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why bother...get a honda if you are concerned about gas prices.
I'd say if you have a B or E body use the 400 if you have an A body use the 318. I would however not use 2.76 gears on either. lower gear doesn't always mean better mpg. Plus you'd have to drive it a TON on the highway to get any benefit. $5 a gallon is nothing compaired to the cost of building and maintaining a muscle car.



some of us enjoy driving our cars on a regular basis...I built a 318 along the same recipie as him, except I'm using a small hydraulic roller, eddie RPM air gap, and OEM magnum castings. it's enough motor to push my 3900 lb pig to mid 14's using 27" tires, 3.55's and an A500, and is very entertaining to drive, while yielding a solid 17+ mpg in daily (mixed) driving....



what's that got to do with it? I enjoy driving mine too I wouldn't have built it if not. I was running 12.0's in a 67 coronet w/ a 440 and getting 12-13 with 3.91's. My 72 340 swinger ran 13.86's with a mild 340 and 3.55's and netted 17+mpg's. Car is not going to be very impressive at all w/ 2.76 gears and they might hurt his milage. If he was building a Bonneville car the 2.76's would be fine. I'd wager a cold 12 pack the difference in mpg's between 2.76's and 3.55's would be less than 2mpg (compined driving) Put the performance would be way up.
I guess my main point is people dump all kinds of dumb $$$ into a ride and worry about mpgs and how much it costs to fill the tank. Gas won't be $5/gallon for a long while. I doubt 93 will go over $4 for too long. Build it to run it's best. If you build a performace engine, back it up. If you want a pretty car you can drive everyday build a stockish roller 360 and get a set of 3.23's.