Carburetor-specific tips?

[jcp123]

Had 2.73:1's in my '68 Mustang...don't care to go back. What I would like to do as far as gearing goes is to someday drop in Ford's automatic overdrive transmission and get a shorter set of gears, probably some 3.73:1's. The shorter gearing's mechanical advantage should help things out in-town and the 4th gear's .75 cog plus converter lockup should keep things in order on the highway.

[philp100]

One of the things I have not seen mentioned here relates to driving style. On a carb you have an accelerater pump that shoots extra gas in when you step on the pedal. Therefore, steady throttle position tends to yield better economy. If I remember right, P&G was first introduced by college students in the late '70s that were competing in in fuel economy challenges. All the cars were carbed and they found that if they used a steady throttle position to accelerate and then coasted they did not use the accelerator pump hardly at all.
I want to say this was covered by Popular Mechanics back in the late '70's if anybody has the motivation to try and search for it.

Phil

[jcp123]

I may try that eventually, but as mentioned in my first post, the torque to weight ratio really makes these cars almost indifferent to driving style. The '68 I had never varied more than a half gallon on its weekly fillup in three years, no matter if I flogged her or pampered her.

[philp100]

My '74 F100 with the 460 was the same way. 12mpg empty, loaded, towing, hiway, city. I had some friends with '60s vintage 'stangs over the years that consistantly got better than 20mpg with the 302 ci engines.
Proper jetting and tuning on the carb is going to be your best for mpg improvements. Playing with the spark plug gap on some Fords seemed to help also. I recall having a 400M in a '79 F150 that really woke up when gapped out to .045". With your higher voltage ignition it may be worth trying.