Heated Fuel II ? Just an observation
 

I just wanted to share this observation. I've been playing with my new Scangauge and figuring out what works and what doesn't. My car, 99 Ford ZX2 5 sp which I've only owned for a month never gets "hot" during normal driving.
Temp is barely in the normal range no matter how long it's running. Under these conditions a neutral coast at 55 mph registers 187 mpg with the scan gauge. Every day for the last week. Yesterday I'm playing the game and WHAM, the bain of a hypermiler, central NJ bumper to bumper traffic. In addition it was a little warmer than we've been experiencing, 50 deg. I notice the temp gauge well into the upper third of the range. Now I'm freaking watching my average drop as I inch ahead AHHHH. The traffic began to break up and I start rolling pretty good. I come to a decline @ 55 mph and I slip in from 5th to N and coast. The scangauge reads 248 mpg. i know this is anecdotal and I'm not trying to quantify any actual numbers but it has never done this. Now as I drive some more and the temp comes down and I coast @ 55 it reads ~187 mpg. I need to change my thermostat and get the temp of this engine up. I drove in this morning, 32 deg without using the heater, thinking this might help. It did. The temp was inthe middle of the range. My Scangauge average was 42.5 mpg when I got to work. This even with another back up on the upper 1/2 of my Parkway drive (5 miles). This is 1 mpg more than any of my previous trips without any traffic back up. Without the traffic it would have deffinitely been 43.5 mpg. Now I'm only using this as an indicator and not a definite number. I need to find a hotter thermostat and or block off radiator when it's cold. I have no idea what it's going to be once we see Spring/Summer temps.
I think Smokey was onto something http://www.google.com/search?q=smoke...A&ved=0CDUQsAQ I understand this a lot more than chips and laptops with AFR/Spark tables

I think it's more an effect of warmer everything ... not warmer fuel.

My Focus never seems to fully warm up on cooler days. Thermostat was tested good, but it still just doesn't like to heat up.

Do you have any grille blocking?

No, I'm going to work on it this weekend. Now I've opened up a can of worms
and finding all kinds of cool maybe even dangerous info.
Hybrids, meet your rival -- it gets 376.59 mpg - seattlepi.com
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And this from GasSavers forum;
i do have to say that before i got married, the most entertaining project that i built was a carburetor, and it had no floats, no valves, no jets, nothing to meter the gas flow. it did however have 2 fuel pumps, one in and one out. it worked on the "Chromotography" principle of "wicking" the fuel. worked great. in fact took all day to build. right on the kitchen floor. hooked it up to the heaviest Ford truck i owned that by proportion had the smallest V-8 for an F-350, this truck weighed in at 8900 pounds UNLOADED, and had the roughest ride. for power it had a 351 Windsor MPFI (Multi-Port Fuel Injected) and i found that by just tripping the inertia switch (a safety cutoff for accidents to shut off all power to the fuel pumps) that i hooked up the "carburetor" and measured outside temperature, which was -10 F and proceeded to pour in 1 cup of gasoline, close the lid on the carburetor, which was mounted as far from the engine as physically possible, and closed the hood, jumped in, fired it up, and drove like a madman in december, in winter, on ice, in a 25 MPH zone in circles around our subdivision, the "lap" around the subdivision's outer "loop" was aproximately 2.5 miles long. i did 4 laps, and finally pulled it into the driveway, shut the truck off, and removed the carburetor. top achieved speed on the "straight-a-way" (on ice remember dont need to wreck my truck for the hell of it) was 55 mph. i then poured out the entire contents of the carburetor, and then took the "wicking material" and squeezed all the gas out if it, and measured that, all in total my truck had consumed in a 10 mile run about 1/2 of a cup of gasoline at ambient thermal temperatures of -10 F (again that is ten degrees below ZERO F) anyone want to build one of these carburetors is more than welcome to. my wife (date at the time) thought it would never work, it was too simple, and she saw no was something like that would work. she also went to school and took auto-diesel technology courses, and she changes the oil and does the tune up on her own vehicles by herself. she's from a farm, and she's the type that could chew up bolts and spit out the heads. but, then again that could be a bad thing too.


1/2 cup = .031 gallon 1/ .031 X 10 miles = 322.5 mpg?

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ok carburetor instructions for assembly:

get an old military ammo can. you are going to need a welder to put some ducting on it (piping if you will) and then you are going to need what my construction friends call "Elephant diapers" about 12 of those. it is very important that the ducting be put on opposite ends of the ammo can. having a lid that opens is very important. also invest in 3 CO2 type fire extinguishers, others types will be self explanatory after you try to use it ONE time. my system was not a straight through for the reason that i WANTED turbulence inside the ammo can. i used 2" pipe coming in AND going out. this is important. in the F350 that i ran it on, it has these really long air ducting tubes that go from the throttle assembly to the air cleaner on the fender. i left the throttles intact. i just re-routed ONE tube to the ammo can, and PLUGGED the other. now the guts of the ammo can must be carefully measured for assembly. this is what the elephant diapers are for. where the pipe goes in and comes out of must be at the same height. my pipes were directly opposite, but on caddy corners to the end so the air flow had to make a "S" pattern as it flowed through.

the elephant diapers are cut into rectangular strips and placed in VERTICALLY: as in standing on end like the letter "I" the can lid opens from the top. the length of the Elephant diapers is directly proportional to the height of the CENTER of the inlet and outlets. the tops of the material should end in the center of the air stream of the inlets and be level across the top. (as best you can).

HOW IT WORKS: when the LIQUID gas is in the container, it is READILY absorbed into the Wicking material (Elephant Diapers), as the wicking material soaks up the gas, the gas will "wick" it's way to the top of the material. then as the air flows across the top of the material, it "dries" the gas off, thereby allowing more room for the wick to absorb more gas. here's the hitch: there is no rich or lean spot. there is no need for an accelerator pump, and if you need more fuel for acceleration, just open the throttle, the vacuum inside the manifold will pul more air across the "wick" and thereby get more fuel.

...there is not another "FREEFLOW" carburetor in existance out there on earth yet. this FREEFLOW action happens because as more air is drawn across the top, more fuel is "dried" or "PROPERLY VAPORIZED" and thoroughly mixed with the airstream. simple. now be careful, watch your fuel level!!!!

THIS CARBURETOR IS DANGEROUS!!!! rule of thumb, old carbureted engines: BACKFIRE out of the EXHAUST means TOO MUCH FUEL, however the opposite of both is true too, because BACKFIRE out intake means NOT ENOUGH FUEL!!!! backfire out the intake is extremely dangerous because it will flash back to your freeflow carburetor, and hence the need for the CO2 Fire extinguishers, the other type make a mess and WILL ruin your carburetor. it's that simple. no floats, no jets, no adjustments, no needles, no valves, no venturii, and no bull****.


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what i call Elephant Diapers are AKA ABSORBENT OIL CLEAN-UP MATS. they are found at industrial stores, NOT HOME DEPOT, NOT LOWE'S NOT WALLY WORLD NOT SAMS CLUB AND NOT SCHUCK'S NOT NAPA, NOT CARQUEST, PEPBOYS, AUTO-ZONE...they are industrial use, and you have to go to an industrial supply/hardware store. the larger the bag (QUANTITY), the cheaper they are.

Fascinating but if this ever got touched off a fire extinguisher wouldn't help. It would probably blow the front of the car/truck apart.:D

The current record for the 'Eco-marathon' stands at 12665 mpg-US apparently!... that makes 322.5 look like garbage, no? ;)
Do you suppose today's record holder has a technology that has any real similarity to this so called 'wick' carburettor?
... after all, there's a world of difference between what is possible and what is practical... and there's almost never a magic bullet solution.

Your best bet with this thread is to concentrate on finding out why you Focus takes so long to warm up properly.

He conveniently forgot to mention, or didn't know that the inertia switch turned back on. The 1/2 cup of fuel is what sloshed out of the contraption.

Troll

My focus did the same thing, until I changed the thermostat. This is not a warmer fuel issue, it is a warmer engine issue. When it's up to temp, the computer leans the mixture out to where it's supposed to be.

beatr911 pegged it, replace the thermostat.

regards
Mech

I'm doing the brakes, unplug knock sensor, block grill and now thermostat this weekend. Should I go with a 195? I have a carbureted mustang that loves 195.
As far as the wick carb. it does work. I don't think a fire extinguisher would help
though if that thing got touched off. I think demolition experts call that a barametric bomb. It is good to know in a **** hits the fan scenario. I think it would work well on a smaller scale for a generator/snowblower in the situation where the carb is gummed up and you need it to run NOW. Those of us who lived through Irene and Sandy understand **** hits the Fan.

I'd go with the warmer t-stat.

Why unplug the knock sensor? I think that would hurt your mileage. Will probably set the check engine light.

I think a 195 t-stat would be fine but you might check to see what was offered as original equipment.

regards
Mech