Official Thread for posting daily FE updates

[smartzuuk]

Have been showing 2.9, 3.0 and 3.1 L/100km on recent trips.

Today however, 2.7!! That's 87 mpg US.

I will be doing a larger fillup tonight, and so will see how the tank has fared overall.

[LxMike]

Went to bradenton to watch the nostagia nationals race/show. just got started and one oldtime funnycar they was starting it and throttle hung up and car popped in gear and knock one guy over and ran another.
anyways to my results now:

had filled up sat and got the S.G calibrated and on trip up was reading 37-38 mpg at 68-70 mph. when i got there sg showed 38.6. coolant temps stayed mid 180's and iat was 66 and made it to 68 by time i got there.

trip home was getting reading about 1-1.5 higher and even did a lil drafting and that was showing near 50 mpg! coolant temps maybe 1-2 higher and iat was 80-81. once in town my ego got to me and was "racing" or trying to with some girl in mini cooper and trip back ended up 1 mpg lower! trip total right now is showing 225 mile and 5.9 gallon of gas.

[MetroMPG]

Schmeep: I feel you pain.

Smartzuuk: that SG is fun, isn't it

LxMike: I love reading FE reports of people who go to drag races! I'm sure the roads leaving the drag strip there's more fuel burned than on the average stretch of road. Nice to see the contrasting interests.

I'm struggling to maintain 65 mpg (US) on this tank. Driving fully alternatored (my bungee water pump belt finally blew up) and mostly on the highway. DWL as much as possible, but yuck. Very little CODFISHing or P&G.

But: made a new pair of bungee belts today I looked into it but the local parts stores don't carry universal belts for micro-v.

[MetroMPG]

And where the heck is Bunger? He filled out his gas log on Sept 20, and hasn't been seen since, gas log or forum!

Surely there are more tanks to report...

[Compaq888]

I wish I could post some good numbers. I need some aero mods bad. I wish somebody could install them on my car. I just don't have any time.

[theclencher]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'm struggling to maintain 65 mpg (US) on this tank. Driving fully alternatored (my bungee water pump belt finally blew up) and mostly on the highway. DWL as much as possible, but yuck. Very little CODFISHing or P&G.

But: made a new pair of bungee belts today I looked into it but the local parts stores don't carry universal belts for micro-v.

Ya mean that green swift is beating you? I wonder if he codfishes and such.

Do Metros have a belt dedicated to the alternator? I was wondering if you could rig up a spring loaded system where you lube up and loosen the alternator pivot bolt just enough to allow free movement then attach a spring of appropriate strength to the top of the alternator. Then you could run a regular belt on there and to remove and install the belt you simply grab the alternator and move it.

[MetroMPG]

No dedicated belt. One belt for alt & water pump.

I actually have the pivot loose, and a wing nut on the clamping bolt. So I can have a belt on/off in about 20 seconds.

One thing I'm thinking is since I've been severely abusing my starting battery since mid-summer, its health may be declining. If that's the case, the alternator has to work harder to get & keep system voltage at 14 (or whatever it's supposed to be). So I'm taking an even bigger parasitic hit now when driving alternatored.

[Silveredwings]

OK Metro, so now you're living an alternatored-lifestyle...not that there's anything wrong with that.

[theclencher]

Codfishing and no-alt aren't free?

[JanGeo]

Running no alternator puts you in the area of grid powered operation which sort of makes you a grid hybrid so you should get moved out of the ICE only class of hypermillers LOL!!!

Since the water pump is non-adjustable SOMETHING has to be used to tension the belt so the alternator is used. I remember on my Geo I really had to crank the alternator backwards to get a lot of tension on the belt to prevent it from slipping. I had to pry it backwards with a wrench handle and then tighten the locking bolt. Got to wonder if an idle pulley is going to take about as much load on the FE as the alternator with the field disabled.

Has anyone tapped into the alternator and disconnected the regulator so that it runs no load? The one thing to keep in mind is that the rotor magnetic field has to have a little magnetism in it to energize the windings to produce enough electric power to energize the regulator and power the field winding in the rotor. If the magnetic field gets too low it may not start up.