How to Accelerate?

[pumafeet10]

This is something that i have posted about a few times and find my self very conflicted. I have seen the advice from Wayne to accel slowly and then once up to speed and your are ready to Fas the to pulse at higher lod to get back to your target speed. The higher lod during pulsing i don't have a problem with.

I have a 2000 Honda civic hatchback that is almost gutted on the interior i have a carbon kevlar hood so my weight is def below average civics, and its 5spd, my tires are at 70psi and lastly the car has a full lower grille block which is on the inside of the grille which im not sure is causing problems or not? Right now according to my scangauge I am doing 60.3 MPG for the tank which is awesome, but for some reason i feel like I can do better.

So how should we accelerate, what rpm,lod and Tps ? For me i try to do about 65-76 lod but that is only like 25-30 at most on Tps , thats when I pulse after fas'ing.
What about when we are coming from a stop or just getting up to your speed where you want to start fas'ing?

Not sure if I am leaving something about but I drive slowly up to speed and its working but have seen some people with different results contray to what i am doing???

so whats the concensus??? Let the Great Debate Begin

David

[SVOboy]

Here's my take with the old set up on the crx: crxMPG - Gas mileage never looked so good » Acceleration and Fuel Economy Tested

I guess my results disagree with wayne's...but according to a lot of people he's god so we should ignore everything else!

[bbjsw10]

That is a very interesting read SVOboy. I figured slow and steady was the way to go, but Jack rabbit while EOC won out. I need to try this some time, makes sense more time to coast with a fast pulse up and long coast down.

[SVOboy]

I plan on redoing the test with the new engine in, that's about two years old, but I was pretty meticulous so I trust the results.

[bbjsw10]

Originally Posted by pumafeet10

, my tires are at 70psi

What kind of tires are those, semi retreads. 70psi that is crazy. Must be good tires to hold that kinda pressure.

[pumafeet10]

SVOboy, it was your post that i had read and had seen a few other people have the same results. which keeps me thinking but also the frugal person i am i don't want to go out and waste gas.

I am wondering if from the more rapid acceleration what my values on my scangauge should be, as in should i accelerate at 75 on the tps or with say 75 on lod? i know its different for everyone and one prob is i don't drive my car really at all during the week since i try to bkie everywhere i go locally.


My tires...well from people such as wayne and others one here and cleanmpg.com and from my research 70psi really isn't that crazy, especially from the research i had done on what it really takes to blow up a tire.

If you want better mileage, longer tread life, and a better handling car keep your tires psi high. Start at max sidewall psi and go up in small increments till about 70 some people have done more but thats where im at right now.

[SVOboy]

If you have a SG, just do a little testing! I doubt you'll ever find the ideal, but at least get a good idea and stick with it.

[azraelswrd]

Whoa, 60mpg in a Civ? Nice! But I am a bit concerned with the 70psi tires as well. I mean, that puts the HYPER in hypermiling.

(I drive an automatic so I'm not sure how much you may get out of the followin...)

As for accelerating I was doing slow-n-go since driver's ed but I (finally) realized I was getting killed on the FE just to make my gears shift (I'm in an automatic). First heard about BSFC maps here and was intrigued. Got into the habit of accelerating around 70-75 load once I had my scangauge and I have noticed some differences especially in immediate MPG. The same stretch of road that I usually got 36-37mpg on, I started to see 39-40mpg once I did some load pedalling. Slow and go is good in general, but if you have the tools to see how far (and how hard) to gas, I say go for it.

Once I get to my ideal gear, my preferred settings are:

TPS: 15-16
RPM: < 2000
MPH: 40-50

At highway speeds, this has been my better configuration:

TPS: 16-17
RPM: < 2500
MPH: 50-55

[bbjsw10]

Originally Posted by pumafeet10

My tires...well from people such as wayne and others one here and cleanmpg.com and from my research 70psi really isn't that crazy,

I am not doubting you, but my brothers valve stems blew apart at the seams at 60psi. Just be safe no life is worth 1-2 mpg. Just my .02 not trying to be a tool.

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by bbjsw10

I am not doubting you, but my brothers valve stems blew apart at the seams at 60psi. Just be safe no life is worth 1-2 mpg. Just my .02 not trying to be a tool.

I'll agree...exceeding the maximum by over 50% is pretty foolish. You wouldn't climb a 100 pound rated ladder to clean your gutters, would you?