70 MPG US (3.3 L/100 km) challenge (non-hybrid gasoline and diesel cars)

[California98Civic]

I added all the links offered to the OP. Fame will be ours! If anyone else has more links to the winning cars garage or mod thread, let me know.

[funkhoss]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I added my Thanks to your thread today.

I checked the mileage in the XFI ($1K, 138,000 miles) once and it was 45 MPG. This inspires me to do better (once the ignition switch is reinstalled). It has some of your mods already. I'm driving the Superbeetle right now, and I've always fueled it with clear premium, so I know the drill. There are two local sources ten miles in either direction.

I have a set of 15" Moon disks I'd like to cut down to 13".

You can do it! You have a couple-hundred pound weight advantage over me, yours being a first generation. And, you didn't have to swap the camshaft.


-Funkhoss

[California98Civic]

I have completed the list in the OP, except for those that do not seem to have build threads or garage entires on EM (or if I could not easily find them). Correct me. Also, I gave AerocivicLB a unique honor at the only car here to ever get a "Lifetime Average" of 70+ mpg. Correct me it there are more. PaleCivic got kinda close but nope.

[funkhoss]

I haven't updated our fuel log in a while, but nevertheless, our lifetime average since joining EM is definitely over 70...

-Funkhoss

[Silent Blood]

Hi funkhoss! Did you practicing pulse & glide only on even / downhill roads, or also on uphill roads?

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by Silent Blood

Hi funkhoss! Did you practicing pulse & glide only on even / downhill roads, or also on uphill roads?

I think typically, it only makes sense to glide up a mild uphill grade or if you're going very slowly, because most cars will run at very high load with a modest uphill grade, so you're not wasting fuel by just keeping the engine going.

In my thirsty V8 car, I only consider glide uphill if I'm under ~50% of available torque and still accelerating. I can pulse at 75% relative load for more mpg but it's much, much more shifting in and out of neutral, because I gain speed so quickly.

[funkhoss]

Originally Posted by Silent Blood

Hi funkhoss! Did you practicing pulse & glide only on even / downhill roads, or also on uphill roads?

I pulse and glide with engine-off coasting 100% of the time.

Depending on the power of the engine (i.e., whether I'm driving our "little car" or our "big car"), and depending the length and slope of the uphill, the pulse might last for the entire length of the hill, or it might be a long pulse with a short glide (relatively, compared to pulses and glides on level ground).

Basically, whenever I'm driving, the engine is in one of two states. Either the engine is running, in closed loop (to avoid power enrichment) with the MAP at 90-100 kPa ("wide open"), or it's off. Whatever it takes to keep the engine in one of those two states...that's what I do.

-Funkhoss

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by funkhoss

Basically, whenever I'm driving, the engine is in one of two states. Either the engine is running, in closed loop (to avoid power enrichment) with the MAP at 90-100 kPa ("wide open"), or it's off. Whatever it takes to keep the engine in one of those two states...that's what I do.

Have you retuned the ECU to get closed loop immediately when it's turned on? I think 5 seconds is the typical closed loop delay on a warm engine. I have my car set to 3 seconds down from 5 stock at 200F coolant temp, and 5 seconds at 180F coolant temp down from 8, and my open loop map is leaned out a little.

[funkhoss]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Have you retuned the ECU to get closed loop immediately when it's turned on? I think 5 seconds is the typical closed loop delay on a warm engine. I have my car set to 3 seconds down from 5 stock at 200F coolant temp, and 5 seconds at 180F coolant temp down from 8, and my open loop map is leaned out a little.

I use a kill switch to turn the engine "off," instead of the ignition switch. So the ECU stays on, and the engines on our cars immediately go into closed loop after a bump start or key start when they're warmed up.

-Funkhoss

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by funkhoss

I use a kill switch to turn the engine "off," instead of the ignition switch. So the ECU stays on, and the engines on our cars immediately go into closed loop after a bump start or key start when they're warmed up.

-Funkhoss

These are the techniques I use, too. But I gradually became less militant about ALWAYS using them all the time. I want steady cruising sometimes too. Ease of driving. Anyway, your experience demonstrates the power of radical, devoted hypermiling as a route to 70+ mpg. Basjoos always said he did NO hypermiling. His route to 70+ mpg was all in modifications. He didn't even drive especially slowly, IIRC.