Daily Driver.. LA318 vs 360 Magnum

66fs said

As for the conspiracy theory, My cousin bought a used 71 Ford Pinto. German 1.6 engine with a manual transmission. It did not run right, so he brought it to me. I figured the carb was messed up, so I told him to go to Ford and buy a new one. He comes back with an "export only" carb. We put it on and the Pinto runs great, more power and his mpg goes from mid 20's to around 40. You figure it out...

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The "export" carb probably had a non-emissions tune, back then the U.S. was ahead of the rest of the world with emissions regulations. Euro-spec (or JDM-spec) imports to this day always have more power and get better MPG than U.S.-spec cars. If you lived outside the U.S. you could still get some pretty peppy cars in the 70s and 80s with no emissions crap, I've heard a lot of them went to the Middle East.

Some day I'll use the original 318 block out of my Duster and build it into a mild cruiser engine with an AX-15 5-speed and 2.76-2.94 gears (that trans has super deep 1st gear and not very tall 5th, only 0.79:1) in an A-body. See if I can break 32 MPG, it's a challenge for me now lol.