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Old 09-18-2016, 10:39 AM   #10 (permalink)
California98Civic
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
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Your carefulness makes a lot of sense. We have to guard our vehicles and safety always. I move slowly into mods and techniques too. I totally agree with how you are learning all this.

To answer your question, it is low rpm and "high" load I described. In my case, 1500-2000 rpm and 75%-80% load, often 1700-2200 rpm. First and second gear require me to revv higher (I swapped a super-tall 1993 CX/VX trans for my DX trans a few years ago).

I have not done experiments with different load levels. But this is a heavily tested technique if extensive driver experience is a test. You can examine one good example yourself if you look up the PaleCivic on this site. PaleMelanesian drove that car with almost no mods--all hypermiling. He regularly scored 70+ mpg tanks and once, IIRC, a 90 mpg tank. I learned hypermiling, frankly, by imitating him.

The key is how we are using the known dynamics of a gasoline engine. Most gasoline cars will apparently convert fuel into acceleration most efficiently in that roughly 75% load area. At 60% load, at 90% load, at WOT, or whereever, you will use fuel less efficiently. At WOT you might move more quickly because of the amount of fuel you burn, but you'll be bjrning the fuel less effieicently. At light throttle your MPG number may look better during acceleration but the average with your coasting or crusing MPG will be lower because you accelerated less efficiently, over a longer period of time than someone at 75% load.
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See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.




Last edited by California98Civic; 10-10-2016 at 12:59 AM..
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