Quote:
Originally Posted by hotshoetom
As a fellow subie owner interested in improving efficiency, (I have two leggy wagons with normally aspirated sohc 2.5 liter engines in them and a wrx for fuelish fun) I am always interested in the mods that improve performance and fuel economy too because those are truly a win-win situation. Particularly since the NA subarus are so dang slow (compared to their turbo brothers). But having said all of that, I'm also quite happy to improve efficiency if it reduces operating expenses. So now to my questions:
When you took your trip was there a net gain or loss of altitude in either direction? I am sure the road wasnt dead flat. Case in point, when I go visit my lady friend who lives 2.5 hours from me, I always get better mileage going there than I get coming back because the terrain is more favorable in the going direction than on the return trip. I have done it enough and measured the results enough under different conditions that its a valid measurement.
If you were traveling east west on your trip and the return trip was going east, I could easily believe you got better mileage simply because you were traveling with the prevailing winds that grace our planet.
So if you could clarify the conditions under which you made your trip and verify elevation changes that you encountered that might explain the differences more than simply pulling the cold air horn off. But given that it is so simple to do, I am going to try it on my next road trip and see what happens.
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Someone finally understands how slow these cars are!
The first half of the trip was west to east. On that part of the trip there was a loss in elevation. I might have been driving slower on the way back, but I was still in the 80s.
So on the way back I had a gain in elevation and I still saw an increase in mpg. The weather was also worse on the way back.