I use my '72 1900 wagon as a daily driver for 8-9 months a year and average between 20 and 24 MPG for a 40 mile round trip commute. It's an automatic with non-working A/C. 32/36 Weber. Low comp. engine was "rebuilt" not to many miles ago.
I pulled the head off to fix an oil leak (late style head gasket used on an earlier setup)
and got to thinking about ways to increase it's gas mileage. I'm looking for ideas or comments on how to get it to a 30 to 35 MPG level using a combination of conventional parts and tricks.
Here's what my thoughts and questions are so far:
Cyl. Head - I'm replacing the head with a 1.5 head. Should I use a stock solid or hydraulic cam? Don't want to get into any wild porting, but are there any areas on the intake side that should be cleaned up?
Fuel system - Carb (Solex or 32/36 Weber) or '75 Fuel injection?
Exhaust - Sprint with a 2" pipe?
Cooling - Electric fan or '75 clutch fan?
Tires - I have a set of 185 (?) x 14 that I can put on.
Excess Weight - The only A/C parts left on it is the under dash unit. Rear seat is out I do not plan on dieting and losing 50 pounds so that is not an option.
Throwing some ideas out to see where this goes.