I have a confession.....I was spoiled......
 

I have been north of San Antonio now for 3 months and have come to a realization.
I was SPOILED!!!!!!
Now, understand, I am happy as a clam to be uot of Sacramento California.
But what I have come to realize is that Sacramento was actually pretty dang flat in comparison to the Texas foot hills.
It was very easy to get good(28+ mpg) in the Sacramento area.
It has been difficult to break 26mpg here in texas.
I just drove from Austin to Dallas and back. And only got 24.7mpg w avg speed of 62mph. There are constant 'hills' along the way. (and not just the overpasses which are twice as tall as in CA.)

I quess we should start marking our mpg records w/:
1. Very flat
2. kinda flat
3. Not very flat
4. You gotta be kinding.....

I know in the beginning, I was very clear on my trips to Cedarville CA from Sacramento to state that there were 2 mountian ranges and A LOT of coasting down hill.

I can see how some one with a similar vehicle as mine who lived in the Texas Hill Country might call BS on my mileage claims.

As a amall footnote: at 262,000 miles, I 'feel' that part of the lower mpg may be engine related. IMHO, I think that I have lost some 'edge' that was there in the 100k - 200k range. Especially since the octane is 93 here in texas and only 91 in CA.

Your thoughts??

Texas isn't as flat as most people outside think it is. With good stick shift skills you can use the hills for mileage gain, but it's tricky with an automatic.

Hm. My best tank of gas was on hilly terrain between my house in Portland and my Grandparent's in John Day... There are several passes over 3k feet, and 2 over 5k feet. Their house sits 3k feet higher than mine.

Then I drove HOME from there and got an even better tank. I think hilly is actually okay for MPG's if you're not doing short trips and if it's all highway. The key to MY MPG's was lots of engine-on coasting down hills, sometimes in neutral, sometimes using compression braking [EDIT: Probably a lot harder in your automatic :P ].

262,000 miles makes me wonder if you might need a tune-up... And wouldn't 93 versus 91 octane benefit your car? Higher octane should be a good thing.
[EDIT 2: I misread that one. You were saying your car MUST have lost some edge since you are getting fewer MPG's on higher octane. Derpy me.]

Either way, your build threads are awesome and you have nothing but respect from me.
:D

~Matt

Pale, I was born in Dallas and kinda took the 'rolling flatness' for granted. The rolling hills dont help coasting.

Matt,
first, thank you for your kind words!
I am always humbled to see that my underbelly thread has over 14,000 views! :o

I am pretty religous about the tune ups, although it's mainly repalcing the iredium plugs every 80k. I use synthetic oil and chang it and filters every 9-10k. I blow out the air filter about once a month.

You are spot on w/ your trip description! The prblem here in central texas is there is not enough elevation decrease to coast.
On a trip like yours (and my trip to Cedarville) there is alot of potential downhill coasts.
I 35 is pretty crowded and I just have never got used to P&G. (except on steep downhills)

You want some serious downhills, you need to try Tennessee! My wife wanted to take a detour there the last time to Pennsylvania. Started going downhill, threw the mini into neutral. Got to 75MPH in neutral, put the mini into 6th gear to slow down a bit. Got to 85MPH, threw the mini into 5th to actually attempt to slow down. There were trucks and SUVs and Minivans passing me, but I wouldn't want to perform any of the turns anywhere near them. I know my mini handled much better than at least 95% of other vehicles on the road.

Make sure your calipers aren't dragging more with that age and mileage.

regards
Mech

Mech,
Thanks for that. I had just changed the rotors and new pads.

so fyi.....is there a way to check this????

I check mine for one hotter than the rest after driving. Touch the rims first then carefully check the rotor, harder with drums. A real remp reading would be better, but I get by doing a manual especially if I smell brakes.

I used a laser thermometer to adjust the brakes on my 37 Ford. Cable operated mechanical brakes at all 4 wheels. Read the temp of the drums and tighten-loosen to get them as close to the same as possible.

Once grabbed a rotor on a Z car with a stuck caliper. I had deep callouses on my hands and before I realised how hot the rotor was it had branded.
"MIN DIA 10.5 MM"
on my callouse (SP?) at the base of my fingers right where the hand begins. You can touch the rotors quickly to see if there is a significant temp difference.

regards
Mech

mcrews -

There may be a weather component involved as well. What's the difference between Sacramento and North of San Antonio? What's the elevation difference?

CarloSW2

It's a little hotter overall in San Antonio.
Sacramento is at about 100 ft and This area of texas is at a high of 1950ft (were I live) and 500 feet along I-35.
Humidity is higher here.
Sacramento is pretty low humifity.

I'm sure you're well aware of the costs/benefits, but are you running more AC here due to both heat and humidity?

Excallent point. :thumbup:

as most of you are aware, I leave the climate contrl on all the time. If I was comparing tank to tank I would agree. But all my test runs in sacto were midday w/ car warmed up (and interior cooled down :D )

The only time I ran w/o the a/c in CA was on the texas trip 1 yr ago where I ran the excel spread sheet and noted the a/c on or off.

THe a/c is pretty effecient in THE BEAST so while I think you make an excellent observation, I don't think that is the cause.

BUT.....I will try some no-a/c runs (for VERY breif preiods)

Maybe the quality of gas is affecting you. I know Kentucky gets "summer blends" which are supposed to be better for the environment during the warmer months, but worse on fuel economy. So living right on the border I try to do all my filling up in Ohio. (not to mention I try to use the same: gas station, time of day, pump, facing the same direction, etc to avoid unnecessary deviation from the true volume of fuel used.