Friendly Wager: 60 mpg 95 Mercury Tracer

[Frank Lee]

It's a good way to get rid of the a/t in one swell foop.

Kinda thinking of G10 into a Tracer wagon, because great utility in a small durable package and also a/t delete.

[M_a_t_t]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

It's a good way to get rid of the a/t in one swell foop.

Kinda thinking of G10 into a Tracer wagon, because great utility in a small durable package and also a/t delete.

Swapping the 1.0 for the 1.3 shouldn't be as bad as the swap from 1.9 to 1.3 though if I find a good deal on a (local) g10.

I hear you on the utility. I really want to redo the tail as a hatch like basjoos has on his. I could hardly get the coroplast sheets in the car (folded hotdog style) through the front door.

I was talking to someone and they said the 3 cylinder lasted forever. How does that compare to the 4 cylinder? This one has ~150k on it.

Missed opportunity to say one of my motorcycles has a bigger engine than my car though (KZ1100)

[Frank Lee]

Yeah, the '98 Metro 1.0 and 60-70 mpg vs GoldWing 1.1 with 33 mpg and VMax 1.2 with... who knows mpg, it's bad (doesn't get hypermiled )

[PaleMelanesian]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

It's a good way to get rid of the a/t in one swell foop.

Kinda thinking of G10 into a Tracer wagon, because great utility in a small durable package and also a/t delete.

I love that one!

[M_a_t_t]

It was ~44 Degrees today and with some extreme (for me) hypermiling I was able to get my trip home from work (cold start on top of it! ) past 50 (50.58) mpg!




And some pictures. Kind of blurry since it is starting to get dark out.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

I was talking to someone and they said the 3 cylinder lasted forever. How does that compare to the 4 cylinder? This one has ~150k on it.

They're both good engines in the same family. Longevity should be the same.

[serialk11r]

Oh no, I didn't see this thread in time, I'm sorry you lost the bet!

An instant 10% gain in mpg is to run xylene (135kBTU/gal) or toluene (134kBTU/gal) mixed with a little diesel (139kBTU/gal) to get a 136kBTU/gal fuel vs. gasoline (124kBTU/gal, might be lower than that due to winter fuel). Maybe you can bet someone else that you can hit 65mpg, and use xylene to help get you there :P

A possibly easy way to make small aero changes is spray foam. The stuff is a lot stronger than I expected, and it's easy to shape.

Nose taper I imagine does make some difference to A-pillar drag. If you built the hood bulge in that picture you linked, and then added some panels to blend it into the A-pillars, you would I think weaken the A pillar vortices.

At the end of the day your engine is really holding you back, 60 might not have been possible even with some extra aero help :/

[M_a_t_t]

I moved the driver side mirror from the metro to the mercury on Thursday night. Not the same as a mirror delete, but it is more aerodynamic for sure. To mount it I just cut the mounting stuff off for the metro and then put a threaded rod through it and with some big washers I inserted it into the door. I had to pop the mirror glass off to tighten the 2 nuts (no lock nut) inside the housing. The hardware was just what I found in the garage. Surprisingly it fits and blends in very nicely.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Considering the latest gasser versions of the Escort in Europe had the 1.3L Endura-E POS, it doesn't seem so unlikely that a more elastic engine such as the G13 could fare better.

[M_a_t_t]

Engine is out of the metro. This thing is SUPER rusty! I was trying to avoid going underneath the car because of it, but I ended up having to go underneath to undo the rear mount and I ended up cutting the shift linkages because I didn't want to be pounding on the thing trying to get the pins out. I also figured that they would most likely need to be modified to fit the mercury anyway.

This was one of the more solid areas of the car and after I put the car on the stands and the front wheel on a cinder block I pushed the car as a precaution and the stands started going through the floor Once it stopped I put the jack back in contact with the only section still intact on the side of the car.