Terrible mpg's = new interest in old ideas.

[Tygen1]

Amazon has great deals on the block heaters. Got one for less than $20 and two adhesive heaters for $20. We'll see if it was worth all the trouble in a couple weeks. Fan controler for $45.

[Tygen1]

I think your weather finally blew over my way. 3 days of cold 2 days of warm got me 39.81 mpg. Not bad for just two days of warm weather. It looked like I was on my way to 36mpg for the three cold days.

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

I think your weather finally blew over my way. 3 days of cold 2 days of warm got me 39.81 mpg. Not bad for just two days of warm weather. It looked like I was on my way to 36mpg for the three cold days.

Yeah, Its cold again. I've been having to drive to school a lot again. So this tank is hardly 33mpg. But my trips to school are closer to 30 mpg instead of 25 mpg because the weather isn't as terrible.

Best thing though. February 12th and I've put on 130 miles this month. I could possibly go this whole month on one tank of gas =D Which is better than increasing mpg. I'm just decreasing driving.

Gonna air my tires back up to 40. I'm sure worst of worst snow storms have passed. I hope....



I'm glad this kid at school tells me side skirts do nothing for aero dynamics and the only reason they would show any gain, is the fact that the gasoline i bought was newer and had better combustion.

Oh, and reason I peaked at 40 mpg in the summer. (told him about random car problems.) Its the oil sitting on top of my plugs and head. So my car was adjusting timing. Nothing to do with driving 55, 40 psi tires, or warm weather.

[Tygen1]

Sounds like this kid knows it all Maybe you should have him prepare a lecture for us?

[mhmitszach]

Tygen1, What are the temps like there?

I hope you realize once I start getting above freezing and this winter starts to fade, I'm going to destroy your mpgs.

I've been saving lots of gas too. Realized it's easier just to stay at the girlfriends house on the weekends. Saved at least 6 gallons of gas this month. (2 gallons there and back).

Duct tape hates winter roads. These side skirts will not stay taped very good.

[Tygen1]

Temps have been bumping around between 20-40 degrees. Check my gas-long for details. I got some big plans for this comming summer as well. I'm expecting to be over 45mpg on the commute. There's a good chance you'll kill my mpg's (I've read your gas long many times) because I might not have time to make my plans happen, new baby on the way in April.... I've had hard time trying to make time to install the block heater. Worked all this weekend fixing a fellow ZX2 guys car, when I could have had all the heaters installed....oh well maybe next weekend? I'm kinda wondering just how effective the block heater will be because it's tiny, about the size of my thumb. I think I might start a post on that, get some opinions on how much wattage is needed to get everything up to temp in a reasonable amount of time.
I was working on a really good tank, probably in the high 38's, but the guy whose car I was fixing wanted to sample the power of my car, so I had to get into it a couple times. A couple runs at WOT have killed this tank. I'll be doing a short fill on this tank so I can start a new tank on Monday morning. I plan on being on empty by Friday so I can hopefully go to the dragstrip and see just how much of a difference the aero mods have made.

[Tygen1]

We'll no drag racing, only rain.
Although I did attempt to but on the heaters. Spent many hours trying to get the block heater in, only to be frustrated with it. I got the Kat's 35mm plug heater. Turns out it's not a direct fit. Glad I had a motor to mock it up on. The heating element needed bent around quick a bit to fit into the narrow coolant passage. Then I broke the retaining bolt trying to tighten it, the bolt is real weak and the heater is made for a deeper block. I had to give up and installed the two adhesive pad heaters onto the oil and transmission pan. Also got the timer temorarily mounted to try it out. Although we are supposed to get about a foot of snow tonight so the first test week may not be a very good example.

[Tygen1]

Not getting very good mpg's on this tank due to the snow, but the first day of using the oil and trans pan heaters caused the engine to reach opperating tempatrue 1-1.5miles sooner. It was 15 degrees out this morning, so they seem to be working.

[mhmitszach]

Good news on the heaters!

I took off side skirts. They kept coming un taped. I was going to take them off and re do them better with tape, but when I took them off so much dirt fell off and the rust is now visible on the one side. Not to mention just spent an hour and didn't even get all the tape residue off.

[Tygen1]

Bummer to hear about the rear skirts. I was thinking of doing under car aero work before attempting skirts. It's a difficult mental barrier to over come, putting a skirt on my car

Got a new bolt for the coolant heater, I'll give it another attempt this weekend. There's no way to tell the impact of the heating pads because of volitile weather and such, but it ought to be a possitive gain. They only cost 10 bucks each with free shipping, it was a deal I couldn't pass up, and they are super easy to install, unlike the block heater. It would have been better to get the Ford block heater......

Are you ready for the ZX2 vs. ZX2 summer time mpg challenge I'm gearing up for some big numbers