Follow my progress with Wagonstein!

[Zukibot]

Aero-wise, the Wagonstein looks pretty "aero" to begin with.

Have you considered lowering it? What about a full undercarriage, light weight skid-plate?

[91CavGT]

Originally Posted by Zukibot

Aero-wise, the Wagonstein looks pretty "aero" to begin with.

Have you considered lowering it? What about a full undercarriage, light weight skid-plate?

The car is already lowered. It's got Suspension Techniques springs up front (approximately 1.8" drop) and Moog Cargo springs in the rear that are designed for a 2 door Cavalier coupe(higher spring rate, but it rides lower than stock). In the front and rear there are adjustable Koni struts/shocks.


My 1st aero mod is going to be an undercarriage tray in the front and back (the middle is already really smooth). I've got an old bedliner sitting at my dad's house that I plan on using for this purpose.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by 91CavGT

My 1st aero mod is going to be an undercarriage tray in the front and back (the middle is already really smooth). I've got an old bedliner sitting at my dad's house that I plan on using for this purpose.

That idea is AWESOME!!!!!!

Thank you so much. It hadn't occured to me but it should be pretty easy to find a discarded corrugated bedliner (I've seen them on the side of the highway), and it should make a great belly pan (or skid plate or whatever you want to call it) for our purposes, unless the corrugations ruin the aerodynamic benefit.

Corrugated plastic bedliners are stiffer than coroplast, big, lightweight, and won't do too much damage if they come loose. That's perfect.

Has anyone done a yarn test with a belly pan to see exactly where the air goes?

[91CavGT]

Well, I haven't done anything yet to improve FE on Wagonstein, but I did take it to a drag strip to see where it was sitting.


After several passes, the best of the night was a 9.4 @ 79 mph with a 2.4 60' time. This is in the 1/8th mile. The car just kept spinning the tires all through 1st and 2nd gear even with feathering the gas.


Anyway, I've currently got 160 miles on this current tank of fuel and the gas gauge is not yet down to 1/2 a tank!!

[thornburg]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Corrugated plastic bedliners are stiffer than coroplast, big, lightweight, and won't do too much damage if they come loose. That's perfect.

LOL! I realize that you are talking about two totally different things, but you understand the Coroplast is short for Corrugated Plastic, right?

[dosco]

Originally Posted by thornburg

LOL! I realize that you are talking about two totally different things, but you understand the Coroplast is short for Corrugated Plastic, right?

Yeah, but Coroplast is more like "plastic cardboard" than the bedliner material is.

[theholycow]

LOL, that is kinda funny. I should have properly capitalized the 'c' in Coroplast.

[91CavGT]

Sorry I haven't updated this thread in a bit. I've lost my last 2 gas reciepts and I don't like to give information off the top of my head for stuff like this. So anyway, on to my most recent gas log.


286 miles on this tank of fuel
11.568 gallons used
24.72 mpg



I have a feeling that there are 2 reasons for my sudden spike in mileage.

1. I have started letting the engine rev higher before shifting. The cam in this engine has a very noticeable increase in power at around 3,000 rpm. Here recently I have been shifting the car at around 3,000 to 3,500 rpm instead of 2,000 to 2,500 rpm.

2. Outside temps have increased around here and I am suspecting the tempurature of the fuel is really increasing, especially when the fuel tank gets low. I suspect this for several reasons. One of which happened today. At the end of my afternoon commute I was looking for a gas station when I noticed the car try to stall when I got on the throttle. This got worse VERY quickly and I coasted in to a gas station with the motor not running and still 2 gallons of fuel left in the tank (I have driven this car without this happening in cooler weather down to only 1 gallon of gas remaining). I believe vapor lock occured today. As soon as I filled up with gas, the car started up and drove with no problems (I kept the hood up on the car the entire time I was filling up). Both of my fuel lines under the hood come within 1" of my exhaust downpipe. I have wrapped the down pipe in header wrap, and it helped, but I believe I now have to wrap the fuel lines in something as well to keep them cooler so this does not occur again. I like the increase in FE, but I have no way of controlling the tempurature. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Does anyone know the vaporization temp of gasoline?

Hmmmm...... I have seen oil cooler thermostats that will not send any oil to the cooler until the oil reaches 180 degrees. I have 2 extra oil coolers laying around, but I think 180 degrees may be too hot to work.

[DRW]

IIRC gasoline vaporizes around 150*F.
If you're trying to heat the fuel, using the upper radiator hose for a heat source to is much more controllable.

[trautotuning]

Yes but gas vaporizes at 150 degrees without any pressure

Because it is pressurized in the fuel line it can actually be heated more (lets say 180 degrees) and as soon as it squirts out the injectors it completely vaporizes because it looses all the pressure.

I have always been in the school of thought that heating the fuel is probably the best thing you can do in FE, just that nobody has really tested it because, well, it can explode if something goes wrong ?!? haha