Lurker w/ a few mods already ('97 Corolla 5-spd manual)
 

Hi all,

I've been lurking the ecomodder site for a while. Been trying to get the mileage up on my '97 Corolla, which was a hand-me-down from my dad. He bikes and walks to work, so the thing only has 97k miles on it at this point.

I've been driving it for a few years, mostly between my home and university, which is a 900 mile drive. This summer, however, I have an internship where I'll be driving a lot for the commute, unfortunately. This opens a lot of time for experimenting with mods, however, so it's not all bad.

At one point, I had rear wheel skirts, but after doing one of the mentioned 900 mile trips, I found no gain in mpg and removed them. I'll probably revisit the idea with some better fabrication and see if I can't improve on my fuel efficiency.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and thanks for having this great community!

Welcome to the site. Looks like you're doing pretty good already.

.

First mod should be instrumentation. ;)

Otherwise it is difficult to know what works and what doesn't.

Welcome aboard...

:)


>

I've been using fill-ups to gauge mpg's. That's been doing fine for me for a while. I'd like to get one of those obd2 transmitters, but I'm not sure if my car will transmit much useful info over it. I haven't had a check engine light even with some major problems with my car, so I can only assume that the obd2 system isn't working as it should...

In any case, I won't know until I try.

If you don't have a gauge, your pump procedure needs to be as precise as possible to ensure reasonable reliability. Pumps are not terribly accurate. So... always go for a refill when the tank is down near empty. Always go to the same pump at the same station. Always fill at the slowest fill rate. Always stop filling at the first click. Doing this will minimize pump error and give you more reliable data for gauging your actual FE.

welcome!
pump up the tires to 40+psi!

Sounds like you are doing some costing,if so try a Engine Off Costing(EOC) and add a kill switch diy kill switch
EPA set obd2 in place in 1996 your 97 should be obd2 so the mpguin or
One of the others.
As mentioned previously adjust air pressure even switch to nitrogen

A cheep vacuum 0-30inmg gage to monitor engine load. I ran this (link)
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/lBgAAM...Ldx/s-l300.jpg
This will help identify the minor up/and down gradesform flat . Hold the highest vacuum (lowest throttle) to maintain speed. Will help...
Check the 65+ and the 100+hipermileing links in the header
Gumby Stay Flexible

The vacuum gauge works even if your OBDII systems are wonky. I have one and its calibration is way off, but movement of the needle is sufficient to give you a moment-to-moment read on if you're asking more or less of the engine.

Being a 97, your Corolla should be fully compliant. Torque app on your phone and a bluetooth connector gives you nearly the same kind of monitoring as a Scangauge but for way less money.

For my part I would prefer a Scangauge, if only because it means I don't have to lay my phone on the instrument panel. But that's me.

There's some debate on wheel skirts. Not much around here, the hardest core guys have them, including a couple of Metros and Civics that are pulling down sky-high numbers. And of course, what works on one car may not on another. I lean in their favor. If you can equip some better instrumentation, you can do some ABA testing to nail down whether skirts can really help. I think they can, but their signal may be too small against the noise of other things going on and you can't get a really precise read on your car since you can only calculate tanks.

Welcome, by the way! It's fun here. It's a different kind of performance driving.

I did skirts when I was doing 40k miles a yr of hwy driving
Fourth: rear skirts and 30.4mpg on trip!
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post247938

Belated welcome, charlesthemonkey!

I'm chiming in to highly recommend you get some kind of real time MPG feedback. It changes the game completely (while making driving more of a game).

In my experience, people without instrumentation tend to downplay its potential to help, and the ones who get it wish they'd done so sooner!