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Old 04-05-2012, 03:42 PM   #8 (permalink)
jtbo
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Europe
Posts: 364

ZX - '97 Citroen ZX Monaco
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90 day: 61.05 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder View Post
Are those values taken off the car's computer
This made me smile (Most advanced electronic part in car is probably the radio).

Doni_99, welcome!

I have 1983 Volvo 240 Diesel, it is driven bit over 300 000km and engine was rebuild at special shop by previous owner 120 000km ago.

There are few things that kill these engines (which has made bad reputation to them).

Using lot of power when cold, shutting down without long cool off idling, using oil that is not fully synthetic.

Most issues are because this engine is basicly 1.6l 4 sylinder VW motor with added 2 cylinders, valve train lubrication is coming from one end of head only, so each cold start causes quite bit of wear and only synthetic oils are really good in retaining lubricant film when engine is not running. It takes quite a while for oil to lubricate all places of that valvetrain, camshaft etc.
Cracked heads are common as it is long motor so there are different temperatures at different places of head, especially when driving front end tends to be lot cooler than rear end, long idling evens out temperature differences so that head will not try to warp and crack. There are many other reasons for that of course, but that is how I was explained why it needs that 2 minutes of idling before shutting off.

I did drive almost 80 000 in a year with it, sadly body was so rusty that it has not been in use since then, but I still own it.

Aerodynamics are which can be improved quite a bit, do you have still engine bay bottom cover? Do you have front spoiler/lip?
You can see both in this pic, bit twisted lip as I did hit large rabbit close to 120kph when driving tired at night, crazy things we do when young
http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/240/DSC_0002.JPG pic is very large, so I put it as url.

I hardly managed to get less than 7l/100km, but then again at that time I had still not understood meaning of time, my avg speed for 850km trip used to be above 100kph, so compared to that it did not use lot of diesel.

I did use 10w30 fully synthetic truck oil, car has oil capacity of over 7 litres with filter from my memory and I did change oil almost monthly at that time because of lot of driving. So it was cheapest to buy lot at once, I think it was under 3€/litre.

I had Nokian summer tires in it, but those did not last no more than 20 000km, 185/70-14 size, I think that tires were also quite flexible, so some other tires might be better.

Sometimes I think that I should weld it together and put some aerodynamic improvements to rear of it, roof wing and trunk lid wing might give quite a bit of improvement.

Most reliable car that I had, even alternator failed (lack of service, brushes should of been replaced when I bought it), I did drove it home over 300km at cold night, next morning put new alternator in and it still started without an issue. Even if one loses power completely if there is 9V fire alarm battery, one can use that to keep shutdown solenoid pulling and drive really long time with only that, so if you don't need to use lights at daytime alternator delete might be quite well possible, giving bit better economy.

Another mod would be putting e-fan for radiator as it has belt driven one as standard.

Grille block should also help quite a bit, just keep on eye of temps.

Ram air is also one thing to consider, it is long time since I was under the hood of mine, so can't really remember how filter box was, but I think that it should not be big job to put pipe under front bumper and tape airbox holes shut.
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