I saw the post here about the honda out of a junk yard going for hyper mileage (way to go "red")
This is my eco story....
My first sube was purchased in 1997. old school DL with 5spd 4wd, carbed.Already falling apart as maine is brutal. (5 years == junk pile for some)as it turns out, the car had a mismatched rear end gear to the internal front axle gears, and the belly broke after being the loudest driveline I have ever heard (sounded like bad wheel bearings grinding away). the odd part of this bad sube is... it ran for 7 years, I took it all over new england, and it got freak sprites of 50s mpg. I never did figure that out, but had a vow to someday...I never forgot that sube, after I had it hauled off...
I got another one, this time a loyale with singular point injection. must be economical... but only got it to 38mpg average (which is no big feat for a 2wd 1781cc boxer engine driveline...liquid cooled to boot) but still very good. I drove that car for 25 hours...with one nap for 1300 miles after fixing. there is not "talk" of longevity with old subes. They just do ....
My third, my favorite, a 1987 carbed sube, with dual range and 5 speed. After my learnings previous, I applied all of them, this time getting wheels called "pugs" (15x6 peugeot) with "t" rated hakkepliitas (mispelled?) tires. I removed EGR system (always step one to econo sube), replaced fuel pump before the original 21 year old broke, and yet again.... 50s mpg. I do not even need a highway to sustaiun 40s mpg....but this sube can cruise as comfortable as anything out there with the safer large high perormance tires, and the infamous gearing (infamous to us gearheads) of the little boxer sube with a cruising speed of 85.5 @ 3500 rpm. At this speed the fuel mileage maintains mythical- hence labeld "cruising speed", after that, well, its like any other little engine going into relams of high performance extremes, fule mileage isn't a concern then. I hardly go there, but it is nice to know on todays aggressive roads, I really can...for a looooong journey.
These model cars deserve more than a beating.... my decade has proven it.
Number one to nearly doubling economy was EGR system removed. Keep everything but the EGR,(ie: covertors etc), system clean, safer tires than 13 inch, and that really is about it. I do have a whole list of little things that aid in stuff most wouldn't notice...