cold weather and mpg's

[mullet man]

hey all,
i drove the Festy on her maiden voyage since i have owned it and performed the 5spd swap. i traveled ~140 miles after i topped it off with fuel last night to bring her up north to my new home.
i was nervous as she was loaded down with a good bit of weight, about 3-400 extra pounds of misc. car parts i have collected. but she performed well
the weather started out down south at about 35* and up here is about 22*.
my temp guage barely gets above the 'C' mark, which seems low to me.

i certainly figured she would get better gas mileage then it is showing. right now after driving another 15 miles on the same tank of gas, it is right about 3/8-7/16 of a tank.

does the 1.3 carbed motor reference the coolant temp in someway, for fueling?
i'm thinking that maybe since she doesnt get "up to temp" that it is consuming more fuel then if it was "up to temp"....
maybe covering up the radiator partially or completely will help?

she doesnt stumble or hesitate, doesnt have a high idle issue that i can tell anyway. she is cold blooded tho and takes some time to get her too idle nicely on 1st startup in these cold days. i chalk that up to being carb'd tho.

any insight?

[quaddawg]

You didn't say what MPG it's getting? You can't go by ANY gauge, you have to re-top it off and do the math, several times to get an accurate MPG... or have you done this?

[mullet man]

LOL, i guess i forget that it is only an 8 gallon tank. DOH!
i know how to calculate the MPG's, this is still the 1st tank of gas run through it. so i havent had a chance to do it yet.

so do you have any input on covering the radiator up, operating temp idea?

[stefan]

get a ford/mazda OEM t-stat. it has 2 valves as opposed to 1 (like all the generic replacements). Makes a huge difference, cant explain the reasoning but it warms up much better.

[muscle_Car1]

9.9gal tank

[worfdog]

i get around 40 to 43 mpg's in the summer and 36 to 38 mpg's in the winter. cooler weather and gas reformulation for different seasons and climate are what i attribute it to, but it happens like this every year.i have had my 88 carbed festiva for 11 years now. i also run regular gas in mine. i do not use gas with alcohol in it.

[25Horseplay]

My 89 carbed car with a 4 speed got 41.3 MPG with the last tank of gas. And I don't exactly drive it easy.

[packrat427]

Awesome !!!

Glad to see that you are putting some miles on it

I have seen some put a piece of cardboard in front , just don't totally block it , put some holes in it , till you get the T-stat replaced .

My temp gauge never gets above the second mark when warmed up .

[stefan]

my last tank i got 23mpg :cry:

[kzbill]

I guess 37 isn't too bad then, does anyone notice even without corn enhanced fuel that the mileage gotten from a gallon of gas is less now than say three to five years ago? I burn unreformulated regular. I'm thinkin' the oil companies are adding some other "fillers" to our fuel. I noticed the difference about two to three years ago suddenly my mileage went down on both vehicles without reformulated.
or thats at least what they called it

[jglutz]

Just completed a full rebuid...'92L 5spd...stock 1.3 with 143K
Have put on about 1K since...drive like a maniac...no less than 40MPG.

Back to the top of the thread....is their a t'stat in the car....or did someone thing they could make an improvement by removing it?

[worfdog]

i drove my 1988 out west in october, from greenville sc to las vegas via denver co ,rapid city sd , yellowstone national park then back home, 5,430 miles . ii averaged 38 mph could have been better ,but i pushed it hard once out west, at least 80 mph and at many times 90 and 95 mph. had a gps to tell the speed above 85 mph. i kept it at these speeds for many miles. i noticed out west the octane rating for regular was 85 mid grade was88 premium was 90 or 91. here in greenville our regular is 87, mid grade 89, premium 92 to 93 octane. but yes i have noticed over the last few years that gas seems not to be as good as it was a few short years ago. by the way our reg gas is now 2.71 per gallon

[mullet man]

Just completed a full rebuid...'92L 5spd...stock 1.3 with 143K
Have put on about 1K since...drive like a maniac...no less than 40MPG.

Back to the top of the thread....is their a t'stat in the car....or did someone thing they could make an improvement by removing it?

LOL, i hope there is a T-stat in it. i know i havent removed it. maybe it is stuck open tho. i will have to check it out.

mainly what i was curious about was the motor running so cold that it would consume more fuel. like when the weather is cold and the air more dense, more fuel is needed too compensate.
i was wondering if i blocked off the radiator airflow if this might help the motor to consume less fuel since the engine would run hotter.

i know alot of EFI cars reference the coolant temp sensor among others to adjust air fuel ratio. only thing is with this '89 being a carb'd beast, i am not sure how or if it does the same.

9.9gal tank

really? well that certainly is going to make the MPG's worse then what i was figuring. dont know why i thought only 8gal. sitting at under a 1/4 tank now and havent even gone 200miles yet

[kzbill]

I know that the EFI's do adjust for engine temp. and I think the carbed have sensor also but someone here should correct me if wrong if it isn't running at proper temp it will richen the mix.

[mullet man]

I know that the EFI's do adjust for engine temp. and I think the carbed have sensor also but someone here should correct me if wrong if it isn't running at proper temp it will richen the mix.

thats exactly what i am looking to find out!