engine mods
 

Why is there no engine mod forum? I modded my first car, a 1974 Ford Capri, back in 1975 using a Supertune kit. It jumped my MPG from 22mpg to 36+mpg! It involved changing the carburator jets, advancing the timing on the distributor, and advancing the timing on the camshaft. I did all this in my driveway, in Michigan, in the winter, on a Saturday!
I know people regularly get a "tune" for their diesels which can increase MPG substantially- I would think there would be more interest in this!

There is and it can be found here.

EcoModding Central - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com


It is not specific to engines however.

:)

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I can't think of very many mods for modern engines that would provide economic benefit. Much of the low-hanging fruit has been picked already by manufacturers. Toyota's smaller gas engines, as shipped, have close to the same thermal efficiency to the best automotive diesels. As I understand it, my Insight very aggressively increases timing, staying at the bleeding edge at all times, as detected by the knock sensor. Things like direct injection, eliminating the throttle plate by controlling throttle by varying valve open-duration as a means of throttle control, and building lean burn maps (as well as rewiring and adding the computers necessary) are well above the heads of most individuals and are not easily retrofitted. Most new engines already come with exotic coatings on pistons and cylinders to reduce friction. Adding hybrid systems and moving to electrical accessories often don't pay off for years (if ever).

Sometimes swaps are even difficult, even if one can get a modern high efficiency engine for near nothing, due to the electronics involved. The drivetrain from a wrecked Prius in an older Geo would yield fantastic results, but I wouldn't even know where to start.

I'd rather not be overly pessimistic about our hobby, but I think we'll be seeing fewer and fewer viable mods to add, as cars increasingly ship from the factory with them.

ditto what he said!

so what are you driving today and what have you done today..........it has been 35 years.

In May, 2009, I purchased a Hypertech "Max Energy" Power Programmer for my 2007 Ford Mustang.
After 5 years of observing fuel log entries with the power program installed vs stock tune, It doesn't make a noticeable difference in fuel economy unless the Premium Fuel Power Program is installed (and burning Premium fuel). FE is worse with premium fuel, due to the lower BTU content of the fuel.
Running the Regular Fuel Power Program doesn't noticeably lower my fuel economy, and I enjoy the power increase and especially enjoy the increased torque below 2000 RPM.

I don't know about petrol engines but in diesel engine's ECUs the calibration is total bull***t sacrificing A LOT of efficiency to meet emission standards.
And no, simply disabling emission HW such as removing EGR or DPF will not solve the problem because it won't affect the bad calibration that is there from the factory.

I have spent more than a year messing with VW's TDI PD engines and there are tremendous gains to be had only with properly modified maps and I'd imagine it would be very silimar case with petrol engines.

For example my Octavia with 2.0 TDI engine should get 41MPG combined (and that's very optimistic NEDC figure) stock and after modifying almost all the maps in the ECU and some very basic eco mods I have to drive like a maniac not to get 60MPG tank and my record trip was something like 84MPG :)

Ecky I have to disagree with you. OEMs leave a lot of room for improvement. My focus on improved FE has been modifications on engine internals. I've been able to achieve 65% gain in FE and 25% improvement in power. (Green Grand Prix Chev S10 38mpg and LSR Aug 1,2010 Loring AFB 105.6 mph) The low hanging fruit is 100% cylinder sealing and reducing heat rejection rate. Lower emissions also. How it was done is in my yet to be published book.

This is an engine mod. It is from the Vietnam war. They also had a killing machine somehow adapted from an arial aircraft gun to fire into the woods on the back. You can barely see it but the heat wrapped headers give you a pretty big clue. I wasn't trying to offend anyone. Just... what the US Army does so good is what is it that people want that they don't have? They could be as modular or fill a store house with cool I bet. This is where they, the local army base, keep experimental vehicles. From the 1950's.

Currently driving a 2005 passat tdi. getting 32 mpg city and 36 mpg freeway consistently. Saturday i found and sealed 2 leaks in the pressurized turbo line going between the turbo and intercooler. Too soon to tell if my MPG has gone up. Some Previous owner had drilled two small mounting holes in the metal pressure pipe!
Still checking my timing , fuel injection quantity, etc. Suprisingly, I was getting better mpg at 65mph than 55mph.