Computer geek, actually learning a thing or two about cars...

[zpiloto]

Not mine either

[krousdb]

Nor mine...

[Silveredwings]

Stil\, the biggest gains seem to be from driving technique (slowing down, coasting, pulse-n-glide, etc), and the plucking the low hanging fruit, like high tire pressures, hight temp thermostats, grill block, and others. It also helps to have some sort of mpg readout so you can see what you're doing.

[onegammyleg]

Hi DracoFelis

You wrote;
?I've found many sites that talk about "hot rodding" cars, but why would I want even more power at the expense of FE?

Actually , there is a similarity between hot rodding and improving FE.
Back when I used to build modified cars for the road (i was doing hot fours and turbo'z b4 they became popular) i found that many of our fastest cars were better on mpg than when they were when stock.

One example is one of my personal cars , a small fiat 128 sedan.
Its an old car now but back then it wasnt so old - der
It was powered by a 1.1 litre belt driven single overhead cam engine , with a single carby.
The car was front wheel drive and weighed about 1600 lbs.

The standard fuel consumption was about 28 mpg (quite poor indeed) and on the highway not more than 32 and made about 55 hp.
Its top speed was 90 mph and a quater mile of almost 20 seconds.

My changes were .
290 degree camshaft.
I modified the head.
The piston skirts were shortened.
All engine parts ballanced.
Weber 32-36 carb added and then jetted rite.
Free flowing exhaust mufflers , BUT , not a huge increase in pipe dimater.
Slight increase in compresion ration (not much)

Apart from that there were no weight saving or aero mods or extra tire pressure etc.

The result was 100hp at the wheels.
40mpg even when it was driven with no regard to FE (gas was cheap back then)
120mph top speed - it pulled 8500 in top gear which when you werk out the gear ratios and tire sizes its correct.The speedo needle was pushed hard back up under the ZERO mark after going all the way around.
1/4 time of 14.5

Previously the happy cruising speed was about 40mph but this went up to 70mph.

So what ime saying here is , you dont need to have a grandpa's car or a small performance econobox to get good FE.
Done rite you can have both - sure it wasnt a 3 digit FE car , but then I dont think a 3 digit would fry the tires through the first 3 gears and be a whole mess of fun.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

I've heard of similar, the 1st gen carbed honda's getting 70-80mpg with a tweaked weber. Supposedly my truck gets an extra 5mpg for non CA versions, and will break into the 30s with a weber, maybe even 40s using P&G.

[thisisntjared]

hello, sorry i am a little late in the greeting but there are a few computer geeks on this board, matt, the admin, and myself, software delopment for csc. of course, there are others that are either partial computer geeks or i dont know them well enough to make such an assumption.

can you disclose who you work for? the voip community is a small world and my father, douglas tait, who now works for bea as in global market for ims.

anyway, welcome to the board, everyone has already loaded you up with free advice, but you will find the best advice is the stuff youve gotten curious about and dug up on the archives. and this all depends on the type of driving you usually do.

[Ted Hart]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Not my honda, not matt's honda, and not some others I'm forgetting at the moment.

Not? Hmmm.... I'll admit, it's a very subtle improvement (no sirens, whistles, or fantastic MPG nos.) , but my better half's Toyota loves it! I can't give you "before & after" nos, (it's subtle) but I will say it's worth doing! IMHO, of course!

[psyshack]

WOW missed this greet,,, sorry.

Welcome! Slow down, air up the tires a bit. MPG will come your way.

[psyshack]

Originally Posted by onegammyleg

Hi DracoFelis

You wrote;
?I've found many sites that talk about "hot rodding" cars, but why would I want even more power at the expense of FE?

Actually , there is a similarity between hot rodding and improving FE.
Back when I used to build modified cars for the road (i was doing hot fours and turbo'z b4 they became popular) i found that many of our fastest cars were better on mpg than when they were when stock.

One example is one of my personal cars , a small fiat 128 sedan.
Its an old car now but back then it wasnt so old - der
It was powered by a 1.1 litre belt driven single overhead cam engine , with a single carby.
The car was front wheel drive and weighed about 1600 lbs.

The standard fuel consumption was about 28 mpg (quite poor indeed) and on the highway not more than 32 and made about 55 hp.
Its top speed was 90 mph and a quater mile of almost 20 seconds.

My changes were .
290 degree camshaft.
I modified the head.
The piston skirts were shortened.
All engine parts ballanced.
Weber 32-36 carb added and then jetted rite.
Free flowing exhaust mufflers , BUT , not a huge increase in pipe dimater.
Slight increase in compresion ration (not much)

Apart from that there were no weight saving or aero mods or extra tire pressure etc.

The result was 100hp at the wheels.
40mpg even when it was driven with no regard to FE (gas was cheap back then)
120mph top speed - it pulled 8500 in top gear which when you werk out the gear ratios and tire sizes its correct.The speedo needle was pushed hard back up under the ZERO mark after going all the way around.
1/4 time of 14.5

Previously the happy cruising speed was about 40mph but this went up to 70mph.

So what ime saying here is , you dont need to have a grandpa's car or a small performance econobox to get good FE.
Done rite you can have both - sure it wasnt a 3 digit FE car , but then I dont think a 3 digit would fry the tires through the first 3 gears and be a whole mess of fun.

Its amazing what can be done to Fiat's. They where so detuned for the American market it wasnt funny. My brother is refurbing a X/19 right now for auto-x duty. Motors getting alot of Abarth goodies. The rods look like something out of a small block Chevy. lolololol