weather spotter: you are more than welcome to come drive my car; if you can average better than 60mpg, i'll buy you lunch...
OK folks, so I got a Federal HX ECU and installed it. it works, car runs great, no issues. YES i am able to get into lean burn MUCH easier, and I am also able to stay in lean burn MUCH easier. so i'm going to stamp "success" on that venture....
BUT.... seems that the federal ECU has *what i assume to be* some kind of minimal RPM that the engine must be at for it to be able to go into lean burn; seems to be around 2400rpm minimal. which in 5th gear means about 65mph. which means I must drive 65mph or faster to get into, and stay in lean burn. the CA ecu I was able to get into lean burn as low as 60mph, and was able to stay there to perhaps as slow as 50mph. So granted, now to stay in lean burn i'm having to drive faster, which means more wind resistance, which means my mileage didnt really improve!!!! GRRRRRRrrrrr! in fact, if anything, it decreased!
with the CA ECU i was getting about 54mpg on my commute to work, staying in lean burn maybe 30% of the time on the freeway. Now with the Federal ECU, i'm able to stay in lean burn for closer to 90% of the time that i'm on the freeway - but because of the minimum ~65mph limit for lean burn - my average mileage for my commute went down to about 51mpg!!! well good news is that i'm getting to work faster and spending less time in the car, while not taking that much of a MPG hit - but the question begs to be asked:
Is there any way i can trick the ECU to allow the car to go into lean burn at RPMs lower than 2400 ?!?! if I could get that limit down to say, 1800rpm, then I could putt putt down the freeway at a cool 55mph, and stay in lean burn, and likely get easily upwards of 60mpg.....
HELLLLLLP!