Friendly Wager: 60 mpg 95 Mercury Tracer

[M_a_t_t]

I made an engine stand for the engine. It seems pretty stable, but the front of the engine is only held up by a single post. I was running out of material to build out of so that's the best I could come up with. I left the engine together when I built the stand so all the wrenching I did on it didn't break it, so . I left the hoist hooked up with some slack just in case.

Since I undid the timing belt already and removed the transmission (and therefore the starter) I couldn't do a compression check. Instead I did a leak down test and all cylinders were within 5% of each other (33-38%) based on a HF leak down tester. I will probably remove the oil pan and then redo the leak down test so that I can better tell if the leak is through the rings or the valves. I am also thinking about sending in some of the oil to see if it tells me anything.

[M_a_t_t]

No real updates to the project. I've been busy trying to get all my class work done for the end of the semester. I did clean the car out, pulled a few more dash panels and the carpet. I also put the passenger seat back in along with the floor mat. I only found a small rust hole in the floor about finger size.

I did however decide to do a psuedo drive to work (I was furloughed) today since it was nice out (about 70 F 45% humidity 12 mph wind SE, trip was E-W). I drove there like usual. I got 45.65 MPG, previous best was 42 I think. I stopped in the empty parking lot at work and sat there for a little bit to let the mpguino reset. While doing that someone pulled into the lot took my picture and when I waved at them they hurredly did a U-turn, stopped took another picture, then sped off . By the time they left the gauge had reset. I then took off for home. So a hot start. I EoffC PnG'd and went under the speed limit when someone was behind me. Until the end of the drive back when someone was behind me and didn't want to pass . I of course got stopped by the last light before my house . I ended up with an impressive, but not good enough trip of 55.54 mpg. I was on track to break 60 until the very end





I saved the hand brake lever from the metro and I am going to try and make a hand throttle with it. I also bought some cheap lowering stuff for the car should be ~2 inches drop. Finally, a question: there is some sort of ceramic insulation, on the floor of the car. It also seems to be collecting dirt and moisture and causing rust. I should be good to remove it correct? I can take a picture and post it if need be. There was some on the floor of the metro as well and that is where most of the rust was.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

Finally, a question: there is some sort of ceramic insulation, on the floor of the car. It also seems to be collecting dirt and moisture and causing rust. I should be good to remove it correct? I can take a picture and post it if need be. There was some on the floor of the metro as well and that is where most of the rust was.

It's sheets of tar-like insulation. I've removed it from a few cars. Could be around 10 lbs or more. If you're lucky, it'll pop off the floor in big pieces. Cold weather can help. Or it might come off in little pieces. If you're unlucky, you'll have to scrape it off with the help of a heat gun.

[Xist]

The clutch went out in my Civic when I was outside of cell phone range. Someone stopped and I thought "Oh good! Help!"

They took a picture and drove off.

[M_a_t_t]

Dang. After being on the receiving end I've been trying to make more of an effort to stop for people. I haven't completely been able to get myself to stop every time though. For 2 reasons, I'm weary of strangers and I'm not the most social person in general. Just something to work on I guess.

[M_a_t_t]

I did some tuft testing. Earlier I had asked about hood height so I figured I could collect some data for that. Tomorrow I hope to get some more tuft testing on the windshield itself. Once I get some more footage I am going to put it all together and upload a video on youtube I can link to. This was taken around 65 mph. The one that is between the hood and fender was not always like that. I think it might have gotten stuck.

Just based on this it seems altering the hood to windshield angle may not provide any benefit.

[M_a_t_t]

Slowed down to ~4%. Probably will want to speed video up to compensate. Audio was turned down, but you will probably want to mute it. I was going to try some quick front wheel well covers, but ran out of steam. Its supposed to be nice tomorrow though so I might try again. I'm trying to make a better tail in the next few months so any suggestions are welcome. The only tuft that started unraveling was on top of the front bumper right in front of the headlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN4a...ature=youtu.be

Edit: I realized later that some of the tufts on the top of the tail were just barely stuck in the tape of the ones behind it.

[M_a_t_t]

I bought a megasquirt so I could try to tune lean burn in, but thats not the exciting revelation. I bought an extra computer so I could de-solder the plug off to make an adapter. This way I could plug the megasquirt in and not have to worry about driving the car while I try to get a good tune on it. I found a computer for a 94 escort automatic for $10 on ebay. After it sat on my desk for a few days I remembered the Lean on Cruise (LoC) that escorts supposedly had. So I decided to just swap computers and go for a drive. At first I didn't notice anything and the wideband didn't show any lean cruising. Eventually though the gauge stayed at ~18.x:1 for a little bit. I think I figured it out. I just go faster than I want to go (I was only able to get it to work above 53 mph) then dfco'd and gave it a little bit of gas. I was able to maintain the ~18.5:1 for about 6 miles before I had to turn. I was getting roughly the same mpg per the instant reading at 60 mph as I was getting at 40-45 mph on the original computer.

There are several things I need to check though. Does the MPGuino need to be recalibrated now that I have a different computer? My AFR gauge was cutting in and out for most of the run, it worked for the whole 6 mile section mentioned though. It was also the warmest it's been since winter so that is also influencing the results.

[California98Civic]

In your tuft video in post 117, you seem to have quite good attached flow across the boattail. There are a few tufts on the car that seem stuck. And behind the passenger windshield wiper one tuft looks either stuck or the flow has radically changes around that wiper. After the a-pillar on the passenger window there seems to be turbulence. It might be fun to take the wiper off, add some more tufts in that whole area and do the test again.

Congrats on the below find, if it works out that your MPGuino is still calibrated well. I don't know the answer to your question... maybe someone else does.

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

... After it sat on my desk for a few days I remembered the Lean on Cruise (LoC) that escorts supposedly had. So I decided to just swap computers and go for a drive. At first I didn't notice anything and the wideband didn't show any lean cruising. Eventually though the gauge stayed at ~18.x:1 for a little bit. I think I figured it out. I just go faster than I want to go (I was only able to get it to work above 53 mph) then dfco'd and gave it a little bit of gas. I was able to maintain the ~18.5:1 for about 6 miles before I had to turn. ...

There are several things I need to check though. Does the MPGuino need to be recalibrated now that I have a different computer? My gauge was cutting in and out for most of the run, it worked for the whole 6 mile section mentioned though. It was also the warmest it's been since winter so that is also influencing the results.

[M_a_t_t]

I cleaned the wideband sensor and tryed again. Gauge stopped acting up and I got some useful data.

Originally Posted by Xist

I noticed a slight loss of power when I entered lean burn; I needed to accelerate slightly more even though I was on level ground

This is exactly what was happening as lean burn was activated. I took the hand brake lever from the metro and hooked it up as a throttle. I set it to ~65 mph and once lean burn engaged I would start loosing speed so I had to pull the lever another click or two to maintain 65. I was getting about 40-42 mpg (~17.5 k/L) at 65 mph (~105 kph). I also tested fastest and slowest I could go in lean burn. Fastest was 85 mph. The slow side of lean burn wasn't a hard cut off. From ~65 mph and up I was at 18.5 or leaner. As I slowed down however the richer it was. Once I got to about 50 I was back to 14.7:1.
At 45 mph I was getting 50 mpg at stoich. I've got 223 miles and at half a tank so far. Mpguino indicating 37 mpg on the tank. I'll have to finish making the mount for the hand throttle and do some testing (front wheel skirts & front airdam hopefully) to finish off this tank.

What is the slowest lean burn honda's can maintain lean burn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pagW...ature=youtu.be

Also a note to any escort/tracer owners looking into lean burn; I am running Potenza re92's which are 165/65 r14. Stock size is bigger (175/65 r14) so mph readings I've posted are accurate with the smaller tires.