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Old 07-14-2008, 01:33 AM   #7 (permalink)
cfg83
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
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1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
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90 day: 40.49 mpg (US)
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northstar2k -

Quote:
Originally Posted by northstar2k View Post
I live in a mountainous region, nothing real high, highest around me 2300', but I try to use them for maximum advantage. One thing I do is once I leave my house, I have a 2.5 mile stretch that is mostly downhill. I leave the drive, get up to speed quickly the coast over a smal hill before the down. At two different points the down is a little steeper and I put it in neutral, not to save fuel but to increase my coasting speed. I never coast more than 10 seconds, because coasting in an automatic for long stretches cannot be good for it. This allows me to coast and keep my speed up. With a cold engine I get close to 40 for that 2.5 mile stretch and a warm engine nets me close to 50. I have also found that when you accelerate to speed, if you let up off the accelerator for 2-3 seconds your instant reading will go to high 30 low 40 and then gently (very gently) press on the accelerator and keep your speed. I find that I can actully increase my speed this way and keep the instant reading near 40. It's a matter of pedal pressure and how you train yourself to keep it smooth and gentle. Thoughts?
This sounds very similar to stuff I try to do. What is *very* vindicating is that I think your DIC must be telling you "the truth" because it's gotta be calculating off the fuel injector pulse width (right?!?!?!). The feather-foot is truly the way to go.

CarloSW2
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