View Single Post
Old 07-14-2011, 01:30 AM   #28 (permalink)
California98Civic
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianjone5 View Post
Then how could someone who deletes an alternator see up to 10% mpg gain, as reported here?
Yup. That's a good question. I think the folks with the 10% gains were running the batteries down and then charging them through plugins, trickle chargers, and solar panels. The gain then might not be so much from taking the belt off as from not putting it back on to charge the battery and thus add that load to the engine. Take another look at MetroMPG's test: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...8.html#post958. He tested with a disconnected belt without including recharging load. If somebody with an alternator kill switch wanted to test the difference between belt on (alternator off) and belt off and report the results, that would be one way to answer this, maybe. Or maybe someone can answer what sort of load an "off" alternator is really putting on an engine. I don't know.
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



  Reply With Quote