I am driving my 86 wagon with the stock Hitachi carb 100 miles total each day. Up and down long hills, 89 octane (sometimes 87) and keeping it at 65. My average gas mileage is 24 MPG. Would a weber improve this at all? I seemed to have read that it helps on the low end and with mileage. If it does, how much? Thanks for any input you can provide.

Overall driveability goes WAY up due to the increase in torque and tunability.

 

Mileage, not so much. Though a properly tuned weber will provide MUCH better mileage than a worn out hitachi, every day of the week.

 

And Ive never found a reason to run anything but 87.

I don't have an ea82, so the milage may very a bit. But with my ea81 I get about 24-27 with my weber. It's a carb more aimed at performance then fuel economy. A good hitachi will get better milage than a weber. But I agree 100% with Idasho. Drivability is 100% improved and it's an easier carb to deal with on a daily driving basis, and my mpg's went way up over my old worn stock carb.

That is great info to know thanks!.

 

If I would not lose on mileage but gain on drivability then that is good enough for me. It feels like I am driving with an engine the size of a sewing machine. 0-65 in 30 seconds (may be exaggerating but not by much.)

driveability is so much better on my '84 1.8, I wish it'd been one of the 1st mods I made.

I'm only getting around 23-24 mpg, but that's about what I was getting with my hitachi

Thanks. I'm doing it.

Ag good factory carb, rebuilt, in goood repair, should get you around 28-30mpg

You will probably never get above 24-25 on a Weber.

Weber gives you more grunt, more torque, more useable low speed power, but the weber performance drops off about 4500rpm, and anything above nets you nothing over the factory setup.

I routinely get 28mpg highway with my weber'd '84 GL

 

4x4, lifted, and a roof rack. Still gets 28mpg.

 

Just have to tune it correctly, and know how to drive it efficiently.

Big thing is stay out of that secondary unless you really need it. I know at least on mine I can feel the pedal stiffen up a bit once it hits the point the secondary is gonna open on the Weber, kind of like a step I guess you could say. Now if you are just romping it down, then you won't feel it.

But really in around town driving I hardly find the need to "open it up". Just barely pushing the pedal to get what needs to be done, done.

(the fact I went for 15+ years without any tickets and then had a bad year this year and am one ticket away from losing my DL, they sent me a letter...... might be making me drive more "economical" though..... )

 

So far I'm getting about 25mpg out of my swap. But I'm still in the tuning stages of it. So final mpg is yet to be determined.