A friend of Mrs. DX just bought a 78 Winnebego Brave with the 360 motor under the hood. Where would be a good place to buy headers and exhaust for it to improve gas mileage?
A friend of Mrs. DX just bought a 78 Winnebego Brave with the 360 motor under the hood. Where would be a good place to buy headers and exhaust for it to improve gas mileage?
Jegs? Summit?
I figure it is an AMC / Dodge 360 right? I am pretty sure there is nothing special about the engine.
Dodge used heavy duty parts like forged cranks but otherwise it's just a Dodge
Pick up a copy of HotRod, Mopar, etc especially one that has some of their engine recipes and look at what they've done to the 360 and plan on replicating that. Basically heads, cam, intake, carb and a set of headers will improve power.
Otherwise better fuel mileage in a gas-powered motorhome typically means more gears in the transmission and/or a locking torque converter (later model transmission swap with an overdrive unit tacked on) A late model Chrysler engine swap from a newer Ram would help with both the transmission and the engine, but would be pretty involved from an electrical standpoint (though it would provide cylinder deactivation and other improvements).
Removing weight and improving aerodynamics as well as a Diesel swap will improve things quite a bit more than any of the above options. That said its an old Winnebego brick, its going to suck without a lot of work (most weren't built well and they all leak, drivetrains are fairly solid except for being generally overworked and poorly maintained.)
if it's got a 2 barrel, swap on a 4 barrel and a quadrajet from an 80's Dodge truck. this will help with power and economy.
headers should be easy enough to find: it's just a commercial chassis under it. if it's one of the small ones, it's just a Dodge van chassis with heavy duty suspension.
a rebuild wouldn't be a bad idea: they had like 7.5:1 compression when they left the factory, so some flat top pistons would really wake it up. or put a turbo on it.. whatever floats your boat..
i have headers in the garage for a dodge motorhome chassis but i think they're for a 440.
The guys from Roadkill used a Winnebago motor in one of their projects. As I remember, access to the engine was a bit problematic.
A friend put dual exhaust on his Dodge powered motor home to get better mileage.
He was pissed when it didn't.
Look at it this way. How much will the exhaust cost and how much better mileage and how long will it take to make up the cost ?
Better fuel mileage and motorhome don't go together. The only ones that can get over 10 mpg are diesel powered ones.
How many miles do they plan on driving it? If it's only a few short trips a year, probaly not worth the effort. Do a good tune-up and live with it. Otherwise, van or pick-up parts should fit. All the piping downstream of the headers can be bent up by the local muffler shop.
iadr wrote: Actually I'd normally agree with $/mile, but mathematically you are picking a risky example- 8-9 mpg is a lot of gallons of fuel used and paid for, so logically/mathematically you have a decent shot at breaking even... Whereas those trying to add 0.6MPG to their econobox are on the wrong side of the math. Is anyone following what I mean? Hard concept to put in words for some reason.
The savings from a 5% gain in fuel economy adds up faster at 8mpg than it does at 30mpg.. which is why over the road truckers buy a new $150k truck every few years because the new one goes a half a mile farther on a gallon of fuel..
True but truckers put many, many more miles than the average motor home.
Gasoline is now under three dollars a gallon and may drop more.
Not sure how much gain you're gonna get, most of the "upgrade exhaust" deal on stuff from that period is to eliminate the giant restrictive catalytic converter, which a truck from the period won't have, or to eliminate poorly flowing manifolds, which a HD truck motor is unlikely to have. If it's already fitted with a spreadbore carb and in good tune, that's probably about as good as you're gonna get, short of megasquiritng it and implementing lean burn.
Remove the engine driven fan, install an electric one.
iceracer wrote: Remove the engine driven fan, install an electric one.
gains you nothing if it's got a properly functioning fan clutch on it.. might get a little easier access to the front of the motor, but that's about it.
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