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Miles per gallon

vping

Yoda
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Got it all back together and drove her last night but not without a small scare.

Cleaned her up. Put a bunch of parts back on. Put the spare in the trunk, Hmm what else some tools, small little gas can with a bit o gas in it, fire extinguishers, flashlight.... and headed out.

1 mile from the house, sputter, bog, sputter,sputter, bogg, enigine cuts out. Coast into a driveway and stop. Fuel pump ticking away. Out of gas? Cant be.

I put the new tank in and added 2 full gallons of gas. Without a sending unit I've no gauge but figured I'd get decent enought milage to go about thirty mile and then I'd drain gas, measure oit an kinda figure how my mileage was doing. I DROVE 11.3 MILES.

Is there that much gas left in the tank that I was only able to drive 11.3 miles?

Even on the poorly running side what should I get 15 MPG, 10?

Strange thing is, I never keep a gas can in any of my cars let alone with gas in it. I pull over & call the missus to bail me out. As I am speaking to her, I recount what I did to get to this point "..small little gas can with a bit o gas in it" I literally had about 10oz of gas in that can but I was able to restart & drive about 1 mile to the gas station up the road. I put in 5 gallons to be safe.

What a trip!
 
I've been told that a properly tuned MGB should get between 20 and 22 mpg unless it's being driven hard all the time. Mine's having issues and is only getting about 17 mpg.

Before I got the dash gauge voltage stabiliser working, it's a wonder I didn't run out of gas. Gauge read high, and I'd pump over 11 gallons in when it got just below 1/4 tank.

Are you sure there's not some kind of intermittant obstruction in your fuel system?
 
Pretty sure that there is'nt. Has always run & never cut out like that. Just had the tank redone & all the works up buy the carb are cleaner than clean. Only thing left are the gas lines which I might change as there now again, visable junk in my fuel filter, even though I just changed it. I can only summize that this is risidual on the walls of the lines.
 
Yea but how much is in the tank when the fuel pickup can no longer suck fuel. a gallon??? Or even a bit more maybe.
 
Jack - probably an inch or 2....but the size of the tank would determine the gallons in that inch; Midget tanks smaller of course.
 
Of course but that was my point he only put two gal in to start and lost an inch or so plus fuel pump, line and carbs, (what a gallon?) and used a bit messing, then drove 10 miles or so, does not susprise me at all.
 
Yeah - 26 or so should be what he's looking for.
 
I just calculated the mileage on my wifes 61 MGA....exactly 26 miles per gallon. Thats after 2 years of fiddling with the carbs before finally giving in a rebuilding the things entirely.
 
Well, there ya go!
 
hmmmm... I average around 20 MPG on my ZS equipped '76 B now days. It's gone up a bit from last year when I was averaging about 18MPG. Mostly city driving. It fluctuates naturally dependant upon how I drive for that particular tank. The best mileage I've recorded so far was 25MPG going from where I live to Malibu, but that trip was all interstate and almost entirely down hill from where I live.

My fuel guage reads a bit high too. When I first got the car it ran out of gas when I got to the bottom of the hill from the POs house and the guage was still reading about 1/8 tank. Since then I've noticed that the guage will read high when going down hill, and a little low when going up hill. I can't be sure that the guage is completely incorrect, so I just refill when I dip under 1/4 tank. I've noticed that I'll put 11 to 12 gallons of gas into the car with the guage reading 1/8 tank.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've been told that a properly tuned MGB should get between 20 and 22 mpg unless it's being driven hard all the time

[/ QUOTE ]

That's low. I get about 26 in mixed driving back and forth to work, and on the trip to Gatlinburg -- steady driving on back roads, 45-55 mph -- got a little over 30.

I understand that ZS cars get lower fuel economy, so maybe they're in the 20-22 range....
 
Mileage wise with the zs carb before rebuild I was getting anywhere from 14 to 17mpg. After rebuild and depending on the driving style with the Weber 38 outlaw I'm seeing 26 to 28 highway at 70 to 75mph and low 20's if I'm up in the mountains flogging the car.
 
I bought my 74 B in Feb. I picked it up in So Ca and drove home 750 miles. It ran poorly and got 12 -14 mpg. Once home and tuned it got 25 twice and 28 once. It is now in the shop getting an OD trans,dont know if it will get better mileage or not after...
Paul
 
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