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Breakthrough!
Hey all!
So, I haven't really been posting since, well, since I wrote up my introduction... but I have been playing around very much. A quick update and some shocking developments I discovered just this afternoon.
First, I installed my Scangauge II and it made an immediate impact on my mileage. It won't look like it when viewing my fuel log, but that's because I've spent good amounts of time driving the crap out of her lately... rest assured, the SGII is, it turns out, all I needed to achieve my original goals.
And the breakthrough is this: I didn't actually achieve 45mpg highway, I achieved 45mpg city.
I never gave Carmen enough credit for it because she's tuned to be a high-RPM screamer, but she makes practically diesel-ish torque at low RPMs... I just never had the cojones to find ]out .
Well, today, on my way back from work, I short shifted a little too soon and was surprised to find out that my engine could drag me around at idle RPM at almost no throttle in 5th gear... sitting at a pretty 30-35mph. And in doing this, I was achieving sustained instantaneous mpg readings between 45-55mpg!
With a little pacing and route memorization, I think I'm going to see incredible gains over time. It's a surprisingly comfortable way to travel, and I've caught the economy bug all over again. Cheers!
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