White Gnat exceeds 600 miles on a tank

[wmjinman]

Wow, a new all-time distance record for a tank. Not just in this car, but any car I've ever driven!

At 58.49, it wasn't even my best MPG, but at least it's up again from the dismal 53.x I'd gotten with the last two tanks, and even better than the 57.x from the tank before that. Guess my tires are holding air again! (I'd had some flats and leaks on those last three tanks, resulting in new front tires)

I'm happy again!!!

[California98Civic]

+1

[Daox]

YKYAEMI you think 53 mpg is "dismal".

[wmjinman]

Originally Posted by Daox

YKYAEMI you think 53 mpg is "dismal".

LOL! Yeah, my friends usually say stuff like, "Oh, you poor thing" when I complain about getting "only" something still over 50 mpg!!!!

[whatmaycome14]

I'd kill for 50+mpg on a consistent basis. But my friends too give me crap when I'm complaining about 40mpg!

Congrats on your record!!

[wmjinman]

And the mpg is up, too! -60.5 mpg. In fact, it took less gallons to do this tank (10.609 gal. for 642 mi.) than the last one (10.79 gal. for 631 mi.) I was so scared I was gonna run out of gas, I was really sweating it heading to the gas station. If I'd known it was taking less gas than last tank, I coulda gone another 10 miles & made 650.

I changed the oil from 0w30 to 0w20 Mobil-1 about 150 miles before the end of the tank. I'm sure it's my imagination, but it seems to "feel" freer now & even seems to have more power going up hills. And, something I should have written down before, but I *think* it uses less fuel per hour when idling now - 0.13 - 0.15 gph idling when warm now - - - I think it was like - well - higher, before. Maybe 0.17 - 0.21 or something. ??? Damn, I wish I'd written it down...

[euromodder]

Nice work !

[wmjinman]

But the mileage is back down - 57.7 mpg last tank.

What happened is at the end of the previous tank, literally on the way to the gas station, I was coasting down a slight grade and tried to take a stupid "roundabout" too fast. I skidded into the curb, hitting it hard with my right front tire, badly bending the wheel, then bounced & hit the left front on the other curb.

Consequently, most of last tank was with the space-saver spare on the right front and my front end out of alignment. I finally found a replacement wheel and have it back on now, but only within 100 miles of this last fill.

While at the junkyard looking for wheels, I found a passengers side rearview mirror & bought it, so now I have both mirrors again. Of course, I can't help but wondering if it's going to show in reduced FE from added frontal area. But right now, I'm guessing the alignment (or lack thereof) is my biggest FE killer at the moment.

[wmjinman]

Just saw the mechanic today and it looks like I bent my lower control arm in my little "incident" last week. It now has too much positive camber and toe-in. And the ScanGauge is showing 54.x mpg for the tank so far. That's probably why.

Anyway, appointment to install new lower control arm Monday afternoon.

... Then a new front-end alignment. ... sigh ...

[wmjinman]

I was not expecting to set any distance records this tank because of my alignment problems, but after hitting 70.2 mpg in testing after the new alignment, and running up towards 600 miles in the process - and seeing my "trip - tank average" climbing on the ScanGauge, I guess I got bold. So I very carefully hypermiled some more to see if I could hit 650, getting pretty tense as the "gallons to empty" display dropped from 0.1 to 0.0!!

But I made it - and discovered 11.2+ gallons will apparently fit in my tank. I think I heard somewhere that this is supposed to be a 10.5 gallon tank, so I'm assuming I was "running on fumes" towards the end. I carry a one gallon gas can behind the seat in case I ever run out while doing this, but so far, it hasn't happened yet.

Anyway, hoping to get the mpg back up now. It will probably be rough with winter setting in and not having had a chance to fininsh my fiberglass kamm-back I was trying to make - (nights are far too cold now to allow the resin to set up & cure for 24 hours). Gotta be doing well over 60 mpg for any hope of seeing 700 miles on a tank, though. This tank turned out to be 57.75.