Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post

gilbogger · 02-03-2011, 12:29 PM

When I bought it, it was with an Edlebrock intake and a Holly Pro-Jection 2D fuel injection kit. I switched to an Edlebrock carb, found the Holly 2D to be a bit of a pain and couldn't afford one of the nicer fuel injection kits.

I replaced my whole ignition system with a Malloy HEI dist, which I've been quite pleased with. It's tight next to the power steering pump is my only "negative" comment.

I'm getting 21mpg highway, but I have 2.73:1 gears.

I've sketched out what it would take to data log with an Arduino using custom sensors. I've never played with an Arduino but I have a background in web programming, it would be fairly simple to setup an Arduino based SD card logger for $300-$400 or so.

This expensive hurdle is fuel metering with a carb. With fuel injection it's much easier to solve with known injector rates. Fuel flow meters are expensive ($1,800ea Edlebrock to $400ea for marine grade) and I understand them to have accuracy issues by their very design. For a carb setup, two meters are necessary for send and return lines.

Taking total fuel consumption would provide aggregate fuel information, but would fall short of showing actual usage at a moment of interest.

Apparently some early fuel injected Ford/Mercury's had flow meters on them, the decked out versions had a digital real-time MPG readout that got data from a flowmeter, I believe it was an aftermarket part installed at the factory, vs a Ford part number. I'm going to keep my eyes open for them during junkyard visits, but they we not common.

I think the most reliable setup would be flowmeters who's data is checked and then adjusted by the manual tank-to-tank logging. It would still be a tad fuzzy but should close enough to be reasonable, especially with enough data samples to make the comparison meaningful.

The rest of the logging is pretty straightforward, an Arduino GPS module could be tied in,...a two axis gyroscope could indicate hills and turns, tach output for engine rpm, magnetic sensors for driveshaft and axle rpm and then some voltage reading for temperature sensors etc. Then take manual environment readings to append to the digital log.

Would be an interesting project.

02-03-2011, 12:29 PM	#12 (permalink)
gilbogger EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: In The Now Posts: 8 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	When I bought it, it was with an Edlebrock intake and a Holly Pro-Jection 2D fuel injection kit. I switched to an Edlebrock carb, found the Holly 2D to be a bit of a pain and couldn't afford one of the nicer fuel injection kits. I replaced my whole ignition system with a Malloy HEI dist, which I've been quite pleased with. It's tight next to the power steering pump is my only "negative" comment. I'm getting 21mpg highway, but I have 2.73:1 gears. I've sketched out what it would take to data log with an Arduino using custom sensors. I've never played with an Arduino but I have a background in web programming, it would be fairly simple to setup an Arduino based SD card logger for $300-$400 or so. This expensive hurdle is fuel metering with a carb. With fuel injection it's much easier to solve with known injector rates. Fuel flow meters are expensive ($1,800ea Edlebrock to $400ea for marine grade) and I understand them to have accuracy issues by their very design. For a carb setup, two meters are necessary for send and return lines. Taking total fuel consumption would provide aggregate fuel information, but would fall short of showing actual usage at a moment of interest. Apparently some early fuel injected Ford/Mercury's had flow meters on them, the decked out versions had a digital real-time MPG readout that got data from a flowmeter, I believe it was an aftermarket part installed at the factory, vs a Ford part number. I'm going to keep my eyes open for them during junkyard visits, but they we not common. I think the most reliable setup would be flowmeters who's data is checked and then adjusted by the manual tank-to-tank logging. It would still be a tad fuzzy but should close enough to be reasonable, especially with enough data samples to make the comparison meaningful. The rest of the logging is pretty straightforward, an Arduino GPS module could be tied in,...a two axis gyroscope could indicate hills and turns, tach output for engine rpm, magnetic sensors for driveshaft and axle rpm and then some voltage reading for temperature sensors etc. Then take manual environment readings to append to the digital log. Would be an interesting project.