im new here but reading some of these suggestions and ideas seem to me to that they could do more harm than good and cost more money in the long run. if your doing things like neautral coasting and it causes more wear on ur tranny and hence it may not last as long. running engines at higher operating temps with thermostats and grill blocking and drawing hot air off the manifolds may make for higher combustion temp changes which burns fuel more completely but dont higher temps cause more friction? more friction = more wear = shorter lifespan? charging your batteries overnight to keep em really charged up does the amount of electricity used cost less than the amount of extra fuel used if the batteries r not fully charged? adding solar panels to the car if it could be done in an aerodynamic way would prolly not generate enuff electricity to make much of a difference considering the weight offsets of panels. a 3ft x 1.5 ft panel generates about 15 watts of power under ideal conditions which translates to about 850ma of current i dont think that would over come the extra weight of several pounds of glass. while watching mythbusters they were trying to figger out the tailgate up/down or off idea. when they went to ford for some info and data they were shown in the windtunnel that the tailgate up on a NEW ford pickup enhanced mileage due to the air currents providing a forward push of air pressure that was lost with the gate down or off. on an older truck i dont think this condtion is likely to occur to the same degree, but imho on an older truck a soft lightweight tonneau cover with a lightweight cover replacing the gate would possibly improve FE. another thing i think about does synth oil that costs 7bux a quart when u go thru proper intervals outweigh the cost of the fuel saved? if u do things that make ur car more likely to have a crash or potentially more dangerous resulting in great expense worth the savings in fuel? ive heard some people tell me they get better MPG in vehicles using premium fuel that were meant for regular octane fuel. under ideal conditions this does not make sense when a vehicle is working properly and using the octane that is reccomended for them. some vehicles ive had got lower mileage when running premium over reg octane due to the fact they were not meant to run efficiently with that high and octane rating. I used to run propane vehicles previously. propane has an octane rating of about 110, higher than any pump fuel. but a vehicle ie 83 buick park ave with an olds 307 motor ran about 25% less efficiently than when running gasoline. but at less than half the cost of the fuel at the time it was worth it. if the motor had a compression ratio of say 10 or 11:1 it woulda gotten probably the same kinda mileage over the 8:1 compression it had for gas.
these r just my thots, i dont work for an oil company! LOL, i do think of conservation and i am thinking over many of these ideas and trying to figger for myself if I think they r plausible or foolish., i also like to provoke others to think about em more than just sit and read and think that if its in print on the net its fact. some things work for some some things dont, its all relevant isnt it?
i am curious if you guys/gals give the same kind of thot to conservation of electricity at home to save money as much as you try to conserve ur use of fuel? thots for another thread.
i hope my run on paragraphs dont pee off too many peeps
oh yeah im one of those that questions everything, and beleives nothing till its proven to my satisfaction, yeah it ticks my wife off too lol
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