Need Help! Losing my mind!!!

[shonus]

So after learning a bunch of things from this site about how to increase my mileage with my short term goal of at least 37 mpg in my automatic saturn sl1, I filled up today and was extremely mad about the results. Perhaps someone on here could provide some assistance because the change I have made in my driving style has been HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! I used to drive very aggressively floor it off the line, redline my car almost everyday getting on the interstate, letting my car shift at around 3K most of the time, drove around the city with the windows up and ac on, let my car idle for long periods, to sum up I would waste ALOT of gas. So I have tried to be more self conscious and use the pulse and glide, as soon as i let off the gas put it in neutral, shut off the car whenever possible and turn it back on before the light turns green, coast up to red lights instead of gassing and braking. I have removed my antennae, the spare tire, the jack, went back to a short ram intake, lowered my rear spoiler from being 1.5" high in the front and 5" to the lip of the trunk in the back to the front being flush and the back only slightly angled. I have inflated my tires to the max psi of 44 psi as well. I try my best to keep the tach around 2K for all shift points and it has been driving me insane driving this slow!!! Today when I filled up I average my mileage at about 34.77 mpg and only had 2 highway trips both which I did 65 mph. Is this GREAT for mostly city or just ok? Please someone be honest with me, I was really hoping to have gotten at least 37 if not 39.

[Sludgy]

Of all the thing lost, I miss my mind the most.. Seriously, congratulations. 34 mps in the city is outstanding.

[theholycow]

If I'm reading you correctly, you are not being sarcastic and you are upset that you didn't improve from your previous aggressive tank. It will take time and patience to accomplish a whole new unfamiliar goal.

Don't force yourself to drive so slow that it makes you insane. That is not sustainable; you will get frustrated and quit. It is also counterproductive immediately as you lose your concentration easily when stressed.

You may be trying too hard. I know when I first started I had the same energy, trying everything at once...eventually I realized that a lot of what I was doing wasn't working out right for me. When I eased up on it, it improved. For example, I was trying to leverage DFCO as much as possible; later I found out that my 5.3 does not DFCO readily. All my shifting in and out of neutral for the shortest coasts carried more overhead in rev-matching and such than leaving it in D would have for the shorter coasts. Shutting off for short lights and then restarting also had more overhead than it saved.

Since you have an automatic you may not want to try too hard with the low RPM shifting. If you find yourself in a low gear half a mile down the road when heavier throttle and a few more RPM would have gotten you into a higher gear sooner, it may be a net loss. If you're sloshing your torque converter endlessly, again, a net loss vs. getting into lockup sooner.

YMMV, of course.

Do you have any computer monitoring equipment? Could you see when you are in open loop vs. closed loop?

Since you're only getting a few gallons at a time, your measurements are extremely sensitive to pump shutoff inaccuracy. The pump at the gas station needs to shut off at the same level of fill every time if you are to get accurate measurements. You could have gotten your 37, you could have gotten 45, or you could have gotten 27.

You took out your spare tire to lose weight but you're probably carrying around 10 gallons of fuel that you never use. Of course you don't want to overheat your fuel pump by running it down to fumes, but you might want to get a lot closer to E. For the second half of the tank you'll be hauling around less fuel (which is quite heavy) and your larger sample size will reduce your measurement's sensitivity to pump shutoff inaccuracy.

Another thing to do is to always pump at the same pump facing the same way, and never top off after it clicks off on its own. This doesn't save any fuel but it makes a huge difference in the accuracy of your measurements.

[shonus]

Thank you again both of you.
No I do not have anything to measure if my car is in open or closed loop at my house. My friend might though.
Also I see your point about not filling up at the same time, I used to make it a habit to fill up around halfway and can count on one hand the number of times I let my gas gauge get all the way down to E. It was a first for me to figure out that I would have gotten about 400 miles on my tank had i ran it all the way to E.
As soon as I got home I took off my bumper and put my CAI back on and I think I'm going to keep it on and still try to get my 37 mpg with it and more.

[theholycow]

The data in your gaslog shows that, without trying for fuel economy, you get 30-34 mpg regardless of your intake air. I think, with practice, you can reach your goal with whatever intake configuration you want, although that short ram getting underhood warm air may maximize your gain since Saturns seem to respond favorably to warm air.

[shonus]

To be honest I used to have a temp gauge in the bumper right by my filter and the average temp was around 90 because when the ac is on all the hot air seems to be blown through an opening into my driver bumper and its so low to the road that it stays warm. It is usually only about 20-30 degrees cooler in the bumper rather than the location of my short ram being right next to the radiator hose. But can't I essentially trick the ECU by keeping the car's intake temperature sensor in a warm area so it will still run like it used to?

[shonus]

I Don't have any sensors or anything inside the tubing for my intake. I tried to minimize the turbulence inside as much as possible so I don't have any sensors or anything inside.
I just thought of something could using a breather filter affect my FE. I have stopped having the air from the crank being recirculated through my intake because of all the oil that enters so I opted to use a breather filter instead of the pcv catch can

[theholycow]

As far as warm air intake goes, I'm not sure it's about tricking the computer. I don't know why it works on some vehicles and not on others and can only theorize as to how it ever works at all. The theories I've read/considered vary, sometimes tricking the computer, sometimes not about that at all but rather looking at recycling of heat energy or heat affecting atomization/combustion quality.

Like I said, I think you can reach your goal with whichever intake configuration you want. Your goal is only a 20% increase, which is realistic.

I'm not sure I know how the breather filter works. Can you explain it in more detail? I am familiar with the catch can replacing the stock recirculation system.

[shonus]

http://media.photobucket.com/image/b...r-filter_1.jpg


It basically looks like that. Instead of the breather hose being connected to my intake, I just have that filter at the end so there is no oil in the intake.

[1cheap1]

Removing just the spare time/jack is not enough. Keep just the drivers seat, take out all other seats, carpet, door panels, trays. Make undertray, air dam.
Use cruise control as much as you can. Draft as much as possible. I would not eoc with a automatic, i tried it with no positive results. I found drafting, cruise control produced the best results for an automatic. Good luck, it takes practice.