before i say anything, please note my carb is f*cked. its falling in half and doesnt have a mixture adjust screw (god knows whats happened to it) and as such, at a guess, its probably not running at its best..

so... out of interest - for those of you with 1.4s, what speeds are the redlines in your car, and where do you find is the best place to change gear?? i've no rev counter on mine but i've found in the past that changing at ~18, 40, 55 is about right for speed??

also, what sort of fuel economy do you get? i've found that £20 will normally get me about 200 miles of driving normally, if i sit @ 85 instead of 65 on a motorway i find that it goes down a lot..

Our 340DL (1.4, 4-speed 'box) gets about 40mpg in mixed mileage, dropping to 30-ish when its just used to commute.

The 343 auto - dont ask!

For comparison purposes, my 945 (2.3 LPT) does 30mpg in mixed mileage, and more on fast cross-country runs.

Incidentally, I put petrol in the 343 today, and noticed that LRP is now cheaper than unleaded (79.9p as against 80.9p)

I'm sure this doesn't help, but the supposedly 'thirsty' 2.0 carb motor can easily make 100 miles to £10. The injection is another matter (with its hotter (A profile) cam, and slightly higher state of tune)...

Sadly the 1.4 is an ancient design (how many OHV family-sized cars could you buy in 91?!), and not very efficient.

You should try getting a carb from the local scrap yard, or if you don't have anywhere suitable near you, I'll get you one from the local (very cheap!) yard - probably delivered for around £20!

cheers

James

my new glt works out at about 10p a mile. cant compare with yours tho so....

what does ohv actualy mean?

Overhead valve. The cam sits in the block (opposed to in the head, as on OHC), and actuates pushrods, which in turn actuate rockers which open the cams. OHV engines can't rev as high, and aren't as efficient. Most engines up until the early 80s were OHV...but it died out pretty quickly after that, except for on cheap cars.

cheers

James

Just remembered - my first Volvo - an old 360GLS (carb) would top 35mpg on a long run. It was about 8 years old when I owned it and showed signs of having led a hard life (big towbar, sagging rear springs, dodgy steering rack etc) but I still should have kept it longer.

Yup, and that was almost certainly the less efficient B19A - the B200K might not be much good for performance, but the peak MPG figure is above 50mpg!

cheers

James