tips for cavaliers

[GasSavers_BEEF]

what air temp are you running with the WAI I heard that 100deg to 140deg was optimum. also I see you are running with more air in your tires. how much does that actually help.

I have recently changed my plugs and wires and added a grill block. I think it may take a while to see if this helped because I reset my PCM to get some jumpiness out of my idle (didn't work) I let my car sit and idle for a while hoping it would relearn the idle.

also, does our transmission lock out reverse when we are in drive? I don't know a lot about the specifics of the cavaliers. I have had it a while but didn't really care until recently.

I noticed that there are not a lot of cavaliers on here so I am trying to see what the cavalier drivers are doing. I finally updated my gas log and I am now over 30mpg solid and hope to stay there and possibly get to the 35 mark. I have a 2 door, I am hoping that it helps a little because the back glass is smoother and more aerodynamic (kind of like a fastback) I do have a spoiler but the 3rd light is in it so I can't easily remove it.

thanks for the help

[Hateful]

I have no way of knowing what the exact temps coming in are( unless scangauge does it and I didn't know), It did go into the filter box and pulled air from the underside.I didn't think that was good on cold rainy days(I'm not one of those that think water makes a good fuel additive).Not real sure how well the air is collected as it rushed by as a crosswind. Air is more stationary under the hood with the grill blocks and screen.

Tire pressure helps a lot.I can roll a greater distance after letting off the gas.Great for slowly rolling up to a light giving it time to change and traffic moving before you get there and takes much less gas to get going again. Full stops really hurt mpg.Usually the people that need to get to the red light first will pass you but not often dive back in front of you. When the light changes the line ahead of you is shorter.You can then roll past many of those that raced to the light as they have to wait for the longer line to get moving again.
I like to test my rolling on a hill near home where I get down to 40mph before the steepest part begins,throw it into neutral and coast down gaining up to about 52mph.( I'm speeding at this point in a 45mph zone). I roll up hill ( now entering a 35mph zone) still about 40mph,reengage the transmission and ease into the gas to maintain 35mph to the top of the hill. Then I can cut the engine and coast over a half mile down hill to get home You may want to pick a down hill run near home for testing.
My last half mile coming home is always with engine off. Makes up for the 10mpg I get going up the hill from a cold start.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

the scan gauge will do incoming air temps. mine says fIA with the f being the degrees. also I have a '97 as your is an '02 it may not be available for your car. this is one of the big reasons I wanted the scan gauge to monitor temps and other such things.

my side wall says that the max on my tires are 51psi so I am thinking about doing around 40 to start to see how it works. hopefully it won't wear them too fast. that is a concern that I have about upping the tire pressure.

I am still not comfortable with changing into neutral or cutting off the car while running down the road. that may change with time but for now the grill block and the newer plugs and filters should do me good.

thanks again for the input and if you happen to be playing around with your scangauge and find that incoming air temp. (may not have it on there) just let me know. I have found that the 4 displays aren't enough. I would have payed extra for one that had say 6 or 8. oh well

[Hateful]

I just got back from my mom's which is only 5 miles away; had been there 3 hours like most Sundays. I went back out and looked for the FIA. I do have it,just didn't know what it was. My water temp was at 200 degrees and the FIA was between 100 and 103 degrees. I had not been home 2 minutes before going back out to crank it. It's just got done raining and 55 degrees. Looks like I have a good intake temp.
On the transmission locking out; I have accidently put it into reverse before. the shifter did go into the R position,but didn't lock up. It just geared down like I had put it into low 1. I wasn't going very fast and never seemed to hurt it. Of course it didn't take long to figure I had not gone into neutral and shifted back quickly.
On the tires wearing, I've heard that under inflated tires wear quicker than over inflated. My front tires need replacing( for safety inspection). I've been running 44psi since September. The tread is worn on the outside more,though that is suppose to be a sign of over inflated tire wear. Under inflated tires are said to wear in the middle more.I do take 90 degree turns at 30 to 35mph regularly so that could wear on the outside a little more.Back tires don't seem to show any wear at all and I'm sure I've had them at least a year.

I think I've seen where 2 ScanGauge can be daisy chained together and have 8 read outs. I like having RPM FWT MPG and MPH just so I can look at all the info without moving my eyes below the dash and moving my hands off the steering wheel to see the speed ( I drive with left hand at 12 o'clock; habit from driving a manual 5 speed for years).

I'll check the FIA again to see what I'm getting on longer rides. Thanks for letting me know about that.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

what you say kind of confirms my thoughts on the WAI as far as it being at 100deg or so. I did a lot of research on the scangauge before I bought it. even though it would be nice to have more screens, I can't see myself putting another 170 into buying another one. I also like the instantaneous hp feature ( you have to use the X-gauge and put in a code).

last night I upped my tire air pressure to 40 and I am going to see how that goes for a while. my goal (which is really out there) is to get to work and back on 1 gallon of gas. that is 44 miles. it is always good to have goals, achievable or not.

I have been doing the stick shift thing for a while myself. first car was a metro with 5-spd. replaced it with a 4cyl 5-spd dodge dakota and that with a V8 5-spd dodge dakota. this car just kind of fell into my lap. at twice the mileage of the dakota (roughly) I couldn't turn it down. I payed 2K for it over 4 years ago. everyone I tell about it says I have well got my money back on the invesment.

the truck gets about 18 to the gallon but will run about a 14.5 second qtr which is pretty good for an almost 2 ton truck that is rear wheel drive with no weight in the back. it is almost 4.5yrs old and just hit 17k miles not too long ago. that is more my play toy.

let me know if your intake temps swing really high. I have heard that they can go as high as 180 but I am not sure how good that is for the engine

[Hateful]

I drove about 13miles this morning to Wal-Mart and the air temp only got up to about 100 degrees. Averaged 34.9mpg. I went inside for maybe 30minutes and it had gone up to 110. It dropped back down when I started moving.It went as high as 114 a couple miles down the road at 55mph.The trip back I got about 38.5mpg. I always do a few mpg better coming back since it's warmed up already. The screen on the underside and the side skirts tend to keep the car warm longer while parked.
I might look into getting the air temp up a little more,if the coming of Spring doesn't take care of it for me.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

the temp of the IAT seems to be a little of a game. I have heard 100-140 but I haven't done any testing to tell where a good spot is yet. I assume it is
under the 200 mark as that is just blazing hot but I am not sure where the "sweet spot" is.

a friend of mine pointed out that I should get a few more tanks in before I start playing with that because I have been playing with so much other stuff. I have recently change fuel filter, plugs, plug wires, and added a grill block to my car. all of that within just a week or so. I need to get a better baseline before I start to play with the intake. if you find a sweet spot, let me know. I am not sure how much flexibility you have with your intake. if you can simply adjust it closer to the manifold it might work or put a heat shield to block the cold air coming in (I guess it would be an anti-heat shield) or you could just see what the summer brings. mine has almost gotten up to 100 just because of the weather(didn't stay there long).

[Mr. Pig]

Yeah, part of my problem is I don't do just one thing at a time and test it for a couple of tanks. I start doing modifications in spurts, so I can't say for sure which one thing did more good than the other. I got 38.6 mpg on my way home from work on Friday, and that is about 70% highway, 30% city. Hopefully that trend continues as warmer weather stays around. My personal goal is to have a 40mpg tank. So far my best is 35, but that was last fall before it got cold. Maybe the things I did over winter will push me to 40.

I've been doing the neutral drifting since I got the car last summer, and I've put 14k miles on it with no tranny issues. I also shut off the car at lights I know are going to take a while to change with no starter issues yet (knock on wood). In reality it really isn't saving much money considering the possible wear on parts, but to me it's just become my own personal challenge/game to see how good I can make an old three speed cavalier with 134k miles do. I'd never go this extreme with a newer/nicer car, but some of the things I've learned will definitely be applied to my next ride. I too kinda fell into this Cavy. I was selling my GTO because of three tickets I got last spring, and the friend I was selling it to tossed in the Cavy to sweeten the deal and I've just been beating around in it since, tearing things out, etc.

[Hateful]

Same here; I don't stop doing things for the sake of testing.My little roll down the hill the back up again spot helps to test the aero or rolling resistance mods.
I also came close to 40mpg last fall but didn't make it before it cooled off and the holiday traffic season began. I admit I chose my Cavalier from the pre-owned lot at a dealership. It was $7K with 21K miles. It has over 80K miles now and hasn't had any mechanical problems.I'm going to get something smaller next time,but I'll keep the Cavalier as long as it will go.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pig

I've been doing the neutral drifting since I got the car last summer, and I've put 14k miles on it with no tranny issues.

You should be fine with that, as long as the pump runs in neutral. (That's why it be bad to tow most autos with wheels down, pump doesn't run, unless it's a rear drive pump)