[lyd]

I've been reading these forums pretty voraciously for about three weeks now, and while I have learned tons, my head is spinning a bit with some of the technique info. So much seems to be contradictory at first glance, and a lot of it has continued to seem that way after many repeat glances. ;-)

Please, just tell me if this statement is correct, as a summation of all the many things I have read:

I want to be accelerating as quickly as possible, shifting at peak torque (3300 rpm), until I hit cruising speed, at which point I want to keep the vac guage above 10.

If that's correct so far, as far is it goes, then I have a couple of initial questions:

- What am I trying maintain on the vac during that "quick as possible" acceleration? It drops to 0 pretty fast.

- Keeping the vac gauge above 10 seems to result in my frequently going well below the speed limit. Even a moderate incline scrubs me down to 50 or 45 mph pretty quickly, and slightly steeper ones have me dropping below 45 and down shifting to 4th gear. Is this pretty normal?


Clearly, I need to get that boarduino and other bits ordered to get more feed back than the vac-n-tach setup is giving me, but I'd a appreciate a little help in the meantime. I cranked out a couple hundred miles of 48mpg just vaguely trying to go slower, use high gears, and shut the car off to coast once in a while. Now that I am all equipped with new knowledge and instrumentation I feel like I'm doing much worse and have been all over the place in the way I'm driving. I need to get centered on an approach again.