Hi. I'm thinking of purchasing a 1987 trans am from a fellow here in Michigan to replace my V6 camaro RS. I love the gas mileage this car gets (not sure how to calculate it but it gets about 240+ miles per tank using the tripometer with just regular driving, no highway)

I was wondering what kind of mileage this setup would get:

1987 Pontiac Trans Am, 130,xxx miles on body, aprox 50,xxx on engine. Car has had carb conversion done, along with a 4 bolt 350/TH350 combo installed. New battery, new starter. New headers and y-pipe. Engine runs well, burns a small amount of oil, mostly a puff of blue when it starts up. Power windows and locks. Was an A/C car, have most of the parts. It has a posi rear end.

that is just clips from the description just to show the actual parts the might affect mileage.

Is this going to be a huge gas guzzler meaning I would be filling up constantly? With the rising gas prices I'm worried about this as my income is very small with a part time job. However this car is really nice and the price is very good, $1650. So is it worth it?

 

Just take however many miles you drive on a tank, then divide it by how many gallons you had to put in to fill it up...

ex: 240miles/10gallons = 24mpg.....

The car you are looking at doesnt have an overdrive(th350) It all depends on the tune of the car, cam, gearing, how you drive...

 

It will probably use twice the amount of fuel your v-6 car does & will probably require a higher octane as well.

 

I know about those things as far as overdrive and stuff. If I drive just average (not flooring it around corners and from stops all the time, etc) would it be at least decent? I mean I don't wanna be gassing up almost every couple days. I don't know about the gears and all that as i'm still learning about all this stuff here, but what would be an average for the 350/th350 combo?

thanks for the reply

 

If I had to guess...and this is just a wild *** guess...I'd say low teens per gallon.

 

thats what the guy said too, 12-15
do these cars have 15 gallon tanks?

 

My 82 with a 305/350 combo get 20mpg on the highway, thats with 3.73 gears and 26" tires.

 

I get about 15mpg in my Camaro.

 

If you want gas mileage buy a Import. Gas mileage and a 350 3rd gen Camaro/Firebird whats that?

My gas mileage:
12/14 City
21/24 Highway

 

I don't want the best gas mileage around, but average. :lala:

 

No such thing as average...

 

ok what i mean is high is 20-30 and low is 10-12 so average would be somewhere in between, as in decent, not real high but not devestatingly low, as long as im not gassing up every 2 days

 

Also depends a lot on how you drive. I killed my last tank of gas faster than ever before because of all the **** I've had to deal with lately, I don't think in the past week there wasn't a single time I didn't spin the tires pulling out somewhere.

 

haha. But I get about 12mpg in the city. and deffinitly more on the highway. I say just buy it. If your not going over 100 miles a day you shouldnt have to fill up every two days. Maybe 20-30.00 a week. Gas prices up here are at 1.75 a gallon and I spend about 20-30 week. Unless you buy a new engine or do some mods your not gonna get really good mileage. its a v8 you want power, or do you want mileage. I want both unfortunatly I realized it wont happen.

nate

 

I'm looking at another car with a 305 tbi and 700r4, that would get better mileage but they wont contact me anymore lol

 

305 TBI I still say buy a import, if you want gas milleage.

 

I dont mean one or the other, i mean a compromise between power and gas mileage, I'm not buying an import lol

 

I don't want a huge powerful 5 billion horsepower gas guzzler, but a mediumly powerful fun car that gets between the gas mileage of a v6 and a huge 5 billion horsepower gas guzzler

 

nevermind this thread is going nowhere, I'll just stop asking about it because its just repeating over and over, I have good gas mileage now, I want a little more power, but I dont want my gas mileage totally cut in half, it shouldnt be that hard just adding 2 more cylinders.

I'm still looking around for thirdgens so i'll see what comes up, thanks for those who did help out

 

A few years ago I had a Chevelle with 350/th400 and 3.42 gears. It had a single pattern cam w/ 212* @050, 4bbl, headers.
It got about 20-22 hwy, bout 12-15 city.
An F body should be better than that.
If fuel consumption is an issue, don't over cam it, and keep the intake runner vol small.
A 5L. TPI would be one of the more economical V8s you'll find out there. A roller cam one would be the best choice, if you're still shopping.

 

Thank you, that is the most perfect answer I could have gotten. Some informative information! I'm still shopping, its so hard to find these cars
I'm just looking for something a little more powerful than my V6, and with perhaps t-tops for some warm weather fun. If anyone knows of anything or has one for sale in the area of southeastern Michigan let me know!

thanks again

 

Yur welcome

I've read some posts here, where guys claimed 28 hwy with stock or mildly modded 305s.
The TH700 w/lockup helps a lot.

BTW, I've got an 85 IROC that's begging to be put on the road, but I can't run it cause it won't pass smog. It would probably pass in Mich tho.
You'd have to trailer it back there, or get it running to drive it, I'm not exactly in SE Mich.

 

CALIFORNIA!?!?!?!?!!? thanks but I don't think i can get it :lala:

 

It has T tops...

 

ok ill be there tomorrow to pick it up, have it outside so i know what house it is

 

It's the red IROC with a years worth of dust on it.
:lala:

 

ok

 

WOW I just found this really old thread that I posted when I was a n00b, this is crazy, anyone out there still paying attention to this?

 

No. It was sleeping peacefully.
So what mileage do you get?

 

I never got that car, ended up getting 91 camaro rs 305/700r4, i got 19-25mpg, just like its supposed to get, straight highway I got 400 miles on a tank!

I have a new 82 trans am now undergoing a camshaft replacement, I havent tested its gas mileage yet because it doesn't run long enough for me to be able to test it :P