I am thinking of buying a 71 skylark as a daily driver. This car has a 350 4-barrel, a TH-350, and 2.73's. I have heard some people say that they get 15+ mpg out of thier 350 skylarks. Is this true? What kind of mileage are you getting with your 350 skylark? Thanks, Kevin
kevin: with those gears and u do not kick in the secondaries very much, u should get close to 20 mpg.
With a clean well set up carberator and a good ignition will be very eficient compared to a poor running tired motor. I drive a 76 Century with a 350 and 2.56 gears, on the highway it's smooth and good on gas. Stop and start driving uses allot more, but it's worth it to me.
I just picked up a bone stock 71 skylark myself and with 128 thousand miles on the odo, im getting about 18 mpg (When im not doing burnouts and decimating hoopties). Just make sure check out the plugs and wires, and the condition of the carb. I got about 30 years of tarnish of of mine with some cheap carb cleaner and it made a big difference. Side Note I still can't belive the reliability of these older buicks. with 128,000 miles on my 71 skylark, i have all compression on all cylinders and great milage. The tranny shifts hard with no slipage as well (Mind you nothing has been rebuilt). Ive had cars with half the milage that haven't even come close to running as well.
I agree, these buick 350's are a very good thing. I have two and I will collect a few more because it is going to get harder to find them. If you buy the car change all the fluids, tune it up and enjoy!
... Im liking my 350 more each time I read one of these threads I dont really know how much mine gets to the gallon as my gas gauge doesnt work and ive only put 10 miles on the car since its not legalized yet. (getting close though!) My engine runs Realllllyyyy rich and it seems to run through gas pretty quick, and being that its a 2brl which ive heard is actually less efficient than a four. If i had to take a guess id say right now its probably between 12-15
John can you send me photos of your 3-bbl?? :-D i gotta figure out whats up with mine. im only getting like 13mpg (rough estimate) though i may have 2.9x gears. though i do get into my secondarys quite a bit. i also only have single exhaust and a 4bbl. and i may have a gas leak. nate
Re: ... My 76 2bbl 350 was running rich but it turned out the plugs were old and the wrong gap. I got new plugs (gapped them), wires, cap, rotor, idle mixture screw adjustment with vacume gauge. Presto, it ran way better way more power way more milage! But yes I am switching to a 4bbl more for the top end power than milage though.
oh yeah my 70 350 4bbl gets about 21 on the freeway, I guess its got the good ratio rear, its also cammed though. My parts car that came with the other skylark i bought for $900 was just a throw in car (a custom), had a 350 in it. I just checked a few things, threw on 2 junk wires to replace the melted ones from touching the exhaust, and it fired up and purred! This car a had sat for many years outside. I wonder if its the higher perf 350 too cause it spins those tires darn easy!
