[ATaylorRacing]

Before maintenance:

Bought a 152,000+ mile 3 cyl Geo Metro and drove it the 200 miles home. It got 46 mph vs EPA 49.

I took out 70 lbs, changed ONLY the plug wires, cap, and rotor. I aired up the tires to only 40 and put on homemade headlight covers. The FE is now 50-57!

Though the lighter wt helped, all of these trips involved carrying one way a set of Mustang rims (99 lbs), a set with tires (198), or even 2 full sets (396 lbs). With the 2 full sets acceleration was B A D ! The 1 full set would hurt the FE about 2 mpg.

I did not change the plus yet since it was only rough running at idle and smooth on the road.

When I do drive on open roads I go about 58-62 in 55 mph zones and 65-68 on the 70 mph zones....someday I should try an unloaded trip at only 55 or 50 to see how much better the FE can be...57.0 has been my best on three different trips. My car also gets better FE at the higher speeds compared to the 55 mph zones that involve going through a few small towns with slowing and stopping, even though I FAS. Pulse and glide makes worse FE in my car since it takes too much energy to get back up to speed.