Telco

[Telco]

How do, I found my way here from a local TV station website, profiling hypermilers. Poked around, thought I could learn and contribute, so here I is.

I am a high performance nut currently living in Oklahoma, do my own work when possible, and am looking for the best performance per gallon. This means I want to do those quarter miles in 10 seconds or less, but don't want to be getting 5MPG for fuel economy. My goal before finding this site and seeing what's available was 12 second quarters and 30MPG, but now I find my goal to be 12 seconds and 50MPG! I may not reach it, but that's what I'll be reaching for.

So far my best vehicles have been a 1980 El Camino 305 and a 1989 Camaro 305 for performance vs fuel economy. No idea on their quarters, but after the work I did to them I was seeing 20MPG out of the El Camino with a carb and a 3 speed auto trans, which is excellent for this setup. With fuel injection, overdrive and a few other tricks I imagine I could have been getting well into the 30s. The car wasn't worth the effort though. The Camaro, with just a chip, was faster than 302 Mustangs (slightly, enough to win the race) and got 30MPG on the highway. If only I knew then what I know now about cars!

My current project is a 1987 S15 ext cab 2WD truck. When I bought it it was getting 17 city 14 highway (not a misprint), so far I've replaced the 2.8L engine with another one (big mistake), added an electric fan. I also installed a set of 2003 Caddy CTS power buckets and integrated seatbelts, which required a new floorpan, floor reinforcement due to the seatbelts being part of the seats, and 2 inch body lift to accommodate the new flatter, lower floor. These seats will be the only real luxury item in the truck, everything else will be a bit more spartan.

Future mods will be aimed at improving vehicle performance (mileage and power), safety, handling, and weight. I envision a lot of fiberglass in the near future...

After reading this site, I'm going to look into another project after the kids move out and I have some money and room to work. I'm thinking an electric Fiero will be just the thing for a commuter car. This is also a far stretch for me, since I've always wanted a Fiero... only with a fuel injected 400 cubic inch engine . Should work great with a smaller house powered with wind and PV (damned wind never stops around here, only time I've seen the air completely still was about 5 minutes before a high intensity electrical thunderstorm hit! Then the wind made up for the little breather it took!!!)

[Sigifrith]

Hey Telco, are you a phone guy too?

[thisisntjared]

fuel injection and turbos are the only way to be fast with good mpg.

a twin turbo trans am could get you to run 12s and get 30+mpg. but that is expensive.

[psyshack]

Hello Telco

Welcome to the site!

I think I would scale back on the project cars and pick up a gas miser.

psy

[Telco]

Originally Posted by Sigifrith

Hey Telco, are you a phone guy too?

More or less. I work on data ckts for a large unnamed telco. I can think of better things to do with my life, but none of them pay as much .

Originally Posted by thisisntjared

fuel injection and turbos are the only way to be fast with good mpg.

a twin turbo trans am could get you to run 12s and get 30+mpg. but that is expensive.

I dunno, those are the current conventional ways of doing it. A turbocharged 4.8L isn't outside the possibilities though, it's most likely what engine revision 2.0 will be (rev 1.0 was switching from a broken 2.8L to a "working" 2.8L.) And it MUST be my truck, I need a truck too often to use a car, and I'm not about to pay insurance and upkeep on something I'm not driving. Well, the wife wants a Corvette or something for a weekender when the kids move out, but that'll be it.

Should I go this route, I'd most likely be using a single rear mounted turbo AKA STS Turbo. One of these with an adjustable pressure valve and a little extra hardware (this is the simple version, long version would be looooong) would allow me to optimize my engine to run either straight gasoline or E85, since basically all I'd have to do is turn up the boost for the E85. Yes, there is more to it than that, but that's the main part of it. Main problem with current flexfuelers not getting good mileage comes from them having to be able to burn gasoline and E85, and E85 really needs compression around 12-14 to 1 to burn efficiently. Running E85 in a gasoline engine is roughly the equivalent of running gasoline in a 6 to 1 engine. Another reason for a larger single turbo, I need to keep traction, and an S10 is really light in the back. Course, a twin turbo would allow duals, with sidepipes on the truck. Heh heh heh...

If necessary, I can give up some of the speed for the fuel economy, the older I get the less top speed becomes. Feelin' mah age, feelin' mah age...

[thisisntjared]

30+mpg in a truck is hard enough. and you want it to run 12s?

doing that with an s10 is going to be pretty tough. i would either get a new goal or get a form of transportation.

[Telco]

Originally Posted by thisisntjared

30+mpg in a truck is hard enough. and you want it to run 12s?

doing that with an s10 is going to be pretty tough. i would either get a new goal or get a form of transportation.

Of course it's tough. What use is having a goal I can reach in a weekend? That's like a fat guy whose goal is to lose a pound over the weekend, and reaches it by switching from long pants to shorts. Easy goals are for the lazy and useless. The minute I reach the goal of 30MPG/12 second quarter the goal becomes 50MPG and 10 second quarters. I may never reach the goals I shoot for, but it won't be from lack of effort.

[thisisntjared]

there are two ways to achieve big goals:
1) breaking it up into lots of smaller goals and maybe even breaking those into even more easily achievable tasks.
2) getting very very very lucky.

if you do neither then you are just a dreamer, so how lucky are you?

[virago250]

Telco I love the challenge. I am pretty new at this but the best engine combo for FE and Raw HP in my opinion is a 4 cylinder with a Large turbo that dosent produce to much boost untill the higher rpms along with
N2O tons of
N2O. mate that with a 5 speed manual that has a tall overdrive gear and somehow lighten the s-10 to around 2700lbs and smooth out the aero along with a lowering kit then try not to drive over 50mph and accelerate slowly untill you get to the track. Maybe 12s and 30mpg could be done. I know my old 1990 mustang was low 12s and only got 15mpg though. Sweet idea man and good luck. keep me posted on your quarter times. I bet Traction will be an issue when you get in the 13s

[Telco]

Notjared - A 4.8L auto in a 99 Chevy halfton can see as high as 25MPG, and that truck outweighs mine by more than 1000lbs, and has a larger (but more aerodynamic) face to the wind. With a few tweaks and the right parts I can get that engine to the 30s in a full size, should be no issue to get it into the 30s on my truck. The quarter mile times are not as important, but will be a definite improvement over the 15 second 0-60 time I have now. With just a turbo, 12 second quarters should be achievable on my truck with that engine. Might even be able to get it with the new 6 speed auto GM is coming out with. Should be available in about 2 years.

Virago250 - No NO2 for me, only babies suck bottles. Besides, I think NO2 is a greenhouse gas itself? I do see a lot of fiberglass coming my way, after replacing my floor and installing new seats I'm now going to have to make some interior parts and will be using fiberglass for them. I also want a more custom dash, so will use a 1982-1985 dash for a form to make a fiberglass dashboard, with a few changes to it. Course, the parts in there now are already pretty light. Only the seats weigh a ton, hated the factory seats so I installed a set from a 2003 Caddy CTS. Far more comfortable, but they weigh about 3 times more than the buckets that were in there. Sad to say, traction is already an issue with the 2.8L V6. When I put more power in, I'm going to have to redo the rear suspension.