Yes thats what I said "V6" I have been toying with the idea for a while and now with gas at 3.45 a gallon and going to god knows where,Id like to get some gas mileage out of my car, It's a convertible not a hot rod and I'd like to drive it! ALLOT!
So the plan is to by a newer fuel injection motor and 5 speed behind it to keep it some what fun to drive,But where to start? S-10 or Camaro, Are they the same motor,Which has more power? I will find a wrecked one and take all the goodies out and put into mine,To make the install a little easier.


***Keep in mind I am TOYING with the idea***


OR plan 2 is V8 with the Edelbrock fuel injection system and TKO 6.

Before I found the '72 Nova I was tossing around the idea of a '64ish Nova with a 2002 Camaro V6 transplant and a 6 speed. Dropped with 17's it would be a great car to drive. Think it out a modern V6 would out perform a stock 327-210 from the day...

my 2000 Corvette got over 26mhp on the highway and had the performance that would make you smile.

You don't need to go with a v6 to have good mileage...just keep your foot off the gas.

Hmmmm

.just keep your foot off the gas.


Easer said then done! :D


I am already doing some what the same swap in my 78F-250 460 4X4 to a V6 to go from 5-7 MPG to 15-20MPG I hope, I got a complete Explorer 4X4 for free that was smashed, I had a Bronco II with 38"s and it got 17city 28 Highway MPG! So what the hay since I got it for free!

Thats why I came into this idea.

my 2000 Corvette got over 26mhp on the highway and had the performance that would make you smile.

You don't need to go with a v6 to have good mileage...just keep your foot off the gas.
But the problem with that comparison is that the Corvette is waaaaay more aerodynamic than the '68 Camaro!

Theres many ideas/builds out there for killer power and mileage but when it comes down to it,... just got to keep your foot out of it. Atleast thats what i think.

build a 350 for torque down low, put highway gears in it (like 2.56 or so), and keep off the gas.
seriously- 25-30 mpg is very doable.

Why would you spend 2 grand or so on a conversion from an 8 cylinder to a V6 to save 5 or 10 MPG? If you drove the car 10000 miles a year and ended up with a car getting 20 mpg you would use 500 gallons of gas during the year and save 250 gallons. At 4 bucks a gallon you would wave 1000 dollars a year and it would take you 2 years to pay off the cost of the conversion.

Might as well put a sail on it.

The idea of a V6 is intriguing, but if you plan on an overdrive manual anyway, you could keep a mild V8 and highway gears and still get about the same mileage without all the work and cost of fabricating the swap. Now if you are looking forward to the challenge and initial cost isn't a factor....have at it. That would be interesting to watch :thumbsup: The engines are basically the same between the S10 and Camaro. There may be different settings in the ECM to achieve different power levels at given rpms for the application. I would concentrate on a Camaro for the benefit of a passenger car program to start with.

Rich there is a lot of way to get good fuel economy for your car, and its becoming a popular issue lately. You can do a v6 swap, but you dont need to. The best way to do this imho is a late madel camaro/firebird LS2 swap. Its not a cheap conversion even tho you can buy the engine fairly cheap used. The cost of header, fuel pump/tank and other conversion parts start to add up. But 25+ mpg is very easy to attain. Im doing this on my vert when it gets off the rotisserie.

There are many ways to make a v-8 fuel freindly, and alot of post lately on this in here. I think if you do some research you'll find ways to make this work for you.

My 69 is my daily driver and i just got my 200r4 inlast night, it has a rebuilt 350, unfortunately i dont know much about my engine since i bought it with the car. I'll be posting some fuel economy reading soon in my post "project miles per gallon" in the performance section. It something i just started, but i plan on exceeding 25 hwy when i finish.

This thread reminds of the old owner of a 53 Corvette at one of our local cruise-ins. Yes, a 53 Corvette. It's white in color. I don't think he bought it new. I asked if it still had the 'Blue Flame' six. He said it still had a six. Then he popped the hood. There was now a V6. He just grinned when I asked what the car was worth. How many were made? 2-300? Still has the wire over the headlights.

The newer S-10 pickups used a 4.3 V-6 "gas hog". In the 80's they used a 2.8, which is like the camaro's 2.8 or 3.1 . The Chevy truck's with a 5.3 get better gas mileage than the 4.3 does. A supercharged or a turbocharged 3.8 would be intriguing but, not very cost effective. Go with an LS engine, an overdrive trans, and the correct gearing and you will get the best mileage. Remember if you go with too high of gears, you will lug the engine and it will cost you !

There's a 4.8L that's the base model LSx V8 in trucks. It's the same block as a 5.3, but shorter stroke. It'll get a lot better gas mileage than the 4.3L V6.

The newer S-10 pickups used a 4.3 V-6 "gas hog". In the 80's they used a 2.8, which is like the camaro's 2.8 or 3.1 . The Chevy truck's with a 5.3 get better gas mileage than the 4.3 does. A supercharged or a turbocharged 3.8 would be intriguing but, not very cost effective. Go with an LS engine, an overdrive trans, and the correct gearing and you will get the best mileage. Remember if you go with too high of gears, you will lug the engine and it will cost you !

There's a 4.8L that's the base model LSx V8 in trucks. It's the same block as a 5.3, but shorter stroke. It'll get a lot better gas mileage than the 4.3L V6.

These are what I am looking for,A few people with S-10 Camaro V6 experience,If the V6 only get 2-3 MPG better it wont be worth the computer and electrical night mare! I like'd the idea being its a I-6 car (Motor trashed) .

So I may just stick with the Edelbrock fuel induction route,The reason behind the Edelbrock system is its complete,The Chevy system needs a harness thats 1200.00,and right motor,I all ready did the wiring ACW modern harness,So I dont want go and have to rip out half of that.

I can get the whole V6 car/truck for 500.00-1000.00 V'8 cars I have seen are 4000.00 and up price range


Decisions decision decisions!?@$%^><!!

Trucks are bricks on wheels Rich! They don't get very good gas mileage for just that reason. There have not been many in support of the V6 conversion but I can tell you if done right you could have these guys choking on their words. Go check out a few V6 powered cars like the Buick Grand National or the Trans-Am.

There are late 4th gen V6 engines just sitting around and one wouldn't cost you 1/5th what an LT1 or LS1 would. I'm not trying to talk you into doing this but can tell you if done right and not just a budget swap for fuel economy and the cheapest way to go you could have a car that handles, drives and goes awesome... And it would really set you apart from every other Camaro out there! The bonus is, (and I don't care whos vette or 4th gen gets 27mpg on the hwy they still get 15 daily driving) you'll get really decent mileage for what you have!

how about a 3.8 turbo?

A bit more from me on this... :D My point was not to say a V6 conversion is "the" way to go but it is "a" way to go. I love the V8's in my Camaro and Nova but also like seeing something different from time to time...

Everyone can admit,Its fun as hell to drive a 450HP car for a while but after a few hundred miles or in city traffic it gets old pretty fast,Where as the V6 or mild V8 still gets all the looks going down the road,And I can go farther to boot.

Rich -

I am actually starting to look into this pretty seriously. Because I am still stuck at home healing, I have lots of free time and I really want to look into this. I am going to stick to looking at the V6 combos available in the 4th gen F-bodies, because for now they are plentiful, and I should be able to find enough data to make performance comparisons. Depending on where the 3800 makes power, it doesn't seem out of the question to outperform a lot of the OE engines offered in the 1st gens.

With a good exhaust system, they even sound good...


YouTube - Donuts, burnouts, and powerslides in my 95 camaro 3800

YouTube - My 1996 Camaro 3.8L

Everyone can admit,Its fun as hell to drive a 450HP car for a while but after a few hundred miles or in city traffic it gets old pretty fast,Where as the V6 or mild V8 still gets all the looks going down the road,And I can go farther to boot.

450HP carb'd smallblock? yeah. 450HP LS3? Nah, I'd rather drive a car with the LS3 in traffic anyday over a carb'd smallblock at any power level.

Eric,I was waiting to see A BIG old smoke cloud off the Video.

Jon,I have never had the pleasure of driving a LS3,I dont own a single car with Fuel injection.

The whole idea is to keep this as cost effective as possible,I do like the 231V6 idea ,Isnt this the motor that has same trans bolt pattern as the V8?, So if all else fails I can use the tranny.

Are the Buick and Chevy V6's the same??

I swapped a V6 out of a wrecked Caddy into a 68 Vert in the mid 80's with a vega trans don't recall if it was a 4 or 5 speed. I think it was a 251 or 252 CI, was a factory 4 barrel motor, and had HEI ignition which was an easy hook up. Of the shelf headers for a Monte Carlo and a dual exhaust system. Everyone thought it was a small block til I opened the hood.
Only mod I had to do was set the motor mounts back a few inches on steel plates. Could have probably just had a driveshaft made, but I had the steel already.

I drove that car all over the east coast for a couple years trouble free. It was an original straight 6 car that was tired and smoking. Don't recall the fuel economy but it was well into the 20's on the highway, which is where I did most of my driving then. Sold it to a guy in Northern Va.