MPG Record ?

[FB71]

here we go again... Acetone does not increse your fuel economy, and does not act as a surficant in a petroleum product. It's an alcohol product, and will attack rubber hoses and seals in any fuel system, new or old. Fuel system cleaner is essentially the same product. If you really want to increase your economy with a chemical additive, get some tolulene from an auto paint supplier, and add about a gallon to 10 gal of fuel. It bumps your octane rating to around 105-110 RM, and you can advance your base timing to around 14deg BTDC. This will give you more cylinder pressure, yielding more usable power at the crank, allowing you to accelerate and maintain vehicle speed with less throttle angle.

[CharlieZ]

Some years ago there was an after market gadget that allowed you to adjust distributor static advance from inside the car. Might help - might not.
What about those aluminum disk wheel covers the Bonneville cars ran in the 50s & 60s?
Fender skirts on the rears? *Only for record attempts PLEASE!*
From what I've read on the forum, an air dam and side skirts have made a difference.
Interesting thread.

[litesong]

My Festiva is a '88 carb'd and 4-speed. It's only averaging 34.3 mpg, and I live in a small town. I commute 12 miles round trip everyday at speeds up to 70 mph. I haven't done a compression test on it. I really want 43 mpg.

Your fairly short commute probably keeps your MPG down. Try a change of sparkplug wires & a new timing belt. But for bragging rights, take your Festiva on a nice country drive where you aren't shutting your engine off every 6 miles. Bet you'll get well over 43MPG with good feather footing.

[jglutz]

Ideas.....

Reduce the kinetic (rolling) friction....well maintained bearings, front and back.

Properly inflated tires...a few extra PSI would help MPG but not handling.

Make sure the front tires are equal in wear....the same size...any time the differential kicks in, HP is not appied to the wheels.

Reduce starting and stopping.

Install a vacuum gage and drive such that the needle is always at a max.

Make sure all of the brake hardware is pristine. On the front the guide pins need to be clean and properly lubed. on the back clean and easily working. This will allow the rotor or drum to easily knock the pads/shoes out of the way when the brakes are not applied and also keep the rears from over adjusting.

Not advisable...but if your really serious about a record... remove the air filter and rad cooling fan.

[m715]

Don't forget that many areas now have Ethanol in the base gasoline that is KILLING our mileage! I have seen the high side of that " 5% reduction " in economy that it is only supposed to drop. Also, cooler air will help mileage too.

Michael

[litesong]

Ideas.....Properly inflated tires...a few extra PSI would help MPG but not handling.

Agree with you. Beyond that can get really spooky.

A lot of talk on CleanMPG & one of the Honda Fit sites about really really pumping up the tires...not a good thing to do, if you don't monitor tires very closely. Here in Western Washington state , on a sub-50 degree morning, you could inflate to sidewall pressure max.(CleanMPG talks higher), then drive to E. Washington where the afternoon could get to 110 degrees. As is, or driving fast with a heavy load on hot asphalt, your pressures will be sky high & badly unsafe!

What CleanMPG is talking about is taking the engineered tire safety margin away & overpumping the tires. Its like the max. 'safe' weight calculation of a bridge & then tripling the weight of cars you allow on the bridge.

[silerenth]

:< I wish I could properly measure my MPG's. Unfortunately, I lack a working gas gauge, and just guess that my car is getting bottom of the barrel 30 mpg, and fill up accordingly. (roughly every 300 miles...)

*cries!*

[litesong]

full or empty?

:< I wish I could properly measure my MPG's. Unfortunately, I lack a working gas gauge, and just guess that my car is getting bottom of the barrel 30 mpg, and fill up accordingly. (roughly every 300 miles...)

*cries!*

The old VW bug had no gas gauge. When gas got low, the engine sputtered a bit & the driver would turn the 'reserve' tank on. The 'reserve' was the beginning of the gasline to the gas tank that could be lowered to access the last gallon of fuel...much like motorcycle 'reserve' tanks. My old Toyota Tercel had a fuel gauge that indicated when the gas tank was full. After usage of ~1 gallon, the guage would drop to zero. At ~ the half-way mark, the guage would rise & accurately indicate the fuel level to empty. You just had to remember that your tank was over half full or nearly empty.

[Catabas]

MPG increase

I have a 90 L Plus (fuel injected) automatic. Been getting around 30. Added Hydroxy to the mix at 37 mpg now. In the process of constructing a new booster. Injecting Brown's Gas has been around for 90 years or so. Need to check out www.gas4less4you.com The E-Books have some great info. New booster should increase another 25 to 40%.

[neanderpaul]

:< I wish I could properly measure my MPG's. Unfortunately, I lack a working gas gauge, and just guess that my car is getting bottom of the barrel 30 mpg, and fill up accordingly. (roughly every 300 miles...)

*cries!*

You don't need a gas gauge to calculate mpg.

[festyxfi]

My two-cents: I'm pretty sure a festiva can't get 60mpg without some seriously ideal conditions and/or major modifications. I've pulled approx. 53mpg in a 93 EFI 5-spd at (like Carbon says) 50'ish MPH. I always run my tires @ 48PSI, other than a rough ride, no problems. Anyone hoping to break the 60mpg barrier needs to drive an XFI IMHO.

[1991FordFestiva]

Hello all,
My name is Aaron, and I'm new here. Wanted to say "hi". I have a '91 5-speed with 34k original miles and am getting about 37mpg. I do about 20 miles round trip each day (half highway at 65mph/half in-town at 40-45mph), and run with the A/C on here in the 110 degree Arizona heat. I did a fresh tune up and it didn't do much for the mpg. Also ran some seafoam through it - not much difference. Probably doesn't help that I have a trunk full of volvo parts, and that I weigh 250 pounds....

[neanderpaul]

Welcome Aaron. auto or manual? carbed or efi?

[1991FordFestiva]

She's a 5-speed with the Hurst option (Not really, but I couldn't resist the Hurst shifter knob). It's fuel injected, and has the highly coveted "no passenger mirror" option. I bought this car to drive the crap out of it for the next couple of years while I'm in nursing school.

[hawkdoc60]

I was getting 35 mpg with Cherry Bomb running on three cylinders. Now that I have replaced the engine with a new B3, I am testing my mpg with the first full tank of gas since the swap. So far, I have over 100 miles and the needle is just now coming off the full mark. It is looking promising thus far. I will let you know what the final outcome of this first tank is.