50 MPG ACHIEVED!!! 94 Civic VX
 

The old girl did it folks. Starting with a tank full at 10.002 gallons of gas and ending at 503.5 miles on the trip odometer, I finally reached the ever coveted 50 MPG on my stock 94 Honda Civic VX. (i.e. 50.33 for those doing the math):D

It took a lot of driving on the freeway at an average of 55 MPH, along with quite a few hypermiling techniques and some angry faces on the road; but my goal was finally achieved.

In terms of what it took, I'm happy to say that I spent more of my time than money to correct everything mechanically that former owner had done (eg. A cracked exhaust manifold from a Civic EX, Autolite spark plugs, wires etc.) rather than taking it to a mechanic. By my own admission, it took me the better part of this summer to fix these problems; but thanks to the advise and generosity of the forum, all became possible.:thumbup:

I'm going through what you just did (repairs that the previous owner refused to fix) and I'm hoping that when I'm done, I'll be able to get 50+mpg myself. Anyway, good job man! I'm glad you were able to finally achieve your goal!

From what I could tell, the former owner didn't know anything about working on cars, given the many receipts that he'd left behind for me; but with said, he kept good records, and knew well enough when to take it in for everything.

Thankfully, I was happy to talk him down $400, given the surprise he had in store with the exhaust manifold. That required a stock set-up with both new & used parts. For those reading this, I've learned that an exhaust manifold for a 92-95 Civic CX and VX are the exact same part. The catalytic converter however; requires you to buy a new OEM part. Plus, the L1H1 5-wire Wideband Oxygen Sensor can be found on Ebay for less than $200.00.

I'm probably wrong, but the way I read this is you filled up first with 10.002 gallons but do not mention a fill up after the 503.5 miles. Did you fill up at the 503.5 miles? If so how many gallons? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, if so, no bad intent.

Oh sorry. To be clear, I refilled the tank to 10 gallons even tonight at 503.5 miles. My last fill-up when I'd started was 10.002 gallons of gas. I might have done it backwards; but at any rate, the result still came out to be about the same.

Each angry face increases your mileage by 0.1 MPG, right? :)

If that was the case, I would always be 15mpg over what I'm actually getting haha.