[turbovr41991]

This is a success story, kinda… People from team Honda might want to boot me from the team challenge after reading it though. Lol. I view it as a success, but it is also just about the worst tank of gas I have had since I owned the car. This past weekend, I took the family for a trip to Chicago. The wife said we could take my Civic to Chicago on one condition; that I go the speed limit (mostly 70 mph...) Seeing how it was either the civic, or a larger 4 door full size car that would get 23-27 mpg, opted for the civic at 70 mph.

I could not get lower RPM lean burn. It hit a patch of traffic early on, and could not get it to go back in. So not having the option screwed me right away. I tried many different techniques, but could not get any good gas mileage numbers while going 70 mph. It was just too fast to be in the efficient range of my 4th gear lean burn at 2500 rpm. It was also higher RPM’s, engine load and throttle than I would have liked to see under normal driving in 5th gear. So, with no other viable option, I decided to test out a max load/TPS lean burn in 5th gear over 400 + miles.

Speeds stayed between 73 and 80 mph with the average around 77mph. Engine load was always 88-91 and throttle position sensor was pegged at 30 (sometimes 32-33 at higher RPMs). Still a good test and the wife was happy. End result was 43.74 mpg over those 400 miles averaging 77 mph.