1973 Ambassador Fuel efficiency issue

Hello all this is my first post to the forums, however not my first encounter with an American Motors car. About a year and a half ago I sold off my old 76 Gremlin, was my favorite car that I've had by far, but she who shall not be questioned saw it as an eyesore and a horrible waste of my time, so it had to go. Ever since that encounter with the Gremlin I've been itching for a Javelin or a Marlin or something of the likes to pop up for a steal and a half on craigslist, and one did! a 1973 AMC Ambassador with the 360 V8, bought for the price of $850. however, again, she who shall not be questioned is complaining, about all the gas that this fine machine eats up, I really don't have an issue with it, but my mother does, shes giving me two months to find a way to make this car more fuel efficient than it is or it has to go, as of right now I only do average of 35miles a day and I have to refill her tank every three days. I have no issue with that, but then again I'm not the one paying for gas at the end of the day. I've asked many people how to get this car running more fuel efficiently, one said "buy a new engine and transmission", others said "extend the gas tank" or "turbo it! the more air you get in the cylinder the less fuel you'll burn" I think the more air you have in the cylinder, a matching amount of fuel comes in as well. I've also considered buying a 232 straight six and swapping it in there, my favorite little peppy engine from the Gremlin. But any advise that anyone here can give me is greatly appreciated, this may be the deciding factor between finding the solution or settling for what she who shall not be questioned wants and getting a civic, uh, just typing the name gives me the heebie jeebies.

aww shoot, well, I can swap an engine no problem but I don't know the least bit about transmissions, those aren't exactly my forte, but I'll have to look into that, I don't know how it'd mate in where the automatic transmission was, but I guess I can only find out from here on in, eh?

So by my calculations 35 miles a day for three days and most likely a 19 gallon tank, That comes out to 5.5 miles per gallon.  The best I ever got with a 360 in a 72 Matador was 22 Highway and that was amazing. You need a good tune up. Start with a compression and leak down check. If those numbers are good perform a tune up and carb rebuild + all filters. It has to be running very rich with those numbers. 

The female? -read book named "The Five Love Languages".

The car? -get one of Dave Emmanuel's books on carburetors; any one of these will have enough info to absorb to form a better understanding of carburetors. IMO, he tends to promote whatever carb he's explaining which is positive but leaves the context of comparison for the individual (you absorb the info on carb circuitry, then you decide what carb you want from there)

Yes there are more fuel efficient carburetors, than the ones many early seventies US cars came with.

Truth is, US automakers were more concerned about staying legal with the emission control laws than they were about gas mileage. And as fleet gas mileage laws came into play, AMC began moving into hot selling Jeep Division which had less restrictive laws. (IMO, crude/oversimplified explanation)

Study Holley Economaster line of carbs.

Study Rochester Vari-Jet carbs.

You may be able to find a used one in fair condition, rebuild it and do better than stock.

Either of these will need mods to make the trans link work right.




Edited by amcenthusiast - May/09/2017 at 11:10pm