1994 Ford Aspire Automatic New member
 

Just wanted to say hello to everyone and to read about all the interesting fuel saving ideas.
My project car is a 1994 Ford Aspire 4 door hatchback. It comes with a 1.3 liter 63 horsepower engine without overdrive. I bought the car in august of 2007 from a used car dealership.
I traded my 1997 Dodge stratus in and still paid $1,500 for the car. Not to bad. The Stratus was getting about 25 MPG plus it had bigger tires (14) ,heavier in weight and it had 160,000 plus miles on it. The engine was leaking from every gasket and seal. So I cleaned it up and used engine brite on the engine and hour befor I traded it in on my new Aspire.
Back to the Aspire. It had a clear title and only 27,230 miles on it. The car was only registered for 10 year while the previous owner had it. The back seat still had the plastic wrapping on it. The engine did have some oil around the top and side of it. That was due to the previous owner spilling oil on the engine when adding oil to it.
Since I bought the car I haven't done anything as far as aerodynamics. But I have tried some alternative fuel mixes and fuel additives. This is what I ahev found so far.
Acetone works and is accountable for maybe 1 -2 MPG but it costs about $20.00 a gallon. I usually used about 4-6 ounces per tank. I was a little apprehensive to use it due to possibly corrosion of rubber seals,gaskets and lines.
I have also used numerous gas treatments Marvel mystery oil,stp gas treatment, HEET, prestone fuel line cleaner, gumout carb and fuel injector cleaners. They all help out a little maybe 1-2 MPG. Not sure if they are worth the money or not.
The big factor for saving gas so far is your driving speed and throttle usage. I drive about 50 miles one way to work. 76% is highway with speeds from 45-55. and 25% is city with red lights and slower speeds averageing from 25-40. I was driving at or slightly above 55-60 on the highway and about 40 to 45 when possible in the city. This month I just started to drive with speed being the utmost factor. I no longer go above 55 on the highway and usually do 50. In the city driving I do the posted speed limit or just below. I coast downhill( with my motor off if possible) and also coast to stopsigns and red lights. I never tail gate and keep my windows up on the highway.
I plan to do some aerodynamics to the car ,but I am not sure how to do it or the material I need to do it. So hopefully I will read some ideas on this site to point me in the right direction.
I keep my fuel log current on this site so check it out. And please give me advise.

Thank you

There are plenty of ideas and experiments in the Aerodynamics section you could browse for hours. Welcome to ecomodder!

Best thing to do to help your aspire............ convert it to a manual!

Take out that backseat. It's about 28 lbs.

I've thought about the backseat. I'm not sure if I want to tackle the switching to the manual. I'm sure I would get better gas mileage. I have also browsed the aerodynamic forum and there are alot of good ideas. I'll have to try a few.