New member from WV... Long winded first post...

[19bonestock88]

Hello to the forum! I am from WV and am trying to save some fuel... I drive a 2005 Suzuki Forenza and a 1988 Ford Ranger... Both are equipped with manual transmissions(5 speeds), and oddly enough, the engine displacement on both vehicles is two liters...

The usual average mileage per tank in the car is between 27 and 29 mpg, and i think it is rated at 24/31... If i spend much time on the freeway and keep my speed down to 75 or less, i can break into the thirties...

Lately, i have been getting between 18 and 21 mpg in the truck( carburetor is a little off) but i have seen as high as almost 25 mpg and as low as about 13 mpg...

Being that i live in WV, there are hills and turns that i negotiate daily, which costs fuel...

My goal is to consistently achieve 32-35 mpg in the car without driving like a near sighted grandmother... I tend to go about 55 on any two lane near me, and about 40 on the one lane i live on... I have, so far, installed an UltraGauge in an attempt to refine my driving and to collect data for future modding... All opinions welcome!

[theholycow]

That post isn't long-winded, by our standards.

Driving slow is not necessary. It is one technique out of many available to use for saving fuel. You can read up on the other things instead.

Those hills might be turned to your advantage, especially in the Suzuki. Search for discussions about pulse & glide. If your hills are appropriate in length and grade, they can result in pulse & glide that keeps a steady speed. It's less effective with a carburetor since carburetors are much more sensitive to throttle position.

Speaking of carburetors, here's a thread where I asked for advice:
http://www.gassavers.org/f69/hypermi...tor-12690.html
You'll want to be gentle with the throttle, try to keep vacuum up, and use neutral whenever it's reasonable to do so.

For all those turns, you can try to mitigate the loss by not staying on the accelerator until the last moment then braking for the turn and going grandma-slow through it. Instead, coast up to it allowing some speed to drop, then coast through it, having a little fun taking the turn fast (only if safety, visibility, traction, law, etc allow).

Remember, when you step on that brake pedal you discard energy that you've already spent fuel to make.

[19bonestock88]

I have been lurking for a couple weeks, and i have tried some hypermiling in the past, just not with the car... I havent collected any data on the hills, but i generally have gone up them at normal speed( two of them in my normal commute have a sharp corner at the bottom) and can coast down them with no throttle and have to brake from like 65 or 70 mph for the turn at the bottom... I try not to slow down for corners, taking some at over double the recommended speed... My car wears high performance rubber and i use it, lol... Lately, i have been trying to avoid braking so as to not convert the kinetic energy made by my fuel into heat energy

The one time i hypermiled the truck, it got almost 25 mpg, but i did it in a rough manner... Lots of WOT and i kept the engine speed under 1500 RPM and didnt downshift on hills until it lugged down to 750 RPM... Im very fortunate that i didnt break anything...but, im not really looking to hypermile it much, actually going for a performance build instead... Shooting for about 11:1CR, singh grooved head, stage one cam, hopefully 2.3 short block, maybe with 2.5 rotating assembly...but back on topic...

I have done some data collecting in the car, and i think i have found some areas for improvement...

Engine coolant temp runs about 195 degrees when i drive, could possibly come up to 210 or so?grill block?

The ecu pulls lots of timing above about 40% load, maybe running higher octane could aid with this?