96 Saturn SL1

[96SATSL]

Had a thought on the way home... Would a vehicle get better fuel efficiency while running a higher octane gasoline? Just wondering if anyone has tested the effects.

-Alex

[CigaR007]

I believe that running a higher octane increases efficiency provided that you boost the compression ratio. If the CP remains the same and the octane rating increases, odds are it won't boost fuel efficiency.

Wisdom dictates that you should use the recommended octane as specfified in your car's owner manual.

[96SATSL]

Originally Posted by CigaR007

I believe that running a higher octane increases efficiency provided that you boost the compression ratio. If the CP remains the same and the octane rating increases, odds are it won't boost fuel efficiency.

Wisdom dictates that you should use the recommended octane as specfified in your car's owner manual.

Well that answers that , good to know. No need to experiment.
-Alex

[itjstagame]

CigaR007 - I'm not there yet, but what if someone had a wideband and programmable ECU and was going to shoot for as lean a cruise as possible. I assume higher octane will allow advanced timing without ping, but will it be less prone to ignite at all with too lean of a mixture? I guess I can wait to see if I ever get the Megasquirt hooked up and experiment myself.

96SATSL - I assume your spats and garage door seal is just attached with small, self tapping screws? I guess you went in to the metal underbody and not in to the plastic trim?
Also spats are just in front of the wheels, there's nothing behind them to help with bringing the flow back together?

You underbody mates in well with the plastic trim/bumper pieces, is that all just epoxied to make it look that smooth? I like how you avoided the exhaust, I had always wondered how best to do that. Did you just leave a hole for oil and filter changes? I need to find some coroplast...

Great numbers, great thread, thanks.

[96SATSL]

Originally Posted by itjstagame

CigaR007 - I'm not there yet, but what if someone had a wideband and programmable ECU and was going to shoot for as lean a cruise as possible. I assume higher octane will allow advanced timing without ping, but will it be less prone to ignite at all with too lean of a mixture? I guess I can wait to see if I ever get the Megasquirt hooked up and experiment myself.

96SATSL - I assume your spats and garage door seal is just attached with small, self tapping screws? I guess you went in to the metal underbody and not in to the plastic trim?
Also spats are just in front of the wheels, there's nothing behind them to help with bringing the flow back together?

You underbody mates in well with the plastic trim/bumper pieces, is that all just epoxied to make it look that smooth? I like how you avoided the exhaust, I had always wondered how best to do that. Did you just leave a hole for oil and filter changes? I need to find some coroplast...

Great numbers, great thread, thanks.

itstagame,

The spats are attached to the wheelwell liners, and the front dam and side skirts extensions are make with using the seal which I attached to clear L channel extrusion typically used for corners of walls indoors. That provided enough rigidity and 2 surfaces, one to fasten the seal and the other to attach to the car. Not sure about your question on the spats?

"...plastic trim/bumper pieces, is that all just epoxied to make it look that smooth?"

Everything is attached with screws for easy removal. Not sure which part you are asking about. By being removable, i can access filter easily.

-Alex

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by CigaR007

I believe that running a higher octane increases efficiency provided that you boost the compression ratio. If the CP remains the same and the octane rating increases, odds are it won't boost fuel efficiency.

Wisdom dictates that you should use the recommended octane as specfified in your car's owner manual.

You can also advance the timing significantly with higher octane gas, so tuning would be required. Regardless, you can't just throw higher octane gas into the tank and expect better mileage.

[cfg83]

96SATSL -

I cross-posted your thread into saturnfans (I hope that's ok) :

SaturnFans Forums - View Single Post - Wheel Skirts

There are a lot of saturnfans that speculate on what they could do with a bone-stock SL1 and your mods will also appeal to their OEM POV.

CarloSW2

[96SATSL]

Nice sounds good

[VWCw]

From poking around the Ecomodder site, it sounds like Saturns take pretty well to warm air intakes - tricking the ECU into running lean by routing the air intake near the exhaust manifold. Maybe this works well with Saturns because their engines are in backwards (who puts the exhaust facing the front, and anything you would need to get at [alternator, water pump, oil filter, etc.] in the back of the engine bay, anyways?).

Also, again from other EM threads, it also sounds like a taller 5th gear swap is relatively easy to do without pulling the transmission.

[96SATSL]

Hi everyone,

For the last few days I've been driving around a Nissan Leaf, and wow is it a lifestyle change. I have it for about a week and a half. Will do a little write up once my week of driving is done. Honestly I'd rather have the Saturn as the daily. So far estimates for power and quick charging are equaling the cost of operation on the 50+ MPG Saturn.

-Alex