My 11:1 408 with a tvs1900 got better mileage than my stock 5.3 and about double the power and torque

 

THanks Atomic- that's a little bit outta budget............

 

My point was making an anemic engine does not necesarily mean it will get better mileage. Any money you invest in "getting better mileage" could otherwise go straight to paying for gas.

For example, if you spend $1000 on mods to get better gas mileage. Lets say you want to increase mileage 10%, which is a big jump. Lets say you drive 12,000 miles a year and your average overall mileage is 14mpg and gas cost $2.50 per gallon.

At 14mpg, thats (12000/14)*2.5= $2,143 per year on gas.
At 110% of 14mpg (15.4mpg), thats (12000/15.4)*2.5 = $1,948 per year on gas, so you save about $195 per year.

To recover your investment of $1000, you will need to drive it for about 5 years before you even break even, and then its only $200 a year you will save. This of course assumes gas prices stay the same. If they go up, then it will take even longer, case in point, if gas prices rise 10% then if you get a 10% bump in mpg then you are still paying the same amount.

A better way to think about it is to put the money you want to spend on getting better gas mileage...towards gas! If you planned on $1000 then thats basically 6 months of "free" gas, depending on how much you drive.

 

That clears things up, wasn't looking to build an anemic engine. I've really noticed some mileage gais by locking up the torque converter a bit earlier........