NEW Official Thread for posting daily FE updates

[MnFocus]

Trend is upwards ! Good driving weather today .Even the Military Police Force thought so , as I was passed by a caravan of 25 or so .

51.8 / 32.7 to work
51.3 / 33.3 to home
Tank sits at 50.6

Now its bath time for Focus .

[MetroMPG]

Thanks, kick.

For comparison, my return to "normal" driving today arrived with a horribly rainy & windy day. I hit the highway and tried to DWL as best as I could - a paltry 63 mpg (US) over about 120 mi. (r.t.) was my reward.

CO - I fully expect you to surpass 104. Thanks for the CD offer. I'd love one - will PM my address.

PS - how come your car's gas log info is screwy? Where did your 100+ fill go?

[MetroMPG]

PS nice work MN - are you sitting in record territory now?

[CO ZX2]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Thanks, kick.

For comparison, my return to "normal" driving today arrived with a horribly rainy & windy day. I hit the highway and tried to DWL as best as I could - a paltry 63 mpg (US) over about 120 mi. (r.t.) was my reward.

CO - I fully expect you to surpass 104. Thanks for the CD offer. I'd love one - will PM my address.

PS - how come your car's gas log info is screwy? Where did your 100+ fill go?

I got hacked about the time the stupid Top Ten entries appeared.

[diamondlarry]

Originally Posted by CO ZX2

I got hacked about the time the stupid Top Ten entries appeared.

I'm surprised to see those bogus entries are still in there. I really don't think the moped belongs in the car section at all. It's closer to a motorcycle than a car.

[psyshack]

Just did the first fill on the MZ3.

Allow me to set this up. I was with the salesman when the car got its dealer fill. He did not top off. He let the pump click off then rounded up to the next dollar. On my fill today I let the pump click off at 12.5 gal. And then ran it up to 13 gal. Bet I put more gas in than he did. Doing my best to get a good start with this car.

I did tach it a bit. Not a lot mind you. SG showed a max rpm of 4700 rpm. Max speed of 80 mph I think it was. I fought a head wind coming home every day this week from 5 mph to 15 mph. My how flags fly here. darn it. I drove this car exactly like I would have driven the Civic.

So lets get to the numbers.

Cars iFCD: Tank 39.7 MPG , Ave speed 41 mph,, a near useless number machine IMO.
SG1 Tank 44.3 MPG , Ave speed 45 mph, best 40 mile plus segment 47 mpg,,, I wanted to believe in the SG from the start.

Hand calc's 561 miles, 13 gal. for 43.1 MPG . Hand calc's are what I post in log. I have a high degree of faith in these numbers.

I see no reason why I wont be seeing near Civic numbers in the near future. If not Civic numbers. The car is easier to drive than the Civic. Torque does have a value. and it will corner circles around the Civic. Sport FAS/EOC ROCKS!!!!!!

psy

[Fourthbean]

I have run a full tank without my radiator fan and didn't see any improvement. Pretty disapointing. I think I need to tune up again though, maybe that is pulling the mileage down faster than my mods can keep up...

Today I place some cardboard just behind the grill in front of the radiator. Had 1/2 blocked on the way to work and 3/4 or more on the way back. Didn't notice a change in temps (200 coasting 220 under load) and it was 85-90 degrees ambient on the way home. I will try and remember to put some more cardboard in before I start my commute tomorrow.

Does anyone have somewhere I can read up on tune-ups for point-type distributors? Maybe even specifically for Fuel-Economy? I want to re-time my distributor as it was done by ear by a friend and not messed with since. Am also wondering what the mileage should be between rotor/cap/points replacement. I have adjusted the points about every month and it seemed to make a large improvement each time except for the last time. This last time it didn't seem to change at all, I am thinking it is time for new parts in there.

From what I understand I can buy an HEI distributor that was made for this engine and be plug-n-play electronic ignition. Does anyone know anything about this?


Alright, now I am going to bed and hoping that everyone doesn't get scared off by my post. I didn't mean to ask so many questions, might have been better to start a new thread .

[usedgeo]

Old shop manuals like a "Motors" manual you can probably find in the library used to have pretty thorough tune up sections. As long as you have decent plugs, wires, and a good spark all you can do is advance the timig a few degrees.

Using a tachometer you should lean out the idle to at least a 40 rpm drop from maximum. A little more rpm drop would be okay as long as the engine idles smooth. The carb on this old engine is probably jetted a bit on the rich side. Trying to lean it out a bit might be easy but it could lead to problems also. At the moment this sounds a little advanced for where you are.

High quality points do not need adjusted that often. Every 10,000 miles should do. The points could easily go 20,000 miles if they are of the heavy duty type. You need a SMALL amount of grease on the rubbing block and cam. You need a timing light to set the timing. It really helps.

I think caps and rotors can easily go 50k in most cases.

If an HEI distributor is available almost no one would argue against that. Early HEI rotors were known to burn through at the center but that is a rare problem now.

These are just a couple ideas. You will have to sort through a wide range of opinions on this subject.

Originally Posted by Fourthbean

I have run a full tank without my radiator fan and didn't see any improvement. Pretty disapointing. I think I need to tune up again though, maybe that is pulling the mileage down faster than my mods can keep up...

Today I place some cardboard just behind the grill in front of the radiator. Had 1/2 blocked on the way to work and 3/4 or more on the way back. Didn't notice a change in temps (200 coasting 220 under load) and it was 85-90 degrees ambient on the way home. I will try and remember to put some more cardboard in before I start my commute tomorrow.

Does anyone have somewhere I can read up on tune-ups for point-type distributors? Maybe even specifically for Fuel-Economy? I want to re-time my distributor as it was done by ear by a friend and not messed with since. Am also wondering what the mileage should be between rotor/cap/points replacement. I have adjusted the points about every month and it seemed to make a large improvement each time except for the last time. This last time it didn't seem to change at all, I am thinking it is time for new parts in there.

From what I understand I can buy an HEI distributor that was made for this engine and be plug-n-play electronic ignition. Does anyone know anything about this?


Alright, now I am going to bed and hoping that everyone doesn't get scared off by my post. I didn't mean to ask so many questions, might have been better to start a new thread .

[Fourthbean]

Thanks, any input I can get is great.

I didn't realize points were supposed to last that long. Maybe I just got the adjusted wrong this time. Will have to try adjusting them again.

I have a 1 barrel carb with only one adjusting screw, and then the idle speed screw. Would I be able to lean it out with that setup? I could lose quite a bit of power and still be ok. What kind of problems would come up by leaning out? Hot engine and pinging?

If my ignition parts are supposed to last that long I will probably hold off on the 50-70 dollars for the HEI distributor. No telling what problems will pop up trying to install that.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by Fourthbean

Thanks, any input I can get is great.

I didn't realize points were supposed to last that long. Maybe I just got the adjusted wrong this time. Will have to try adjusting them again.

I have a 1 barrel carb with only one adjusting screw, and then the idle speed screw. Would I be able to lean it out with that setup? I could lose quite a bit of power and still be ok. What kind of problems would come up by leaning out? Hot engine and pinging?

If my ignition parts are supposed to last that long I will probably hold off on the 50-70 dollars for the HEI distributor. No telling what problems will pop up trying to install that.

I had a Pertronix Ignitor unit in my stock distributor, hooked up to a 45k volt coil in my '68 Mustang. Installation really was as quick and easy as promised, it was completely reliable, and really gave a nice boost in midrange torque. 9mm wires and a wider plug gap further increased my response and midrange. Fuel economy picked up by about 1mpg as well. If you're going for extremes, you can index the plugs by pointing the open part of the electrode, IIRC, in the direction of the intake valve, which supposedly makes for a better combustion; having seen some dyno results that net about a full HP just from indexing, I tend to believe it.

If your mixture screw is like it was on my Edelbrock, that only adjusts the idle mixture; it used another fuel circuit to determine mixture under load. Having said that, I'd adjust it on the lean side just the same if fuel economy is your goal. A side benefit is that you won't get as much of that sooty buildup on your tailpipe, either (a constant struggle to keep clean on the Mustang...), though your cold-weather operation may be more of a struggle.