i'm 60 years old and i will NEVER forget being with my dad in the car in line to get gas. the attendant would walk to the end of the line and put a sign behind the last car and if you were behind that car you were screwed until tomorrow. to this day i get anxiety unless i have a full tank.
I drive a 1967 Riviera GS. 430 Big block. No $600 car payments and $200 insurance. The way I see it, paying $350 in gas a month plus $125 per year in classic car insurance is still saving me roughly $500 bucks a month!
I had a 69 Electra 225 with the 430 in it and was a HUGE and HEAVY car. It rode like sitting on a sofa in the living room, went like hell with a top speed well in excess of 120 mph and if running at 65 or 70 out on the highway it consistently gave 24 mpg to 26 mpg but if I ran it at 55 mph it got about 16 mpg. I miss that car.
@@chikechovis2499 Sometimes when people say they save money by driving a classic car I mean it sounds good on Paper but who knows depends on the situation and how relieable your classic is and where you live like if you live in a state where there is no snow at all ok then Daily the sht out of it by all means but most people are putting their cars up for the winter lol
Working at a gas station in NY I remember it well. Gas lines. Odd & even license plates to get gas. People were freaking out. The flip side....Some of the baddest muscle cars on the planet selling for $300.00. Good times.
@J FizzyIt will go down as time goes on. Desirable items are expensive on release, then they gradually lose value as time passes. Eventually the young adults who didn't have money for them in their day come into money with age, and go back and buy things from their past they couldnt afford before. Prices go up. Eventually that generation starts to dwindle in number, price goes down again. I deal primarily in vintage audio equipment and electronics, and its in that industry too. Sort of like a roller coaster of ups and downs.
That was also the time of locking gas caps and people punching holes in gas tanks. As for the "Feather Duster". Wasn't that the time of Chrysler's "Lean Burn Technology"? Towards the end of the 70's, Datsun had the B210 and Honda had the Civic. Both supposedly approaching 50 mpg. In 87, I went to work at Peach Bottom Power Station, York, PA. and was amazed by all the Hondas and Toyotas in the parking lot. A coworker out of Baltimore explained that they all had their F250 4X4's sitting at the house. The "rice burners" were for daily commuting.
I'M glad you are going to do this , Tony . One thing I would like to clear up is the gas prices in Europe . Gas prices are higher in Europe because of the taxes placed upon it by governments . some of it is the price of oil but a majority of the price is a tax to support public transportation . Keep up the great work . I'll be following . Wicked pissa !
And the average mileage over here is double or triple of that in the states. And our distances are way different. 400km I'm in Paris and crossed 3 countries. In the USA I wouldn't even have crossed Texas 😜
@@gorkzop It's double or triple because the power is a bunch of gerbels running in a cage under the hood . Try driving one of those death traps on American roads . Motorcycles and scooters are also very popular in Europe for that very reason . Sucky roads , high taxes , outrageous insurance , no parking spaces are just some of the issues .
Over here, there's a tendency for any rise in the taxes on fuel (There haven't been any in this decade) to also be the corporations' chance to raise prices even *more* knowing people will blame 'the gummint.'
@@tomdamon7208 ive got a SAAb, and a Daihatsu and a '61 Plymouth Yeah Daihatsu makes 70hp but weights as much as 2 Harleys and is really fast. Parking isn't a problem and the roads in the Netherlands are probably the best in the world. Gotta agree on the taxes though. But agree to disagree. If an European needs 3 pieces of plywood they rent a small trailer and Americans are happy they've got a 2500 super duty truck. Different infrastructure different cultural needs
Hey Uncle T....Preach...I love the fact that I came here for the cars....and found out you like 'alternative history'...Sorry...How about actual history, the one you have to look for ...not the one they spoon feed you on MSM... Have a great day!! From one 'Reader' to another... Peace and blessings!!! You deserve them!!
Dont forget the early 60s Falcons with the small inline sixes- you kept them tuned up and your foot out of them and they'd get around 22-27 mpg which was unheard of for the time.
I remember buying a small booklet back in the early 80's called " The Super mileage carburetor". I think I paid 16 bucks for it, it's kicking around somewhere on my bookshelf. The nice thing about pressure on fuel is, it brings out the best in engineering. A 1976 slant six producing 97hp @ 36 mpg, fast forward to a 707hp engine with the same mpg. None of that would have happened if there weren't pressure.
Dodge also rebadged Mitsubishi rigs and those were bombproof at the time. My buddy had a colt that outlived his teen years while his grandma's Coronet 440 sat in the driveway. As new cars wait for chips a lot of great old cars are coming out of the woods and barns and sheds, this should be really good fuel for that renaissance.
Tony, had a old 78 Plymouth Volary and got normally 24mpg on the highway. Now have a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 3.6lt and get just over 25mpg on the highway. Basically nothing really changed over the past 50 years. The funny part is that I had a 1990 Dodge Ram 1500 and on a trip I could get just over 20mpg on the highway, made numerous trips from Northern Ohio to South Carolina and was running a averaged speed of 70mph and still got 20 mpg. Now my newer Dodge Ram 1500, I would be shocked if I ever got it over 16mpg.
I found a Holley slant 6 carb on a 67 Belvedere taxi in the junkyard that had a venturi that was significantly smaller than normal. I used it for awhile on my commuter. It gave me a couple of mpg.
I read something years ago where an engineer claims that Chrysler had a hemi head converted 273 ( revert back to what it started out hmm ) that met the emissions standards WITHOUT cat converters or anything else. The 426 is a dramatic example of the design ( 176 cc + combustion chamber ) as the 50's engines were 120 max ( 354 - 392 ) , so you know the little Dodge engines were well below 100 cc. I guess if I ever win big on the lottery I will probably mess with stuff like this just for the heck of it.
Like you, I am old enough to remember the energy crisis of the 70s. I’m also old enough to remember when America was a net exporter of energy. Of course that was only a year ago.
My '75 Chevy C-20 pick'em up truck just hit 79797.9 for the sixth time. 7 mpg down hill with a tail wind been driving her since Dad bought her new 47 years ago this week.
Air pumps were my favorite accessory from those years, a hp robbing device to inject air into the exhaust to meet the required ppm reading. Not that it was more efficient just was the only to meet the requirements.
Well, the idea there was anti *smog,* rather than 'efficiency.' The extra air was to provide more O2 to burn off more of the extra hydrocarbons before they left the exhaust, not to really *use* that for efficiency and power. In those days the primary concerns were really the unhealthy air in the cities and acid rain and all that.
@@shoominati23 Eh, they worked OK, they were just made to do something else than CO2 emissions. And obviously there's better tech now for what they were made to do anyway. I don't see how fancy autos are 'cheating' emissions. I expect those function as well for what they do. Hopefully they can last, is all.
The interesting thing about that is I don't think Mopar ever had to use air pumps. Their engines were generally better engineered and more efficient back then, or at least until about 1975 when the cat cons were a thing. In 73-4 most of their engines were still free of most of the smog-reducing garbaged that the Fords and GMs were saddled with.
I remember back in the '60's filling up my '67 Dart GT (with 273 Charger engine) for just $4.00. Yes, you read that right... $4.00. But pay really sucked.
I know people's memories are short, but about 15 years ago the price was in the upper $3/lower $4 range. Right now here in ND it's around $3.15 so it's not hurting that much yet, and sure as hell not as much as it hurt 15 years ago. And the reason this time is because of price gouging. OPEC shut production down during the pandemic, and they are keeping production down to jack their profits up.
We're at near $10 the gallon here in Holland. Efi and overdrive is what changed big time my 351c's drinking problems and actually increased driving fun. Aside the economy, which is relative vs investments costs, my plugs, oil, exhaust show the rehab really did good! Keep up the nice work, really enjoying this channel!
Fiberglass hood, decklid, fenders and smaller /earlier bumpers.....little 14 x 4.5 wheels with pumped up tires. Distributor trick and you will beat the feather/lite duo! cool stuff
I grew up 70 to 74 in highschool small town farm boy . We loved our motorcycles four wheel drive pickup trucks jeeps and mussle cars. My brother bought a 73 or 74 ,duster slant 6 3 speed floor shift . I loved driving it. It had strong torque ran about 24 28 mpg while running it hard on the interstate. Simple clean economic strong running eazy handling. Fun to run . His wife ran it out coolent burnt the engine up. He replaced it then she ran into the ditch springing the front suspension. He got the messages bought her a new car. Her way of keeping up to style.
I had a beautiful rusty beige dart lite as a kid. I've never been so sad about crashing it as I am now... I remember it getting damn near 30 mpg. At 16 I loved that car. Never ever considered it as a valuable then, paid like 50 bucks Canadian for it. I packed the hood so full of snow one night that it was an ice block the next morning, lol, it is missed tonight more than any of my ex gf s... Lol thx Tony for such great content!!!
Love it when the Professor Uncle Tony comes out. You need to wear a 3 pc tweed suit when you have talks like this one. I know you are a gear head but you are really smart about society in general. You completely nailed the petroleum issue of the early 70's and the geopolitical reasons for it in the most concise way I've ever heard. I too was there. :)
I agree with Tony and the tweed suit. Sort of like the beginning of Masterpiece Theater, sitting in a library in an arm chair and a pipe if he really needs to smoke.
the first gas shortage i had my old GMC v-6 truck converted to propane in 73 i was still in high school there was plenty of propane and it was very cheap
Once in the early 1980's I heard a guy lamenting about the sluggishness of his daily driver Feather Duster. He was combing for a small block in a wrecking yard near where I was hunting for A-body items. I suggested just swap his 2.76 rear gear for a 3.21or even a 3.55 set. There had to be one or two around since there were so many Valiants & Darts being parted out in those days. His had the A833 overdrive 4-speed, this would have been an easy way to feel a big difference without the pain of changing everything up front (something always doesn't line up)
Yea Nixon has a lot to answer! Here in New Zealand my daily is Falcon 5.0 Windsor, fuel is about $2.50 a litre, I counter price by not buyin consumer crap I don't need!
Amazing. I have a car that was made just as Carter was about to leave office, and it gets about 13 MPG, 1980 Jeep Cherokee. It’s my daily driver but it’s got dejavu from 42 years ago when it was built.
Geez UT, I was 15 in 1976 working every hour after school & weekends to save up enough scratch to get a car, but I'm bummed, I never even heard of the "Feather Duster!" I would've snapped up one instead of the 67 Firebird 400 HO I ended up with, I've always loved the duster body style! I really enjoyed this video brother!
In an episode of Roadkill, they showed some young people a Duster and a 70 Mustang, and most said the Duster looked better. While for us, back in the day, the Mustang was the cool car. But it does have a kind of confused, busy styling with a bunch of stuff tacked on, while the Duster is clean looking. But I think you were fortunate to have any 67 Firebird, especially that one.
@@auteurfiddler8706 Yes, thank you, my bird had a custom paint job, 4 layers of black, with a hand painted copy of the 1976 Trans Am on the hood, I didn't do it, it was already done when I bought it. I have to say though that it was truly beautiful, I confirmed the bird on the hood had cost the owner $1000 bucks and that was in 1974 dollars. Yes I was jazzed to own it, lots of compliments!
How you describe that car is how I would describe my 94 Jetta. The first car I had and I loved it. It was falling apart around me yet never failed me. I replaced it with a 70’s Beetle because I was sick of fixing cooling system issues and I had wanted one as a kid. Before we got rid of it the thing had sat at least six or eight months and it started up immediately with almost no cranking. Such a fun car, only non stock thing was wider tires that helped you be able to go into corners faster than hell and make it out without flipping, you only felt like you were going to.
I had a 77' full size Dodge car that had the Super Six in it that averaged 22 mpg. What surprised me was it called for the same exhaust as Chrysler 300 Cordoba less the Y-pipe. The crazy part is, it was louder at idle that at cruise speed. Great video, keep them coming.
Saying we were x years away from running out of oil isn't just another trick to manipulate the economy. As technology advanced we were/are able to find, reach, and extract deeper and different forms of petroleum reserves.
Peak oil is a term used by people who don't understand what it means. Peak oil is the amount of oil available around the current price. That's why it keeps changing. At $13 a barrel we would have hit it by the early 80's. When the price jumped we started looking for new fields and how to get more out of existing ones. OPEC didn't realize it at the time of the embargo, but they gave the petrochemical industry the kick in the ass it needed to start looking for more oil.
Tony, I just watched you on the youtube video "High Performance Engine Geometry With The Legendary David Vizard". You were talking about rod ratios and power gains. Rod length has more to do with increasing fuel economy than increasing power. But you need at least a 2:1 rod ratio to notice the fuel efficiency increase. You also need to use a dished piston and still maintain a high compression ratio. Difficult to do without swapping to smaller chamber heads. Then you must remove all sharp edges inside the combustion chamber. The sharp edges of the combustion chamber cause fuel mixture to burn in the Exhaust port. The deep dish in the center of the piston will prevent detonation, and you will find you can run a higher compression ratio with a lower octane fuel.
UT "Yes I agree with you but were not here to talk about that" Perfect! This is why I identify with you and this channel so much KUDOS' UT Great Video!
I owned a regular Duster that may have been as light as a feather duster due to all the rust. It had a 3 speed manual trans. If I was easy on it, I would get right about 30 mpg. My route included several stops where I often had to wait for traffic so it was hardly a good test of actual mileage. If I had made a long trip on interstate it might have reached 35. It got me to work and home for many years so it was worth its weight in gold as it saved me a lot of money. Manual steering, basic AM radio, rubber floor, not carpet. It got the job done.
Thanks for the history lesson UT! I remember those days. I was running around with a 73 6cyl 3 on the tree ford maverick. Would love to find another one. Had a lot of fun with it beating the crap out of it all the while getting good fuel mileage. 😂😂
It's about time the efficiency gets noticed. Tony, you often follow my thought process and when it comes to vehicle efficiency, we could be addressing supercharging efficiency. Some blowers are far more efficient than others, yet all will raise volumetric efficiency over 100%. Can't wait for the world to become aware of what is rising to the surface on your channel!
You can change the pulley ratio to not boost pressure too high and keep your efficiency. You still have the internal resistance of running the pump though. When you go to the track just swap pulleys to over drive it (big pulley on crank, small one on compressor).
My dad graduated high school in '73 and remembers sitting in the gas station lines waiting to feed his '70 Camaro SS/RS he bought in '72. Great timing.
Sometimes I get to feeling like I was born too late. That the good times really are over for good, and I missed them all. But, whenever I watch Uncle Tony, I'm reminded that the times are as good or bad as you want to make them. There's always more than one way to skin a cat so to speak.
I love my 77 formula has the looks. Has a 241 open rear ( it’s all numbers matching so as Tony says LEAVE IT ALONE) sips on gas as a Brit sips on tea 22-24 mpg
Hey,Uncle Tony, so true those Feather Dusters were easy on fuel. I remember tuning and installing clutches in those in the early eighties. Understanding carb tuning and what makes an engine happy,along with how important rolling resistance is can net some very good results. My 71 Nova that runs 10.5s the way we drive it, full exhaust and drag radials 4.11 gears gets 16+ @60 mph the spark plugs look like they come out of a fuel injected engine. Take the time,get the results. Thanks UT
I bought my one owner Feather Duster from a used car lot in Issaquah, Washington while in the USAF in 1985. I was 19 and borrowed the money to buy it from a kind gentleman that I worked with. I drove that car for years afterwards. Border to border, sea to shining sea. I still own it! Haven't driven it a lot in the last 25 years, though. It's still mostly all original. It has all the light weight parts on it that Tony talked about here, except for the trunk lid - it has the steel bracing like run-of-the-mill Dusters. From everything I can tell and know about the car, it IS the original deck lid. I think my car was built so early in the production run at the plant in St. Louis that it was either used by mistake or they were just trying to use up parts they had before switching over to the "correct" parts.
I had a '71 Dart GT with a 318. I put a 4-barrel intake and carb on it. Intake was off a 273 and the carb off a 440...way too big. But as long as I would run on two barrels, the car would get 24 mpg. No one believed me, but I proved it time and again.
I've got a 74 Charger with a small block that is super fun to drive its fast and handles great good gas milage not so much so last December I bought a new project a 68 Dodge Dart with the 225 slant 6 it has become the grocery getter daily driver it gets about 18 mpg and is fun to drive as well. looking forward to seeing what you do with the leaning tower of power. I would love to get this little Dart to 20+ mpg. So bring on the knowledge Tony!
My 75 Dart had a special fuel “minder” option where a vacuum switch would activate the left fender mounted turn signal if you applied too much throttle. I enjoyed showing that to mechanics, they wouldn’t believe it until I showed them.
Doing a fuel economy project with a 3rd gen base camaro with a 283, t5 and quadrajet carb! This vid is perfect timing for me since everyone that hears my plans think I’m crazy lol
Provided you can run it lean enough and at a low enough rpm with good torque and oil pressure, I do see why it won't work...302 v8 ford's were getting 22-27 mpg highway in the 60's 70's with some jetting changes and what not and a 4 speed so it should work for your 283 with a 5 speed...plus the camaro is more aerodynamic
1984 - - South Carolina service station - - owner shows me a Honda CVCC that he put a CRX 5-speed in. Claimed 75 MPG highway !! CRX HF models with the 1,3 claimed 67 MPG Hwy. We've had "extreme gas mileage" technology for a long time.
Best down to earth gear head channel there is.So true on the Feather Duster I knew a guy back in 90,s had one as a dailey.....centerlines on it fats in tha back ..skinneys on front straight shift,drove it everyday and got just as good gas mileage as cars fuel injected.......only 1 I have ever seen original.Love your channel.
I miss my slant 6 75 duster, now I have a 73 Ford mustang with a "built" 250ci 6cyl and 3 speed trans, 5 years ago I wouldn't even consider a 6cyl, I like doing burnouts and going hammer down on on ramps, "I wanna go fast"!!!
I really like the 833 new process (over drive), its tough, has better than 3 to 1 first gear, and .7 top gear. You need a broad power band but compared to a regular 4 speed using a 4:56 rear end, it would give you a 5.31 launch. On the hwy, the over drive is like having 3.19 rear end. Big drop on the first shift (5000 to 3000) but if you're driving to the track, the transmision is a gift.
The Mopar Bible seems to think it isn't strong enough for racing since the strongest direct drive position is now in the place where it isn't needed. I forget the details. Does it have an aluminum case?
@@auteurfiddler8706 Interesting. I just assumed it was a small spline 833. Seems to me it was aluminum. It was a regular size van with a 6 and that trans. I had a '72 360 I massaged. It pulled really strong from 2500 out past 6000. We were carfull no to punch it at the line because I didn't think the 81/4 would take it. After about 5000 mi. the rear end gave up anyway but the trans was fine. Hard to say what would happen if we were dumping the clutch with an 83/4 out back. My thought is that an engine\trans like that in an A body would be having your cake and eating it too. .....Oh yeah....It got amazing gas miliage !
@@auteurfiddler8706 Hello again....I was thinking about the strength issue for the OD trans and wondered if the gear set could be put into a steel case. Also the OD is in the third gear position so on the track you'd be, in effect, shifting 1-2-4. With 4.56s OD would be skipped. Thanks for the reply
I have always thought the Feather Duster an amazing effort by Chrysler Corp using the parts they had in hand with great results. Love how they made their manual into a 4 speed with overdrive.
glad to see this video. i check the gas millage on almost every tank on my 69 327 Nova and 1976 K20. great tunning tool BTW. I get 12 mpg on the 3/4 ton truck that is not bad at all and i am not done tunning it
I have an Overdrive-4 from a '77 F-Body that I'm putting in my '82 Mirada. Floor tunnel, clutch and brake pedals are drop-ins and my carpet is for a '79 Aspen with a four-speed. Wide ratios between the gears, yes. But who cares- it'll be a blast to drive when I'm done!
Back in the day we looked for the feather dusters for our circle track race cars. By the late seventies they they were getting enough miles on them to start showing up in the junk yards and for sale cheap.All we used was the sheet metal skin and the over drive transmission. The overdrives had a aluminum case rather than cast iron so we would gut them and install normal four speed internals for a big weight savings
Europe has been at $8/gal for a long time. We are over there every few years to visit the grand-kids. Smaller cars, lower rolling resistance, and modest compression motors with turbos and EFI will get you a long way. An EFI Turbo Slant is almost the perfect motor ... Add the OD 4-speed and maybe a quick change rear and you have a pretty good MPG car
They had already quit making the aluminum /6 by the time the Feather Duster came out, am I right? I had a '72 Gold Duster that was lightening it's self by rusting out the rear quarters. I took both doors off one day and drove it around like Ricardo Montalban's Fantasy Island car. Felt lighter and peppier that way.
Great history lesson Tony. Brings back good memories of the Feather Duster I bought from my dad in the early ‘80’s (that he bought new). One thing I remember about my car that you didn’t mention was that it had a gas miser light ( not sure if that was the correct term). The left turn signal indicator light on top of the fender would come on if you gave the car to much gas. So to maximize fuel economy And still maintain decent acceleration I would only accelerate to the point of the light beginning to flicker before shifting gears. My ‘69 Road Runner sat while I spent most of the time driving the Duster, I clearly remembered the point when gas prices left the upper .90’s per gallon and got over $1.00. Our friends were always excited to share the locations of any gas stations we found that were .98-.99 per gallon. Seeing your video makes wish I still had that Feather Duster, as you described it was a great little car. I’m really glad I still have my ‘69 Road Runner. Thanks for the memory. 👍
my parents friends came too oz in 1975 and drove my sister honda civic for a month and a bit and went back to the usa and bought one straight away and keep it for 20 years they loved that thing
Those gas shortages in the 70’s allowed me to buy cars I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford, or I wouldn’t have even thought of buying, like an Imperial and a Hemi Super Bee. Our gas here today, for premium would be around $7.00 a gallon, and it doesn’t phase the car guys at all, I still run 4.56 gears in my 67 Coronet. I’ve become conservative in my old age, I used to run 4.86’s
Love to have an old valiant, or duster that clean like you showed rite there, good cars...had front-end issues but after market parts fixed that issue. Good cars. Everyone tore them up like no tomorrow back in the 80s and then suddenly they were scarce as unicorns.
That’s a great idea that might keep more of these cars on the road. When you talk about reducing weight, one of the big things that we practiced was not keeping a lot of unused stuff in the car. Tool boxes, spare battery., case of washer juice, etc. Just driving an empty car, with properly inflated tires and clean plugs and no vacuum leaks..works wonders.
To think of Ford had made the change necessary at the time, the Pinto would be viewed in a much different light that it was. I never knew about this feather duster before though. Really good thinking on Chrysler’s part. I love my classic cars, and want to do what I can to keep them on the road
A mopar I loved from the 70's was one I never got my hands on. It was a 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T. It was super good driving and comfortable car. I'd still love to find a good.
Those are still available for around 5 to 10 thousand dollars. They are still cheap ish. If you like the body style check out volare super coupes that's what im looking for personally.
My cousin has one, all restored and rebuilt. Can't remember what engine he has in it but it's a bigger one than stock. I've got a '77 Buick LeSabre Sport Coupe with a rebuilt Rocket 350 myself. There's definitely some cool 70s cars out there, they just need their engines rebuilt and emissions deleted.
You really jogged my memory on 1976. I sold my '74 Z/28 and bought a new '76 VW Rabbit. I loved the Rabbit, but drove it a bit hard, wearing out the brakes and clutch in no time. Despite that, it was one of the best cars I've owned.
I'd drive a Duster or Dart like Uncle Tony describes every day if only to have something different from the "cookie cutters" sold today. I'll take one with the 3 speed overdrive thank you! It wouldn't bother me at all if performance was lacking since I have other vehicles to make up for that if I need to.
It was more than the gold standard the first time around. I believe it was also due to the US support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War which angered the Arab nations who at that time were producing and exporting oil to us. The second time in 1979, it was partially due to the fall of Shah of Iran and the US support for him (it was rumored that he came to the US for medical treatment. Some say it's a fallacy, but the general consensus was that he did come here). It didn't quite go up to a dollar until the 2nd crisis in 1979. It went up to about 55 cents around May 1974. Don't forget that Chrysler had some imports from Mitsubishi. The theory was in the 1970s, "If you can't beat them, join them". Like you said, "What's old is new again", and we will certainly "play that tune again". It affected them all. In 1979, we were going to buy a 400/4 speed Black SE Trans Am, but right at the time we were going to go do it, the second gas crisis hit. We put off buying the '79 and of course by 1980, the 301 Turbo was the top engine. We did get a Trans Am in 1980 and I still have it. We are in some weird times. When my NYS registrations didn't come in the mail (and to date have not), the DMV said it was "due to a lack of materials". Funny, I just renewed my classic car registrations and those came in a week's time like they always do. Not sure why the others haven't come, they use the same paper stock. LOL.
Odd & even days at the gas pump. Depending on if the last digit of your license plate was odd or even you could only get gas on that day. Mon-odd, Tues-even and so on. For CT residents anyways. 😁
I saw a Feather Duster at Milan Dragway in summer 1980. It was one of the best looking cars there in it's original paint. I think it had the drive line replaced with a roller cam small block. I liked them every since that day. I thought the hood , deck lid and possibly some other body panels were aluminum, not just the supports.
I’m relatively lucky when it comes to gas mileage in my project truck. That trusty 318 in my ‘88 Ram gets better gas mileage in the city than my daily… 15-17mpg all day long, even after a TBI to carb swap. Drives like a dream.
Remember the '76 Plymouth Sapporo/Dodge Challenger imports from Mitubishi. Mazda Mizers advertising 42 mpg etc. My Dad's '73 Vega got 35 mpg, but when things settled down he got the '76 Cutlass Supreme 350 and back to 18-20 mpg. Muscle cars were selling for $500 or around there because they were gas guzzlers along with big Caddies and Lincolns.
Like you said, Uncle T, the same efficiency measures used to gain performance will also work to increase mileage. Gut all the weight possible, do some things for aerodynamics, port the heads on the engine, reduce as much parasitic drag as possible. It all works!
I remember the toyota celica coming in around that time, i took one apart and couldnt believe how long they held together with what they used for internals.they really had to rely on balance and blueprinting rather than materials cause they used junk. I wish i could find a nice featherduster or dart light. Love the idea of making some parts for a slant id like to make a direct replacement hemi head for a slant use head studs low compression and adjustable turbo the hemi design on a slant would be amazing.
I'm a real big fan of Celicas, myself. Certainly never had a quality complaint about the engines. But there's basically my two favorite cars, Dusters and Celicas, right there. :)
@@jjohnson2560 I did have the version with the 2.8 at some point, I certainly wouldn't dispute the better capabilities, (though it wouldn't beat my Duster from a dig, that's not actually the kind of thing I really do. :) )
Worked at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in the 70's, the hot seller at the time was stripped down slant six Valiant's and Dusters. They sold a ton of them when the gas crunch hit, the best part was they got a lot of muscle cars in on trade for those fuel misers. It was great to have a cool used car manager who would allow you to take those hot rods home for a weekend to see if you liked it.
I got a '74 Dart SE four door with a 225. I plan to do the following: -Try to use all the Feather Duster parts that I can find or make and drill holes to lighten it. -A833OD aluminum case transmission (has the auto in it now). Looking into lowering the second gear ratio a bit so it ain't such a step up from first gear. -Stock size tires. -Electric fan. -3.23 gears with Suregrip in the 7.25 rear end. For the engine ('81 225): -I've blended the bowls to the seats and plan to smooth the ports, sharp turns, bowls, and manifold (intake and exhaust) ports. Removing lip on back of valves also. -Going to mill the head to get me a 9.0:1-9.2:1 compression. -Recurve the distributor. -Will make sure I have my reversion lips on both the intake and exhaust side. Will use a reversion chamber to future fight reversion. -2.25in single exhaust with a quiet muffler. -Super Six intake and leaning to a custom Weber 38/38 vacuum secondary carb. -Stock exhaust manifold. -On the fence of a RV cam, regrind the stock one, or what. That's all that I can think of. Trying to do all of this on a tight budget with the end goals being better MPG, reliability, and increase in power. This car will be my daily driver and will retain it's A/C and power steering. I want it to do 70-75mph for hours on end with MPG in the high 20's and low 20's in the city. I'm going to tune the piss out of it till there's nothing left to do, lol! I also got a wacky idea on how I can get the mixture to spin out around the intake port like a fast burn head. It involves some welding in the bowl and throat area and grinding in the throat area. For now I'll test it and play with this idea on a mower cylinder head. Really wish Chrysler would've went on through with the fast burn head they was working on for the 225.
Reporter to every new California Governor: "What are you going to do about oil companies price gouging Californians on gas?" New Governor (elected with oil company funds) "Ummm ..Yeah.... we're going to look into that." Next four years ***crickets chirping***
The guy that taught me to tune QJs told me about a 50 Ford he used to drive. It had an inline 6, and got 30 miles to the gallon. My old 77 Malibu, modified 305 turbo 350 2.73 rear gears, got 23.
my 77 Gran Fury 318 2 bbl dual exhaust 20 mpg on the highway with 85 octane. Acceptable, especially with 193K on the engine. Its the best mileage and powerful V-8 set up ever, why Chrysler did not dual exhaust all the 318-2bbl is a real mystery.
I love your videos Tony! My 1st car was a 74 charger and I've been hooked on Mopars since. My current ride is a 02 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.9 magnum (359,000 miles). It runs great and gets about 16 mpg. I am hoping to improve that with zero deck (quench) some more intake mods, updated cam and maybe headers. It's a daily driver, it's heavy and it's never gonna be fast. But more power and better mpg from the same mods are great. I have always been told it can't be done. That just makes it that much more enjoyable when i succeed!
Yes we also paid for the Alaskan pipe line in order to receive our dependence on foreign oil. Guess what? It cost more to get it to the lower 48 so they decided to send it to Asia, Japan and others and we still bought Arab oil. Who gets screwed. Yep! We hard Americans who need these fuels just to work , build, farm, truck.
Yeah, most of those pipelines just shipped our oil out of the country while the oil companies jacked up our prices. In California we ship our gas and diesel to Hawaii , where they pay less for it. HAWAII! A place that doesn't even have a drop of oil!
I got my drivers license in 1980 and at that time I paid $0.99 / gallon... But not for long. The inflation calculator equates that to about $3.35 in 2021so it wasn't that cheap then. Minimum wage went to $3.10 / hour. Ask me how I know 😒. A carton of smokes was $5.55 then. That equates to $18.63 in 2021. A carton sells for about $95 now. WTF 👿
In 1981 I had a 1965 Dodge Dart 4 door with a 170 /6 and it got 32mpg on rural roads if you kept it under 50 mph. Amazing. The emissions standards made the mpg much worse.
Glad I bought my LTD (Crown Victoria) when I did (early this year.) My Pontiac got about 11 miles to the gallon on hy-test, whereas that 85 LTD Crown Victoria of mine makes double, on regular gas. I don't even think it's painfully slow. Going from 340 horsepower to 140 horsepower doesn't feel nearly as extreme as you would think.
Yeah, all these people that say "that car's slow" really haven't driven an 80HP car trying to get out of it's own way. They don't know what slow really is!
if that thing has the 302 and not the 255, there's plenty of hope for it, like GT40P heads off an Explorer at the junkyard. I think the Richard Holdener channel could help you out there.
The funny thing is if you swapped in a H.O 302 FROM A FOXbody mustang with the efi....kept the stock HO cam with 1.7RR and just upgraded the heads to afr 165's or tfs 170's (could go bigger and still have great low end torque) you'd have 300 hp with the same or better mpg and with some tuning get it to run on regular gas 87 or 89 without pinging, just need a good tuner
I helped a friend buy one brand new, it was baby blue. It was the only one at the dealer, but it was a stick she couldn't drive so I drove it off the lot for her and she had to learn how to drive her new car. It was a little quicker than my (then) bone stock '67 4 door Dart.
I like inlines - fours and sixes, even the 3 cylinder in the Geo Metro. The Suzuki G10 is a pretty good motor and 50+ mpg is possible in the 1,700 pound Metro.
If I had it to do over again, I would have kept the slant in my valiant (fresh overhaul, about 200 miles on it) instead of bartering it for a 360, then stroking it to 408. I have realized that the horsepower game is over for me (can't come close to what you can get from the factory...700, 800, 1000 HP). What I SHOULD have done was spent the money having an adapter made to mate a 6 speed manual to the slant and just cruised the hell out of it. I had a '74 Duster with a 3 speed on the floor and it did everything I asked of it (except the 20 second 1/4 mile time, embarrassing to say the least never tried it again). But, it sure looked cool with the cragars and nice paint. With a 6 speed, I could have run modern highway speeds all day without taxing the slant, got great mileage, and looked cool doing it. Replace HP with /6 torque and lots of gears!
There is a potentially cheaper alternative to gasoline if you can put up with the drawbacks to ethanol like difficulty cold starting and it's greater tendency to soak up water and corrode things. And it has like ~110 octane rating which means high compression and supercharged engines love the stuff. It can be made to work with an older daily driver so long as you accommodate it's quirks.
@@auteurfiddler8706 That's not true as anyone who uses ethanol as an alternative to race gas can tell you. Where I live 110 octane sunoco is about 8-10 dollars per gallon out of the pump. E85 is usually about 30 cents less than whatever 87 octane pump gas is going for. Even after you factor in E85's ~20-30% higher fuel use I can still make way more power on E85 then 87 octane pump gas or slightly more power than the much more expensive race gas. There is a reason blower guys love the stuff. Using e85 or straight fuel grade ethonal as a cheaper alternative to gasoline in a typical street car is a bit trickier but if gas prices get high enough it would be worth it. You can literally make fuel grade ethonal in your back yard out of waste food if you were determined enough. And if enough infrastructure shifted towards producing ethonal fuels to compete with gasoline it would actually drive down the price of gas by reducing demand which high gas prices are the problem we're trying to address.
I wish you fired the duster up for us. When you painted it i started thinking on painting my Buick regal. But i want to get it put together be4 i do any painting on it. I like the color you pick for the duster it really made thar car look nice.
i'm 60 years old and i will NEVER forget being with my dad in the car in line to get gas. the attendant would walk to the end of the line and put a sign behind the last car and if you were behind that car you were screwed until tomorrow. to this day i get anxiety unless i have a full tank.
It cost the same to keep them full as it does empty. There is now excuse for running out.
I drive a 1967 Riviera GS. 430 Big block. No $600 car payments and $200 insurance. The way I see it, paying $350 in gas a month plus $125 per year in classic car insurance is still saving me roughly $500 bucks a month!
I'm looking for that same st400 transmission from your car! If you know of one please comment
I had a 69 Electra 225 with the 430 in it and was a HUGE and HEAVY car. It rode like sitting on a sofa in the living room, went like hell with a top speed well in excess of 120 mph and if running at 65 or 70 out on the highway it consistently gave 24 mpg to 26 mpg but if I ran it at 55 mph it got about 16 mpg. I miss that car.
My First question is do you live in a State where you get Snow? and second if so do you drive it in the winter?
I drive a 68 plymouth fury with a 383 id like to say im saving money but it breaks all the damn time😂
@@chikechovis2499 Sometimes when people say they save money by driving a classic car I mean it sounds good on Paper but who knows depends on the situation and how relieable your classic is and where you live like if you live in a state where there is no snow at all ok then Daily the sht out of it by all means but most people are putting their cars up for the winter lol
Working at a gas station in NY I remember it well. Gas lines. Odd & even license plates to get gas. People were freaking out. The flip side....Some of the baddest muscle cars on the planet selling for $300.00. Good times.
@J FizzyIt will go down as time goes on.
Desirable items are expensive on release, then they gradually lose value as time passes. Eventually the young adults who didn't have money for them in their day come into money with age, and go back and buy things from their past they couldnt afford before. Prices go up. Eventually that generation starts to dwindle in number, price goes down again.
I deal primarily in vintage audio equipment and electronics, and its in that industry too.
Sort of like a roller coaster of ups and downs.
That was also the time of locking gas caps and people punching holes in gas tanks.
As for the "Feather Duster". Wasn't that the time of Chrysler's "Lean Burn Technology"? Towards the end of the 70's, Datsun had the B210 and Honda had the Civic. Both supposedly approaching 50 mpg.
In 87, I went to work at Peach Bottom Power Station, York, PA. and was amazed by all the Hondas and Toyotas in the parking lot. A coworker out of Baltimore explained that they all had their F250 4X4's sitting at the house. The "rice burners" were for daily commuting.
I'M glad you are going to do this , Tony . One thing I would like to clear up is the gas prices in Europe . Gas prices are higher in Europe because of the taxes placed upon it by governments . some of it is the price of oil but a majority of the price is a tax to support public transportation . Keep up the great work . I'll be following . Wicked pissa !
And the average mileage over here is double or triple of that in the states. And our distances are way different. 400km I'm in Paris and crossed 3 countries. In the USA I wouldn't even have crossed Texas 😜
@@gorkzop It's double or triple because the power is a bunch of gerbels running in a cage under the hood . Try driving one of those death traps on American roads . Motorcycles and scooters are also very popular in Europe for that very reason . Sucky roads , high taxes , outrageous insurance , no parking spaces are just some of the issues .
Over here, there's a tendency for any rise in the taxes on fuel (There haven't been any in this decade) to also be the corporations' chance to raise prices even *more* knowing people will blame 'the gummint.'
@@tomdamon7208 ive got a SAAb, and a Daihatsu and a '61 Plymouth Yeah Daihatsu makes 70hp but weights as much as 2 Harleys and is really fast. Parking isn't a problem and the roads in the Netherlands are probably the best in the world.
Gotta agree on the taxes though.
But agree to disagree. If an European needs 3 pieces of plywood they rent a small trailer and Americans are happy they've got a 2500 super duty truck. Different infrastructure different cultural needs
@@tomdamon7208 plus anything under 8 miles I just bike. Sometimes if I want to get drunk even more 😂
Hey Uncle T....Preach...I love the fact that I came here for the cars....and found out you like 'alternative history'...Sorry...How about actual history, the one you have to look for ...not the one they spoon feed you on MSM...
Have a great day!! From one 'Reader' to another... Peace and blessings!!! You deserve them!!
Dont forget the early 60s Falcons with the small inline sixes- you kept them tuned up and your foot out of them and they'd get around 22-27 mpg which was unheard of for the time.
I remember buying a small booklet back in the early 80's called " The Super mileage carburetor". I think I paid 16 bucks for it, it's kicking around somewhere on my bookshelf. The nice thing about pressure on fuel is, it brings out the best in engineering. A 1976 slant six producing 97hp @ 36 mpg, fast forward to a 707hp engine with the same mpg. None of that would have happened if there weren't pressure.
That argument is flawed fundamentally but i agree adversity breeds innovation but so does competition
Dodge also rebadged Mitsubishi rigs and those were bombproof at the time. My buddy had a colt that outlived his teen years while his grandma's Coronet 440 sat in the driveway. As new cars wait for chips a lot of great old cars are coming out of the woods and barns and sheds, this should be really good fuel for that renaissance.
Tony, had a old 78 Plymouth Volary and got normally 24mpg on the highway. Now have a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 3.6lt and get just over 25mpg on the highway. Basically nothing really changed over the past 50 years. The funny part is that I had a 1990 Dodge Ram 1500 and on a trip I could get just over 20mpg on the highway, made numerous trips from Northern Ohio to South Carolina and was running a averaged speed of 70mph and still got 20 mpg. Now my newer Dodge Ram 1500, I would be shocked if I ever got it over 16mpg.
I found a Holley slant 6 carb on a 67 Belvedere taxi in the junkyard that had a venturi that was significantly smaller than normal. I used it for awhile on my commuter. It gave me a couple of mpg.
I read something years ago where an engineer claims that Chrysler had a hemi head converted 273 ( revert back to what it started out hmm ) that met the emissions standards WITHOUT cat converters or anything else. The 426 is a dramatic example of the design ( 176 cc + combustion chamber ) as the 50's engines were 120 max ( 354 - 392 ) , so you know the little Dodge engines were well below 100 cc. I guess if I ever win big on the lottery I will probably mess with stuff like this just for the heck of it.
Your math is a little off. 6.1 cubic inches equals 100cc.
Like you, I am old enough to remember the energy crisis of the 70s. I’m also old enough to remember when America was a net exporter of energy. Of course that was only a year ago.
Think back to 1959, America was a gas export nation. Till politicians took over.
@@richarda996 I wasn’t even conceived until March of 1960, so in 1959 my dad was still scheming.
My '75 Chevy C-20 pick'em up truck just hit 79797.9 for the sixth time. 7 mpg down hill with a tail wind been driving her since Dad bought her new 47 years ago this week.
Air pumps were my favorite accessory from those years, a hp robbing device to inject air into the exhaust to meet the required ppm reading. Not that it was more efficient just was the only to meet the requirements.
Well, the idea there was anti *smog,* rather than 'efficiency.' The extra air was to provide more O2 to burn off more of the extra hydrocarbons before they left the exhaust, not to really *use* that for efficiency and power. In those days the primary concerns were really the unhealthy air in the cities and acid rain and all that.
I think guys use em now as a supercharger for the old 5hp Briggs engines 😄
I think they were just a way of cheating emissions, like these 6 , 8 and now 10 speed autos
@@shoominati23 Eh, they worked OK, they were just made to do something else than CO2 emissions. And obviously there's better tech now for what they were made to do anyway. I don't see how fancy autos are 'cheating' emissions. I expect those function as well for what they do. Hopefully they can last, is all.
The interesting thing about that is I don't think Mopar ever had to use air pumps. Their engines were generally better engineered and more efficient back then, or at least until about 1975 when the cat cons were a thing. In 73-4 most of their engines were still free of most of the smog-reducing garbaged that the Fords and GMs were saddled with.
I remember back in the '60's filling up my '67 Dart GT (with 273 Charger engine) for just $4.00. Yes, you read that right... $4.00. But pay really sucked.
I know people's memories are short, but about 15 years ago the price was in the upper $3/lower $4 range. Right now here in ND it's around $3.15 so it's not hurting that much yet, and sure as hell not as much as it hurt 15 years ago. And the reason this time is because of price gouging. OPEC shut production down during the pandemic, and they are keeping production down to jack their profits up.
We're at near $10 the gallon here in Holland. Efi and overdrive is what changed big time my 351c's drinking problems and actually increased driving fun. Aside the economy, which is relative vs investments costs, my plugs, oil, exhaust show the rehab really did good! Keep up the nice work, really enjoying this channel!
Fiberglass hood, decklid, fenders and smaller /earlier bumpers.....little 14 x 4.5 wheels with pumped up tires. Distributor trick and you will beat the feather/lite duo! cool stuff
I grew up 70 to 74 in highschool small town farm boy . We loved our motorcycles four wheel drive pickup trucks jeeps and mussle cars. My brother bought a 73 or 74 ,duster slant 6 3 speed floor shift . I loved driving it. It had strong torque ran about 24 28 mpg while running it hard on the interstate. Simple clean economic strong running eazy handling. Fun to run . His wife ran it out coolent burnt the engine up. He replaced it then she ran into the ditch springing the front suspension. He got the messages bought her a new car. Her way of keeping up to style.
Welcome to the American South, Tony! We're glad to count you among us! 🇱🇷
I had a beautiful rusty beige dart lite as a kid. I've never been so sad about crashing it as I am now... I remember it getting damn near 30 mpg. At 16 I loved that car. Never ever considered it as a valuable then, paid like 50 bucks Canadian for it. I packed the hood so full of snow one night that it was an ice block the next morning, lol, it is missed tonight more than any of my ex gf s... Lol thx Tony for such great content!!!
Love it when the Professor Uncle Tony comes out. You need to wear a 3 pc tweed suit when you have talks like this one. I know you are a gear head but you are really smart about society in general. You completely nailed the petroleum issue of the early 70's and the geopolitical reasons for it in the most concise way I've ever heard. I too was there. :)
I agree with Tony and the tweed suit. Sort of like the beginning of Masterpiece Theater, sitting in a library in an arm chair and a pipe if he really needs to smoke.
If an ASE is the equivalent of a Masters Degree, Uncle Tony has dozens of PHDs.
Yep the end of the gold standard changed everything
the first gas shortage i had my old GMC v-6 truck converted to propane in 73 i was still in high school there was plenty of propane and it was very cheap
Cool, 305 V6? Ever had problems with valves sinking into the cylinder heads when running propane?
@@Prowbar yes it was a 305 my dad had a machine shop in Tucson and we rebuilt the motor never had any problems with the valves
@@tnguy9696 cool thanks. I have a 305 V6 in a 65 GMC, looking into converting over to propane as well.
Once in the early 1980's I heard a guy lamenting about the sluggishness of his daily driver Feather Duster. He was combing for a small block in a wrecking yard near where I was hunting for A-body items. I suggested just swap his 2.76 rear gear for a 3.21or even a 3.55 set. There had to be one or two around since there were so many Valiants & Darts being parted out in those days. His had the A833 overdrive 4-speed, this would have been an easy way to feel a big difference without the pain of changing everything up front (something always doesn't line up)
Yea Nixon has a lot to answer!
Here in New Zealand my daily is Falcon 5.0 Windsor, fuel is about $2.50 a litre, I counter price by not buyin consumer crap I don't need!
Amazing. I have a car that was made just as Carter was about to leave office, and it gets about 13 MPG, 1980 Jeep Cherokee. It’s my daily driver but it’s got dejavu from 42 years ago when it was built.
Good call on the printing of money. Milton Friedman knew this decades ago: print money, get inflation.
Geez UT, I was 15 in 1976 working every hour after school & weekends to save up enough scratch to get a car, but I'm bummed, I never even heard of the "Feather Duster!" I would've snapped up one instead of the 67 Firebird 400 HO I ended up with, I've always loved the duster body style!
I really enjoyed this video brother!
In an episode of Roadkill, they showed some young people a Duster and a 70 Mustang, and most said the Duster looked better. While for us, back in the day, the Mustang was the cool car. But it does have a kind of confused, busy styling with a bunch of stuff tacked on, while the Duster is clean looking.
But I think you were fortunate to have any 67 Firebird, especially that one.
@@auteurfiddler8706 Yes, thank you, my bird had a custom paint job, 4 layers of black, with a hand painted copy of the 1976 Trans Am on the hood, I didn't do it, it was already done when I bought it. I have to say though that it was truly beautiful, I confirmed the bird on the hood had cost the owner $1000 bucks and that was in 1974 dollars. Yes I was jazzed to own it, lots of compliments!
How you describe that car is how I would describe my 94 Jetta. The first car I had and I loved it. It was falling apart around me yet never failed me. I replaced it with a 70’s Beetle because I was sick of fixing cooling system issues and I had wanted one as a kid.
Before we got rid of it the thing had sat at least six or eight months and it started up immediately with almost no cranking.
Such a fun car, only non stock thing was wider tires that helped you be able to go into corners faster than hell and make it out without flipping, you only felt like you were going to.
I had a 77' full size Dodge car that had the Super Six in it that averaged 22 mpg. What surprised me was it called for the same exhaust as Chrysler 300 Cordoba less the Y-pipe. The crazy part is, it was louder at idle that at cruise speed. Great video, keep them coming.
Saying we were x years away from running out of oil isn't just another trick to manipulate the economy. As technology advanced we were/are able to find, reach, and extract deeper and different forms of petroleum reserves.
Peak oil is a term used by people who don't understand what it means. Peak oil is the amount of oil available around the current price. That's why it keeps changing. At $13 a barrel we would have hit it by the early 80's. When the price jumped we started looking for new fields and how to get more out of existing ones.
OPEC didn't realize it at the time of the embargo, but they gave the petrochemical industry the kick in the ass it needed to start looking for more oil.
Tony, I just watched you on the youtube video "High Performance Engine Geometry With The Legendary David Vizard". You were talking about rod ratios and power gains. Rod length has more to do with increasing fuel economy than increasing power. But you need at least a 2:1 rod ratio to notice the fuel efficiency increase. You also need to use a dished piston and still maintain a high compression ratio. Difficult to do without swapping to smaller chamber heads. Then you must remove all sharp edges inside the combustion chamber. The sharp edges of the combustion chamber cause fuel mixture to burn in the Exhaust port. The deep dish in the center of the piston will prevent detonation, and you will find you can run a higher compression ratio with a lower octane fuel.
I was a little kid , and it had to be 1980 or 81 when gas hit a buck I do remember everyone was pissed about it.
Now I want a Feather Duster. Thanks.
UT "Yes I agree with you but were not here to talk about that" Perfect! This is why I identify with you and this channel so much KUDOS' UT Great Video!
Everybody calm down. It's not the end of the world
It's the end of the world as we know it.
I owned a regular Duster that may have been as light as a feather duster due to all the rust. It had a 3 speed manual trans. If I was easy on it, I would get right about 30 mpg. My route included several stops where I often had to wait for traffic so it was hardly a good test of actual mileage. If I had made a long trip on interstate it might have reached 35. It got me to work and home for many years so it was worth its weight in gold as it saved me a lot of money.
Manual steering, basic AM radio, rubber floor, not carpet. It got the job done.
Thanks for the history lesson UT!
I remember those days. I was running around with a 73 6cyl 3 on the tree ford maverick. Would love to find another one. Had a lot of fun with it beating the crap out of it all the while getting good fuel mileage. 😂😂
It's about time the efficiency gets noticed. Tony, you often follow my thought process and when it comes to vehicle efficiency, we could be addressing supercharging efficiency. Some blowers are far more efficient than others, yet all will raise volumetric efficiency over 100%. Can't wait for the world to become aware of what is rising to the surface on your channel!
Hard to believe the world hasn't caught in too a technology that's roughly a century old. Hummm?
You can change the pulley ratio to not boost pressure too high and keep your efficiency. You still have the internal resistance of running the pump though. When you go to the track just swap pulleys to over drive it (big pulley on crank, small one on compressor).
My dad graduated high school in '73 and remembers sitting in the gas station lines waiting to feed his '70 Camaro SS/RS he bought in '72. Great timing.
Sometimes I get to feeling like I was born too late. That the good times really are over for good, and I missed them all. But, whenever I watch Uncle Tony, I'm reminded that the times are as good or bad as you want to make them. There's always more than one way to skin a cat so to speak.
I love my 77 formula has the looks. Has a 241 open rear ( it’s all numbers matching so as Tony says LEAVE IT ALONE) sips on gas as a Brit sips on tea 22-24 mpg
Hey,Uncle Tony, so true those Feather Dusters were easy on fuel. I remember tuning and installing clutches in those in the early eighties. Understanding carb tuning and what makes an engine happy,along with how important rolling resistance is can net some very good results. My 71 Nova that runs 10.5s the way we drive it, full exhaust and drag radials 4.11 gears gets 16+ @60 mph the spark plugs look like they come out of a fuel injected engine. Take the time,get the results. Thanks UT
My wife's first car was a Dart Lite, OD4. Still have it! Great car!!
You learn something new every day, I never knew that about the feather Duster,. Your Duster is looking good, with the aluminum slot wheels...
I bought my one owner Feather Duster from a used car lot in Issaquah, Washington while in the USAF in 1985. I was 19 and borrowed the money to buy it from a kind gentleman that I worked with. I drove that car for years afterwards. Border to border, sea to shining sea. I still own it! Haven't driven it a lot in the last 25 years, though. It's still mostly all original. It has all the light weight parts on it that Tony talked about here, except for the trunk lid - it has the steel bracing like run-of-the-mill Dusters. From everything I can tell and know about the car, it IS the original deck lid. I think my car was built so early in the production run at the plant in St. Louis that it was either used by mistake or they were just trying to use up parts they had before switching over to the "correct" parts.
I had a '71 Dart GT with a 318. I put a 4-barrel intake and carb on it. Intake was off a 273 and the carb off a 440...way too big. But as long as I would run on two barrels, the car would get 24 mpg. No one believed me, but I proved it time and again.
I've got a 74 Charger with a small block that is super fun to drive its fast and handles great good gas milage not so much so last December I bought a new project a 68 Dodge Dart with the 225 slant 6 it has become the grocery getter daily driver it gets about 18 mpg and is fun to drive as well. looking forward to seeing what you do with the leaning tower of power. I would love to get this little Dart to 20+ mpg. So bring on the knowledge Tony!
My 75 Dart had a special fuel “minder” option where a vacuum switch would activate the left fender mounted turn signal if you applied too much throttle. I enjoyed showing that to mechanics, they wouldn’t believe it until I showed them.
Doing a fuel economy project with a 3rd gen base camaro with a 283, t5 and quadrajet carb! This vid is perfect timing for me since everyone that hears my plans think I’m crazy lol
Provided you can run it lean enough and at a low enough rpm with good torque and oil pressure, I do see why it won't work...302 v8 ford's were getting 22-27 mpg highway in the 60's 70's with some jetting changes and what not and a 4 speed so it should work for your 283 with a 5 speed...plus the camaro is more aerodynamic
1984 - - South Carolina service station - - owner shows me a Honda CVCC that he put a CRX 5-speed in. Claimed 75 MPG highway !!
CRX HF models with the 1,3 claimed 67 MPG Hwy. We've had "extreme gas mileage" technology for a long time.
Best down to earth gear head channel there is.So true on the Feather Duster I knew a guy back in 90,s had one as a dailey.....centerlines on it fats in tha back ..skinneys on front straight shift,drove it everyday and got just as good gas mileage as cars fuel injected.......only 1 I have ever seen original.Love your channel.
VERY interesting! Wish I knew about the Feather Duster 45 years ago! Very cool how they got 30 MPG out of a 225!
I miss my slant 6 75 duster, now I have a 73 Ford mustang with a "built" 250ci 6cyl and 3 speed trans, 5 years ago I wouldn't even consider a 6cyl, I like doing burnouts and going hammer down on on ramps, "I wanna go fast"!!!
I really like the 833 new process (over drive), its tough, has better than 3 to 1 first gear, and .7 top gear. You need a broad power band but compared to a regular 4 speed using a 4:56 rear end, it would give you a 5.31 launch. On the hwy, the over drive is like having 3.19 rear end. Big drop on the first shift (5000 to 3000) but if you're driving to the track, the transmision is a gift.
The Mopar Bible seems to think it isn't strong enough for racing since the strongest direct drive position is now in the place where it isn't needed.
I forget the details. Does it have an aluminum case?
@@auteurfiddler8706 Interesting. I just assumed it was a small spline 833. Seems to me it was aluminum. It was a regular size van with a 6 and that trans. I had a '72 360 I massaged. It pulled really strong from 2500 out past 6000. We were carfull no to punch it at the line because I didn't think the 81/4 would take it. After about 5000 mi. the rear end gave up anyway but the trans was fine. Hard to say what would happen if we were dumping the clutch with an 83/4 out back. My thought is that an engine\trans like that in an A body would be having your cake and eating it too.
.....Oh yeah....It got amazing gas miliage !
@@auteurfiddler8706 I've only got the old dc book....Oops!
@@auteurfiddler8706 Hello again....I was thinking about the strength issue for the OD trans and wondered if the gear set could be put into a steel case. Also the OD is in the third gear position so on the track you'd be, in effect, shifting 1-2-4. With 4.56s OD would be skipped. Thanks for the reply
Make that rpm drop 5000 to 2700.....Opps
I have always thought the Feather Duster an amazing effort by Chrysler Corp using the parts they had in hand with great results. Love how they made their manual into a 4 speed with overdrive.
I've three of those transmissions (salvage dealer closed out its transmissions). I'll have to put them in my will.
glad to see this video. i check the gas millage on almost every tank on my 69 327 Nova and 1976 K20. great tunning tool BTW. I get 12 mpg on the 3/4 ton truck that is not bad at all and i am not done tunning it
This sounds like a good time to revisit the Mobil Economy Runs...!!! I recall Mopar magazine articles about it eons ago... Fascinating stuff!!
I have an Overdrive-4 from a '77 F-Body that I'm putting in my '82 Mirada. Floor tunnel, clutch and brake pedals are drop-ins and my carpet is for a '79 Aspen with a four-speed. Wide ratios between the gears, yes. But who cares- it'll be a blast to drive when I'm done!
Back in the day we looked for the feather dusters for our circle track race cars. By the late seventies they they were getting enough miles on them to start showing up in the junk yards and for sale cheap.All we used was the sheet metal skin and the over drive transmission. The overdrives had a aluminum case rather than cast iron so we would gut them and install normal four speed internals for a big weight savings
Europe has been at $8/gal for a long time. We are over there every few years to visit the grand-kids. Smaller cars, lower rolling resistance, and modest compression motors with turbos and EFI will get you a long way. An EFI Turbo Slant is almost the perfect motor ... Add the OD 4-speed and maybe a quick change rear and you have a pretty good MPG car
They had already quit making the aluminum /6 by the time the Feather Duster came out, am I right? I had a '72 Gold Duster that was lightening it's self by rusting out the rear quarters. I took both doors off one day and drove it around like Ricardo Montalban's Fantasy Island car. Felt lighter and peppier that way.
Great history lesson Tony. Brings back good memories of the Feather Duster I bought from my dad in the early ‘80’s (that he bought new). One thing I remember about my car that you didn’t mention was that it had a gas miser light ( not sure if that was the correct term). The left turn signal indicator light on top of the fender would come on if you gave the car to much gas. So to maximize fuel economy And still maintain decent acceleration I would only accelerate to the point of the light beginning to flicker before shifting gears. My ‘69 Road Runner sat while I spent most of the time driving the Duster, I clearly remembered the point when gas prices left the upper .90’s per gallon and got over $1.00. Our friends were always excited to share the locations of any gas stations we found that were .98-.99 per gallon. Seeing your video makes wish I still had that Feather Duster, as you described it was a great little car. I’m really glad I still have my ‘69 Road Runner. Thanks for the memory. 👍
my parents friends came too oz in 1975 and drove my sister honda civic for a month and a bit and went back to the usa and bought one straight away and keep it for 20 years they loved that thing
Those gas shortages in the 70’s allowed me to buy cars I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford, or I wouldn’t have even thought of buying, like an Imperial and a Hemi Super Bee. Our gas here today, for premium would be around $7.00 a gallon, and it doesn’t phase the car guys at all, I still run 4.56 gears in my 67 Coronet. I’ve become conservative in my old age, I used to run 4.86’s
Love to have an old valiant, or duster that clean like you showed rite there, good cars...had front-end issues but after market parts fixed that issue. Good cars. Everyone tore them up like no tomorrow back in the 80s and then suddenly they were scarce as unicorns.
That’s a great idea that might keep more of these cars on the road. When you talk about reducing weight, one of the big things that we practiced was not keeping a lot of unused stuff in the car. Tool boxes, spare battery., case of washer juice, etc. Just driving an empty car, with properly inflated tires and clean plugs and no vacuum leaks..works wonders.
To think of Ford had made the change necessary at the time, the Pinto would be viewed in a much different light that it was.
I never knew about this feather duster before though. Really good thinking on Chrysler’s part.
I love my classic cars, and want to do what I can to keep them on the road
A mopar I loved from the 70's was one I never got my hands on. It was a 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T. It was super good driving and comfortable car. I'd still love to find a good.
I owned one and really enjoyed driving it. Mine had a 318 4 speed like uncle Tony spoke of.
Those are still available for around 5 to 10 thousand dollars. They are still cheap ish. If you like the body style check out volare super coupes that's what im looking for personally.
My cousin has one, all restored and rebuilt. Can't remember what engine he has in it but it's a bigger one than stock. I've got a '77 Buick LeSabre Sport Coupe with a rebuilt Rocket 350 myself. There's definitely some cool 70s cars out there, they just need their engines rebuilt and emissions deleted.
You really jogged my memory on 1976. I sold my '74 Z/28 and bought a new '76 VW Rabbit. I loved the Rabbit, but drove it a bit hard, wearing out the brakes and clutch in no time. Despite that, it was one of the best cars I've owned.
I'd drive a Duster or Dart like Uncle Tony describes every day if only to have something different from the "cookie cutters" sold today. I'll take one with the 3 speed overdrive thank you! It wouldn't bother me at all if performance was lacking since I have other vehicles to make up for that if I need to.
It was more than the gold standard the first time around. I believe it was also due to the US support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War which angered the Arab nations who at that time were producing and exporting oil to us. The second time in 1979, it was partially due to the fall of Shah of Iran and the US support for him (it was rumored that he came to the US for medical treatment. Some say it's a fallacy, but the general consensus was that he did come here).
It didn't quite go up to a dollar until the 2nd crisis in 1979. It went up to about 55 cents around May 1974. Don't forget that Chrysler had some imports from Mitsubishi. The theory was in the 1970s, "If you can't beat them, join them".
Like you said, "What's old is new again", and we will certainly "play that tune again". It affected them all. In 1979, we were going to buy a 400/4 speed Black SE Trans Am, but right at the time we were going to go do it, the second gas crisis hit. We put off buying the '79 and of course by 1980, the 301 Turbo was the top engine. We did get a Trans Am in 1980 and I still have it.
We are in some weird times. When my NYS registrations didn't come in the mail (and to date have not), the DMV said it was "due to a lack of materials". Funny, I just renewed my classic car registrations and those came in a week's time like they always do. Not sure why the others haven't come, they use the same paper stock. LOL.
Yep, our meddling ticked off the Arabs. Government intervention at its best.
Odd & even days at the gas pump. Depending on if the last digit of your license plate was odd or even you could only get gas on that day. Mon-odd, Tues-even and so on. For CT residents anyways. 😁
I saw a Feather Duster at Milan Dragway in summer 1980. It was one of the best looking cars there in it's original paint. I think it had the drive line replaced with a roller cam small block. I liked them every since that day. I thought the hood , deck lid and possibly some other body panels were aluminum, not just the supports.
I’m relatively lucky when it comes to gas mileage in my project truck. That trusty 318 in my ‘88 Ram gets better gas mileage in the city than my daily… 15-17mpg all day long, even after a TBI to carb swap.
Drives like a dream.
Remember the '76 Plymouth Sapporo/Dodge Challenger imports from Mitubishi. Mazda Mizers advertising 42 mpg etc. My Dad's '73 Vega got 35 mpg, but when things settled down he got the '76 Cutlass Supreme 350 and back to 18-20 mpg. Muscle cars were selling for $500 or around there because they were gas guzzlers along with big Caddies and Lincolns.
SSSSHHHHH!!!!! we want to forget those cars from MOPAR. On the other hand people were unloading big block muscle cars for around $500.
Like you said, Uncle T, the same efficiency measures used to gain performance will also work to increase mileage. Gut all the weight possible, do some things for aerodynamics, port the heads on the engine, reduce as much parasitic drag as possible. It all works!
I remember the toyota celica coming in around that time, i took one apart and couldnt believe how long they held together with what they used for internals.they really had to rely on balance and blueprinting rather than materials cause they used junk. I wish i could find a nice featherduster or dart light. Love the idea of making some parts for a slant id like to make a direct replacement hemi head for a slant use head studs low compression and adjustable turbo the hemi design on a slant would be amazing.
I'm a real big fan of Celicas, myself. Certainly never had a quality complaint about the engines. But there's basically my two favorite cars, Dusters and Celicas, right there. :)
The celica is better than the duster but the 240 z beats them both
@@jjohnson2560 I did have the version with the 2.8 at some point, I certainly wouldn't dispute the better capabilities, (though it wouldn't beat my Duster from a dig, that's not actually the kind of thing I really do. :) )
Worked at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in the 70's, the hot seller at the time was stripped down slant six Valiant's and Dusters. They sold a ton of them when the gas crunch hit, the best part was they got a lot of muscle cars in on trade for those fuel misers. It was great to have a cool used car manager who would allow you to take those hot rods home for a weekend to see if you liked it.
I got a '74 Dart SE four door with a 225. I plan to do the following:
-Try to use all the Feather Duster parts that I can find or make and drill holes to lighten it.
-A833OD aluminum case transmission (has the auto in it now). Looking into lowering the second gear ratio a bit so it ain't such a step up from first gear.
-Stock size tires.
-Electric fan.
-3.23 gears with Suregrip in the 7.25 rear end.
For the engine ('81 225):
-I've blended the bowls to the seats and plan to smooth the ports, sharp turns, bowls, and manifold (intake and exhaust) ports. Removing lip on back of valves also.
-Going to mill the head to get me a 9.0:1-9.2:1 compression.
-Recurve the distributor.
-Will make sure I have my reversion lips on both the intake and exhaust side. Will use a reversion chamber to future fight reversion.
-2.25in single exhaust with a quiet muffler.
-Super Six intake and leaning to a custom Weber 38/38 vacuum secondary carb.
-Stock exhaust manifold.
-On the fence of a RV cam, regrind the stock one, or what.
That's all that I can think of. Trying to do all of this on a tight budget with the end goals being better MPG, reliability, and increase in power. This car will be my daily driver and will retain it's A/C and power steering. I want it to do 70-75mph for hours on end with MPG in the high 20's and low 20's in the city. I'm going to tune the piss out of it till there's nothing left to do, lol!
I also got a wacky idea on how I can get the mixture to spin out around the intake port like a fast burn head. It involves some welding in the bowl and throat area and grinding in the throat area.
For now I'll test it and play with this idea on a mower cylinder head. Really wish Chrysler would've went on through with the fast burn head they was working on for the 225.
Reporter to every new California Governor: "What are you going to do about oil companies price gouging Californians on gas?"
New Governor (elected with oil company funds) "Ummm ..Yeah.... we're going to look into that."
Next four years ***crickets chirping***
Check their bank accounts.
The guy that taught me to tune QJs told me about a 50 Ford he used to drive. It had an inline 6, and got 30 miles to the gallon. My old 77 Malibu, modified 305 turbo 350 2.73 rear gears, got 23.
my 77 Gran Fury 318 2 bbl dual exhaust 20 mpg on the highway with 85 octane. Acceptable, especially with 193K on the engine. Its the best mileage and powerful V-8 set up ever, why Chrysler did not dual exhaust all the 318-2bbl is a real mystery.
I love your videos Tony! My 1st car was a 74 charger and I've been hooked on Mopars since. My current ride is a 02 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.9 magnum (359,000 miles). It runs great and gets about 16 mpg. I am hoping to improve that with zero deck (quench) some more intake mods, updated cam and maybe headers.
It's a daily driver, it's heavy and it's never gonna be fast. But more power and better mpg from the same mods are great. I have always been told it can't be done. That just makes it that much more enjoyable when i succeed!
Yes we also paid for the Alaskan pipe line in order to receive our dependence on foreign oil. Guess what? It cost more to get it to the lower 48 so they decided to send it to Asia, Japan and others and we still bought Arab oil. Who gets screwed. Yep! We hard Americans who need these fuels just to work , build, farm, truck.
Yeah, most of those pipelines just shipped our oil out of the country while the oil companies jacked up our prices. In California we ship our gas and diesel to Hawaii , where they pay less for it. HAWAII! A place that doesn't even have a drop of oil!
P.S. loved my 72 pinto runabout
I just installed 3.90 gear in my truck. Picked up 1.5 to 2 mpg around town, where I spend most of my time.
I got my drivers license in 1980 and at that time I paid $0.99 / gallon... But not for long. The inflation calculator equates that to about $3.35 in 2021so it wasn't that cheap then. Minimum wage went to $3.10 / hour. Ask me how I know 😒. A carton of smokes was $5.55 then. That equates to $18.63 in 2021. A carton sells for about $95 now. WTF 👿
Speaking of mpg, have you done a follow up on the perfect daily driver dart? Did it meet your mpg goals?
How about Plan Z...that thing only weighs 2000 pounds!
In 1981 I had a 1965 Dodge Dart 4 door with a 170 /6 and it got 32mpg on rural roads if you kept it under 50 mph. Amazing. The emissions standards made the mpg much worse.
Glad I bought my LTD (Crown Victoria) when I did (early this year.) My Pontiac got about 11 miles to the gallon on hy-test, whereas that 85 LTD Crown Victoria of mine makes double, on regular gas. I don't even think it's painfully slow. Going from 340 horsepower to 140 horsepower doesn't feel nearly as extreme as you would think.
Yeah, all these people that say "that car's slow" really haven't driven an 80HP car trying to get out of it's own way. They don't know what slow really is!
@@MattsRageFitGarage Yes, speed is relative lol.
if that thing has the 302 and not the 255, there's plenty of hope for it, like GT40P heads off an Explorer at the junkyard. I think the Richard Holdener channel could help you out there.
My ford ltd, also got 22 mpg. The 85 mph speedometer was stupid. I could peg the needle to f on the fuel gauge,lol.
The funny thing is if you swapped in a H.O 302 FROM A FOXbody mustang with the efi....kept the stock HO cam with 1.7RR and just upgraded the heads to afr 165's or tfs 170's (could go bigger and still have great low end torque) you'd have 300 hp with the same or better mpg and with some tuning get it to run on regular gas 87 or 89 without pinging, just need a good tuner
I helped a friend buy one brand new, it was baby blue. It was the only one at the dealer, but it was a stick she couldn't drive so I drove it off the lot for her and she had to learn how to drive her new car. It was a little quicker than my (then) bone stock '67 4 door Dart.
That's really cool. I thought I knew a lot about cars in the 70s but I didn't know of the feather duster!
Four bangers are fun, saving money on cars and fuel is a must for those of us with many hobbies and interests. Now, but previously as well.
I like inlines - fours and sixes, even the 3 cylinder in the Geo Metro. The Suzuki G10 is a pretty good motor and 50+ mpg is possible in the 1,700 pound Metro.
You are the only guy to talk about this Tony I really appreciate.. Tough times. Let's go Brandon
that paint still looks good on camera!
If I had it to do over again, I would have kept the slant in my valiant (fresh overhaul, about 200 miles on it) instead of bartering it for a 360, then stroking it to 408. I have realized that the horsepower game is over for me (can't come close to what you can get from the factory...700, 800, 1000 HP). What I SHOULD have done was spent the money having an adapter made to mate a 6 speed manual to the slant and just cruised the hell out of it. I had a '74 Duster with a 3 speed on the floor and it did everything I asked of it (except the 20 second 1/4 mile time, embarrassing to say the least never tried it again). But, it sure looked cool with the cragars and nice paint. With a 6 speed, I could have run modern highway speeds all day without taxing the slant, got great mileage, and looked cool doing it. Replace HP with /6 torque and lots of gears!
There is a potentially cheaper alternative to gasoline if you can put up with the drawbacks to ethanol like difficulty cold starting and it's greater tendency to soak up water and corrode things. And it has like ~110 octane rating which means high compression and supercharged engines love the stuff. It can be made to work with an older daily driver so long as you accommodate it's quirks.
It is actually more expensive than gasoline for the power it makes. It is only cheaper in certain places because of subsides and mandates.
@@auteurfiddler8706
That's not true as anyone who uses ethanol as an alternative to race gas can tell you. Where I live 110 octane sunoco is about 8-10 dollars per gallon out of the pump. E85 is usually about 30 cents less than whatever 87 octane pump gas is going for. Even after you factor in E85's ~20-30% higher fuel use I can still make way more power on E85 then 87 octane pump gas or slightly more power than the much more expensive race gas. There is a reason blower guys love the stuff.
Using e85 or straight fuel grade ethonal as a cheaper alternative to gasoline in a typical street car is a bit trickier but if gas prices get high enough it would be worth it. You can literally make fuel grade ethonal in your back yard out of waste food if you were determined enough. And if enough infrastructure shifted towards producing ethonal fuels to compete with gasoline it would actually drive down the price of gas by reducing demand which high gas prices are the problem we're trying to address.
This is precisely why I got my ‘73 Dart two door, slant 6. I’d like to get around 30 highway, we shall see. Two door good looks and still a cool car.
I wish you fired the duster up for us. When you painted it i started thinking on painting my Buick regal. But i want to get it put together be4 i do any painting on it. I like the color you pick for the duster it really made thar car look nice.