The temperatures have taken a tumble here in NC the past couple days. What were the morning lows have now become the daily high temps! And the mpgs are hurting
I had my worst drive to work yet (47.1 mpg) because lean burn was not wanting to cooperate with the temps this morning (mid-30's) till after halfway to work.
I had my worst commute in over a year last Friday! Here is the results
How could this have happened? Well... I left for work over 20 minutes late and arrived only 3 minutes late! I was driving normally, I guess you could say. Hard throttle after every turn and stop, 75-80 mph on the Interstate 95, almost zero lean burn time. This brought my tank mpgs from 52.3 down to
48.4
almost 4 mpg lost from one bad commute!
Crazy thing is that with all the flogging, the trip was still over 40% EPA
The only mod I have accomplished recently is cutting a 1"x6" strip out of my lower grill block. This provides the perfect amount of cooling for this time of the year, surprisingly.
I have been looking at transmissions and really like the looks of the 2nd gen 1.9 Escort's automatic transmission's gears. It has a 3.55 final compared to my 3.74 final. It is the only transmission that will give me the rpm reduction needed besides a Fuel Saver 5-speed (very rare) or 3rd gen SPI with a custom 5th.
Going out on a limb here... there might be a chance that I could get the TCC to stay locked up through out all the gears to improve mpgs and acceleration. The TCC would have to be upgraded to handle the extra use, no doubt. But the auto should be comparable to a manual's efficiency if/when this mod takes place
For Escort gear ratio information ->
The Escort gear ratios thread | Ford Escort Owners Association (FEOA)