[cbaber]

Hey guys, it's been awhile since I have been on EM. I haven't even kept up with my fuel log for a few months. I took a little break from ecomodding and just drove 70 mph and didn't worry about MPG. It was a combination of the cold weather defeating my summer highs, and gas prices going down under $3.

Anyway, I have started to come back to it. Here is whats going on:

CX/VX Transmission Swap
Complete! There was a day last month where it was over 50 degrees so I decided to swap out the transmission for my CX unit. It took longer than planned, and I ended up working into the next day where it was about 20 degrees! But I finished the job, and boy am I excited.

Not only is my annoying input shaft bearing noise gone in this new transmission, I have even lower RPM's on the highway thanks to the longer gears in the CX/VX transmission compared to the HX. I now cruise at 2000 RPM at 60 mph. Thats roughly 250 RPM lower than with the HX. It may not sound like much, but it helps. And the other gears feel longer too. I believe it helps my acceleration MPG.

Do I have improvement numbers? No. I haven't even been logging fuel consumption, and its really cold so I cannot compare it to anything. If I crush 50 MPG this summer, I think I can put a check mark in the success column.

Lean Burn Update
If you haven't followed along until now, here is the short story about my lean burn. Basically I haven't been able to go into lean burn since I replaced my engine a couple years ago. Around that same time my original O2 sensor when to crap, so I replaced it with a cheap one. I thought the new cheap O2 sensor was the problem, but it wasn't.

After some research I decided that my aftermarket exhaust manifold setup was causing the problem. My setup moved the primary O2 sensor from its original location right by the engine head, to way down below the car where the downpipe meets the CAT. I ordered a manifold that has the O2 next to the head, and BOOM I have lean burn functioning again. Look up at post 41 above to see a picture of the new manifold so you can see what I mean.

So I haven't had a full tank of lean burn yet, so I cannot report any improvements. Plus, it is cold and I have nothing to compare my numbers to. I will need to wait until summer to see if I smash my previous MPG record tanks.

Alternator Delete
I've cancelled this project for now. It's just not worth the extra effort and expense to make the switch over to deep cycle and to charge the battery every night. If I were going for max MPG without concern for price then this would be a good idea. But for me it's just too much work and money to justify even a 2-3 MPG improvement. Plus, I want my trunk space back!