's running a 2.56 and a TH350. I was semi-expecting 20 MPG given that I'm not on all four barrels all the time.

Maybe I've just not tuned the carb correctly.

Shark Racer:
Yes it should be a bit better, but bear in mind you are not running a lockup trans so that lops a few mpg right off the top.

Seff:
Doesn't sound like a horrible idea to order a kit for it, then, and put one of those together.

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