Power and Efficiency

[MonzaRacer]

Bow I disagree on power and mileage. I had my 70 Monte Carlo with a 402 bbc and 3.55 gears, th400 and it could go back and forth to work and get 15-16 and on highway it could pull down 17.8 to 18 on good day.
So tuning for mileage can be done and this engine had tons of low end torque, in 4000lb car ran 9.00 flat smoking tires on a slipping tranny.
Properly built engines CAN get mileage, will an SBC beat an LS even if both are fi and tuned, probably not.
As for me I am building a 77 Monza, 3000lbs, 302 long rod sbc, not sure on trans, gonna run Megasquirt3 with LT1 intake and my own DIS, and hopefully down road I can get a couple of the ebay turbos to feed its power needs.
From numbers I figure I can make in the 500 to 600 hp range, still be drivable and have enough stuff to haul ass.
If I can locate an od trans and beef it up enough Ill be ok but my other 77 Monza with 355, carb and th350 and 3.42 gears it got 18+ mpg.
I figure on a cruise I could squeak 25+ but time will tell.
My Caprice ,well its going to be a 77 454 4bbl, th400 for now. Later on Ill get my 402 back together, maybe Ill stroke it with 454 crank ot just rebuild it as 0.060 402, but sold my 800 spread bore Holley so Ill need to figure new carb out or build EFI.
Properly tuned engines make power under load but also make good fuel consumption.
I have tuned many low mpg engines and pulled more power and more mpg out with little issues. Dont get me wrong, I cant make a 572 turn 800hp and make 30 mpg,, but I can make one run hard and get best possible mileage it can.
I tuned a fellas 496 and he ran it at local 1/8th mile track, and ran that 68/69 Chevelle and ran 5.85 and drove it to a car show in MO. and with the 4L80E he pulled down some mid to high 20s mpg,,,I'll email him and get some particulars, he said it ran great and had zero issues.
We tuned it sans wideband and still made pretty good guestimate on tune. I got him to install them and he says my leaned out cruise worked good he actually can cruise on flat ground at 60-70 mph with overdrive on he said it was running between 13.8 or 13.9 too 14.2 AFR. It now has a water/methanol injection, he uses straight methanol for racing with 93 octane and washer fluid for regular driving. He claims car is as good on gas as his truck if not better.
I am figuring my 302 will do ok especially if I get an overdrive tranny.
Turbo(s) will give me better power production potential, and hope mileage will follow suit.