Official Thread for posting daily FE updates

[Compaq888]

Metro have you done any underbody stuff yet??? Also how about sealing up the holes between body panels?

[MetroMPG]

underbody stuff - nothing since my failed experiment. i guess i was discouraged by that and so haven't re-attempted it yet. also, i've had my nose to the grindstone with the forkenswift the last few weeks - or should i say my grinder to the iron oxide.

also, my highest FE segments are largely unaffected by aerodynamics, with avg speeds around just 20 mph, so the boost to 100+ will have to come from elsewhere.

krousdb - funny opening sentence! here's hoping for better weather soon.
i'd like to do a tank update, but i'm a scant 80 miles in since the last fill-up at the start of the month.

[diamondlarry]

I had a good day for FE today! I went to a business meeting in Indianapolis, IN today. From my house, it was a trip of 157.6 miles to the meeting then nearly 30 miles back towards home after the meeting till I got off of the interstate and to a station to refill for a total of 185.86 miles. I used 3.353 gallons for an average mpg of 55.43. This was NOT Scanguage but actual fill-up! . Speed limit was 60mph and I tried to keep it as close to 55 as possible. I think I reached a top speed of 59 for the whole trip. I'm going back to PA next weekend to get the cam timing properly dialed in so I expect that number to go up.

[philmcneal]

Originally Posted by diamondlarry

I had a good day for FE today! I went to a business meeting in Indianapolis, IN today. From my house, it was a trip of 157.6 miles to the meeting then nearly 30 miles back towards home after the meeting till I got off of the interstate and to a station to refill for a total of 185.86 miles. I used 3.353 gallons for an average mpg of 55.43. This was NOT Scanguage but actual fill-up! . Speed limit was 60mph and I tried to keep it as close to 55 as possible. I think I reached a top speed of 59 for the whole trip. I'm going back to PA next weekend to get the cam timing properly dialed in so I expect that number to go up.

do you have a place where you have car pics and stats of your ride? That's the highest mileage Saturn I've ever read about pretty much.

Nice numbers.

[diamondlarry]

do you have a place where you have car pics and stats of your ride? That's the highest mileage Saturn I've ever read about pretty much.

Nice numbers.

Thanks Phil. The only picture I think I have of my car is in my garage. Until Matt gets finished with the bazillion other things realated to the switch, that won't be available. (Thanks for the time and effort your giving Matt! ) There are numerous articles at www.fueleconomytips.com that explain what was done to my car. Pretty much anything with "Larry" in the title has to do with the head mod.
Maybe someday I'll be as good as Wayne at hypermiling. Maybe as soon as I can teach the neighbor's pigs to fly.

[Matt Timion]

Update:

I filled up yesterday and put in about 9.5 gallons. I had around ~347 miles on that tank. This is about 36.5mpg and it was mainly city driving. Not bad at all.

[MetroMPG]

There was a time I used to look forward to highway trips because they invariably pulled up my tank average. Not any more...

Today's trip was 72 miles with cruising speeds between 40-50 mph: 70.3 mpg (US).

Tank avg so far (137 mi.): 76.3 mpg (US)

Later I was bored so went to attempt for 100 mpg on my local loop ... and was denied yet again: 98.6 mpg (US). (Using moderate load/low RPM acceleration.)

[SVOboy]

Filled up today, hit 40.5, woo.

For the auto, highway still helps out,

Anyway, I love you for giving me hope metro, I drove a stick celica today (for work) it was so easy, I can't believe stick shifts are normally so easy, I hate my mom's car.

[GeoMetry]

Changes here at Gassavers.org and changes on my car as well. After my 58.1 MPG coasting experience, I decided to make a number of changes to my Metro. I replaced the standard camshaft with a camshaft from an XFi. I advanced the cam timing 2 degrees and I advanced the ignition timing from the stock 5 degrees before TDC to 10 degrees before TDC. I guess while I was mucking around under the hood I stressed one of the old vacuum hoses a bit too much so I have suffered some vacuum related problems for the past two days. I replaced all the vacuum hoses today so I shouldn't have any vacuum problems for a while.

I filled up today and I was worried that the vacuum issues were going to destroy my mileage but it came in right about where it has been for the past month or so at 49.8 MPG.

I got some 13 inch wheels off of a 1998 Metro and as soon as the special lug nuts arrive I will put them on. The effect should be almost identical to the taller final drive on an XFi. It should also make it easier to find tires that fit although I doubt I will find any low rolling resistance tires.

A while back I thought that I could recalculate all my mileage numbers because I realized that the tires on my car were not the exact size that were specified for the car. By the numbers I should have added 2.7% to all my MPG calculations. I then took my sons hand-held GPS for a ride in the car and I was disappointed to find that my odometer was almost perfectly accurate. Oh well. After I get these new wheels/tires on I will use his GPS again to find the factor to use when calculating MPG.

Perhaps by the time I get my new wheels on the gas log will be back. I'll keep you posted.

MetroMPG, can you explain your "moderate load/low RPM acceleration" driving method?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Popup

MetroMPG, can you explain your "moderate load/low RPM acceleration" driving method?

Hi Popup -

Congrats on your 58.1 tank. I've also been following your XFi cam swap & cam timing mod thread at TeamSwift lately. Very interesting - hope you get some great results.

As for that acceleration technique, best to read up on this thread:
http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=37

Note that I haven't done any controlled tests to confirm it works on my car. I haven't noticed either an obvious FE increase or reduction between very light & slow acceleration and the moderate load/low RPM method. But collected 3rd party support for the idea is mounting: 3 auto publications & counting. Still waiting for the original BMW study to turn up (it will).

Also FYI, most of my in-town FE gains have come from engine-off coasting. When I do the city "test" loop, I employ the E-DLD method. (Extreme Driving Like Dan - where the engine is either under load, or off.)