yeah, whats the farthest youve driven your big cammed big converter 383 stroker car? miles?
how do they do on the highway for long drives? is it bad for them to be lugged down low cause of the cam and converter for long highway trips staying at like a steady 2200 rpms.

 

What do you call big? I've got an XR282 in my 383 with a 3000 RPM stall, 700R4 and 3.54 rear. It gets 17.7 mpg on the highway, using those girly little American gallons.

 

I have a 3400 with 3.42's ..I dont really know what I get on the highway its somewhere around 15-17 but around town WOW! I filled up and am at just over 1/4 tank and only have 170 miles. sucks up the gas and that without really getting on it.

 

Wow, I only get 100 Miles to the tank... I need to figure out what is going on...?

 

About 15mpg highway with my 350ci, 11:1 CR, XE274 and 4-spd manual (no OD gear) and 3.23 gears last year. Different combo this year I haven't tried out yet, but I suspect more power and better mileage to boot.

 

While I had a 400 in my car, with a XR282HR in it, I drove literally from coast to coast (although the farthest at a single sitting was from So Cal to Ohio), and Mexico to Canada. It also went from Tennessee to Colorado and back once, on a family vacation. I think that combo must have hit at least half the states. It got between 18 and 20 mpg, by being careful. (18 dependably, 20 on rare occasions) It had a 3.23 gear in it for most of those trips, although for the CA to OH one it had the stock gear back in it (3.73). Gas mileage didn't really change much.

Didn't really seem to hurt anything. Highway running for long continuous periods is a virtue of American cars in general.

 

I have to agree with Sofa on the gear changes. I went from 2.73 to 3.42. I made a trip from UT to MT, about 340 miles, with the 2.73's on one tank of gas. I made the same trip with the 3.42's and also made it on one tank. A fellow board member with lots of f-body parts lives up there, so I've made that trip a few times. I'd have to say FI versus carb is where the big difference lies. My carbed 69 Camaro gets horrible mileage. I've seen a few carbed cars get really impressive mileage, but it seems to be rare. And yeah, a healthy SBC can handle around 3500 rpm for hours on end without any ill effects. Man, I miss being able to take those long trips. The last time I took one, gas was still around $1.50 a gallon instead of $3.00. I used to love driving the 89 down to Vegas to play around on the weekend. Sigh.

 

My 383 is carbed and gets the 17.7 mpg. It's not much worse than my 2004 Dakota that only gets 19.9 on a good day.

 

Do you still have a lockup torque converter? If you do, you just lock it up on the highway runs and don't worry about the stall slippage...

 

The TCC is locked at 65 km/h and up.