My Attempt to reach 40mpg.
 

Unfortunately, as of now, I have no formal way to measure mpg. Being only 16, I'm going to have to wait until summer so I can afford a scan guage. However, I'm sure I'll be able to have a slight idea of whether or not my modifications are working. I always multiply the gallons of gas I get by 30, which is what I was getting about 1 1/2 months ago when I filled up fully. So I would assume, around the 3-5 mpg improvement mark I should be able to notice when I can go longer without the check gauge light coming on? Either way, I'm doing this more or less just to occupy my time. Well, besides trying to get some better mileage/saving money.

The Car; 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 Sport Automatic.

The Plans; Grill Block, Increased tire pressure, possibly rear wheel covers.

So Far, Today I put a grill block over the center 24 inches. ( That's as wide as the plastic is. It was also getting too cold for me to cut the other pieces.)

Yes, my car is leaking anti freeze. Just noticed today. Dad says it is also leaking oil. eek. However, neither of them were low, so it's a small leak.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4489/img1047vf3.jpg

I'm sure you can make 40 MPG. Why don't you just fill up fully to monitor fuel economy? It's not real time, but it's pretty accurate for a benchmark.

Welcome to the site!

Being 16, and my winter money fund virtually gone. It's rather hard for me to put 30-40 dollars in gas in my car at once. I guess I need to form the habit of just filling up when I get back at night on nights I drive more than 10 miles. I might do it tomorrow.

Try to fill up at least 300 miles at one time. I used to fill up at half tank in high school when I was broke (ironically I have even less money now), oh well, :)

Could you explain how I could use that to calculate mpg? When I would fill up before, check light was coming on around 340-360 (12.68 gallon tank). So 300 miles would pretty much be a full tank of gas.

Here's Darin's take on the situation: http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthread.php?t=352

Slight update.

Apparently, my thermostat gage started working. Before it would never go past the first marking on the gage and would stay between that and the C line. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that today was the first 50 degree day since I've had the car or with the antifreeze that was leaking out yesterday(which I don't think is leaking now).

Also, I'm about 100 percent sure I'm doing better than 30 mpg. Hopefully I'll be able to check soon.

I managed to get in a few good neutral shifts today. Had at least a mile roll though about 3 hills, and put the car right back into drive without the rpm's having to shift. Tried a few shut offs at lights/on the way to lights but I don't feel like I timed them well enough.

How long of a stop is worth shutting the car off? I've heard anywhere from 10 seconds to a whole minute...

It takes very little fuel to restart the motor. Anytime you can turn it off do so.

Just found a manual online for my car. Says my vehicle cannot be flat towed with all wheels on the ground. I probably should stop putting my car in neutral then. However, it did say putting the car in overdrive when driving at cruising speeds will increase fuel economy. Can anyone confirm this?

Edit: I'm not thinking today. I realize what it's saying now.

I plan on filling up today, and filling up again after about a 40-50 mile drive to find out what I'm getting on gas.

85.3 Miles filled back up at same gas station on same pump on same speed setting at 2.686 gallons = 31.76 mpg.

I never accelerated above 2000 rpm until I got into highest gear and I never passed 65 mph. Mostly highway driving. Maybe 10-15 miles of under 35-40 mph.

In addition to partial grill block.

I'm going to finish grill block tomorrow and see what this next fill up gets.

Sounds like your on your way already, :)

Nice job. You need to be careful with the short fills. They are usually inaccurate. When you're traveling that short a distance a small amount of fueling error( pump or shutoff) will result in large changes in FE.

Added a new trip to fuel log. Mpg went down a bit, but it's still in a good range. I had a lot of varied driving this tank, probably more city than a normal fill up. I'm going to run through this tank, and then probably go up to 37 psi in my tires and see what that does for about two fill ups. Then by then, I should be due for an oil change, and will try synthetic.

YES you should be using overdrive. If you've been doing a lot of highway driving without it being in overdrive you're probably losing a good few mpg's. The only time you shouldn't be running in overdrive is if you're driving at a speed where the transmission keeps shifting between 3rd and 4th, probably 30-35 mph, varies for each car. Also going into neutral will not hurt anything.

You're not very knowledgeable with autos are you? Dot worry, you'll learn a few things here and elsewhere.

I realized what it meant. Overdrive is just the highest gear. There is no way to turn it on or off. Which sucks, because at about 43 mph it shifts to the highest gear.

I might try shifting into neutral again.

It's entirely possible that I'm missing something here, but how is affording small fill ups any different than affording large fill ups? You're either paying $10 every 2 days or $40 every 8 days, no? :confused:

If by these small fill ups you're actually topping off your tank in small increments, first of all you always have a full tank so that adds weight to your car... you never get the benefit of having a light weight 1/8 tank :) Plus as I think someone mentioned, you'll get a lot more accuracy by calculating against 300 miles on the odometer vs. 30 miles.

With an 5MT ZX2 40 MPG is probably acheivable, but it might be really tough with an AT. Good luck to you though, interested in seeing some numbers from your car.

Yeah. I realized the flaw in that logic. I've been filling it up now. After driving an explorer when it cost 60-70 to fill up, it was hard to get over that. But when its only 32 dollars to fill back up from E, it doesn't make me cringe.

Yeah, I think the auto is going to hold me back. I drive with an extremely light foot, and I feel like I'm driving it as efficient as I can. Although, with no scan guage it's hard to say.

haha, okay... just wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy :)

Yeah, a light foot is your best friend in an AT. Also, coast as far as possible up to red lights... not only does it allow you to possibly keep your momentum for the green, but your car may also go into DFCO (Deceleration Fuel Cut Off) as you decelerate. The car's momentum turns the engine and shuts off injectors, utilizing no gas, as long as your foot's off the gas and your RPMs are slightly above idle speed. But the two question marks regarding whether or not your 98 ZX2 utilizes DFCO due to the earlier model of 98 and the automatic transmission.

I figured out the DFCO point in my 5MT by getting up to 1500 or so RPM and coasting back down in gear. When the injectors come back to life, the tach blips back up a hair, like 10-20 rpm and also you can feel a very subtle 'hickup' as the engine comes back to life. You may or may not be able to try the same experiment in a parking lot, but in my 07 5MT which I'm positive has DFCO, it was really really hard to pick up on the cut off point where it comes back to life at 1080-1100 RPM, so this trick may not work in all cars. I'm a beginner with the concept of DFCO, so you may need to research this further for your car unless someone else can chime in.

So bottom line, I'll shut up now... light right foot and coast as far as possible... let the other jerks on the road speed around you and idle at the red light :rolleyes:

Also on a different subject, something needs to be said as far as you being 16 and on this site. I commend you highly for having the discipline to drive like this... took me 8 years of driving to 'see the light' and become a more responsible driver, so kudos to you!

There should be a way to disable overdrive. Either in the shifter pattern or a lockout button/switch that is on or near the shifter. If the shifter pattern is P R N (D) D L, then "D" is regular drive, without overdrive. If it goes (D) 3 2 1, then "3" is what you want.


Jandree22, my 20 year old car has fuel cut on decel, so I would hope his car of half that age would have that feature too.

31.93 MPG!

Had to fillup today at 202.3 miles because I wouldn't have enough for the weekend and gas prices are higher a few miles away so I figured it'd be going up home soon.

Had a couple of really good neutral coast and a few engine off coast stops. Also drove a bit lighter than I had been.

Putting my tires up to 40 psi today so this next tank will have that factored in.

Edit. Our compressor sucks and wouldnt go up over 40 psi, so I couldn't even put my tires to 35.

Tire guage's suck. I'm too cheap to buy a 12 dollar digital one, but the stick ones are so screwy. It would read 32, 35, 35, 32 etc.

Try to find a dial gauge. I dont care for digital ones.

Took back stick gauge and spent 2 dollars more for a dial guage. Tires are now at 40 psi. It's definitely much sharper turning fast.

Bike pumps work great for inflating tires too they need something like 60 psig. Just need to pump more times for a car than a bike (more volume for the car but less pressure).

32.41 Up .5 mpg

Only real change was 40 psi in tires.

I had a lot of short trips though, which probably killed my mpg. I was really aiming for 33 mpg. Hopefully this warm weather will help out a bit.

I can hardly believe it myself, but I just hit 35.74 mpg.

Something like 80-90 percent highway driving. Of which I, but maybe one small trip, never went over 55 mph.

I probably would've had an even better tank had my radiator not had a small leak that required using Bars Leak and leaving my car idle for a bit. My dad also found it necessary to rev the engine up while it was idling too. It was probably a 10 minute ordeal.

I'm not sure how easy this tank will be to replicate and improve on. Maybe once I don't have 6 and 3 mile trips everyday for school.

That's great. How much coasting in neutral did you do? If none, perhaps that's all you need to hit 40 mpg!

The first 100 miles had maybe 3-5 miles of neutral coasting. maybe. I really didn't do it all that much.

I feel like I can really hit 40 mpg now.

I haven't got a single clue how I just hit 38.94.

Different gas station maybe? But even the needle was in a relative location to amount of fuel used based on previous tanks.

I didn't even keep it under 55 but for probably 60 miles. Went 60 for atleast 40-50 miles. Would having drove for 2 1/2 hours straight affect that?

Even got stuck in mud but that was only 2 minutes.

Any ideas how this happened?

Looks like you just finished your first tank with summer grade gasoline in it. My last 4 tanks with similar driving styles going mostly to and from work were aprox. 35, 35, 37, 37.

Some updates.

I've been trying 60 mph. Last tank, although a bit short, showed no real difference even had ac on during acceleration as some people here seem to think it has less drain then.

Trying again this tank, but with more neutral shifting.

I've been considering putting in a gallon or two of e85 once the full tank has room for it. Would it mix in enough to not matter as far as being safe for my engine? Only reason I want to do this is the fact that e85 is 2.99 while reg gas is between 3.95 and 4.10. So having two gallons mixed in with the tank would save two dollars or so, which would take me back to around 20 dollar average for 200 miles. Just an idea.

I think I'm going to seal off grill block a bit better soon too. Just need to get some clear silicone.

Also, oil is 5w20. Ford dealership seems to be using that now.

I'm fairly happy with what I've been getting. May average was 35.7 mpg. 10 mpg over epa combined.

Going above 10% ethanol risks damage to your car, unless it is made to burn e85. Also, ethanol is not an efficient fuel, so you'll probably get a 25% reduction in FE in percentage of ethanol volume.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...anol_ov1_1.htm

The more than 10percent is what i wanted to know. thanks much.

That's not necessarily true. MN is going to E20 soon. Brazil has had E20 for a long time. I've seen and have seen others get increase in FE with mixtures of E15. Here's a thread on it also check out this page.

You'll be fine with the a couple of gallons of E85 but if the mixture gets over E50 the mileage does start to drop pretty quickly.

I'm not sure at what point any given manufacturer says damage might occur. However, most say 10% is safe on standard EFI, and no more. Flex-fuel vehicles are designed to use 15%.

As for efficiency, the EPA and Consumer Reports agree, Ethanol sucks FE, as compared to gas. No major study that I know of says otherwise. No scientist alive claims that gas has less usable energy than ethanol, or that ethanol is superior in energy storage and/or release.

As for what people on threads say, there are people who say they are running their cars on water, orange juice or coffee. I really don't have much confindence in what they say, for scientific reasons.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol

Get a scanguageII. $160. installed and set up mine in under 3 mins. it tracks so many things including MPGs.

*Sigh* Your avatar shows you have a bias against ethanol. As stated above MN (will) and Brazil both run mixtures of over E10 without damaging engines. Here's a link for a EPA approved conversion kit for ethanol for non FFV. Here's another for a pilot program from the KS that some cars get better mileage with blends of E20 or E30. I have found this also to be true.

The wilki page listed above in the previous post I found to be pretty accurate along with these links. I agree that you get less mileage with a non modified car on E85 but some cars will get better mileage with ethanol at varying blends. Like most thing related to the FE game it's something to experiment with and make your own risk accessment.

Realized last night any real gains are going to me made by aerodynamics.

Just made some cardboard rear wheel covers, spray painted black kinda, should be putting them on tomorrow if I get tape. This tank only has 50 highway miles on it. So these should show some gain this tank, if they do help, which i see no reason they shouldn't.

mhmitszach was not asking if some cars on the planet were able to burn more than 10% ethanol, so the comment is irrelevant. He owns a 90's Ford, and Ford would have voided his warranty if it was still covered.

As for Brazil, they have modified engines so they are "able to burn" (if you will read the article) that type of fuel. Stations in MN can sell gas with more than 10%, since there are cars designed to burn it. However, MN has not passed legislation to increase the percentage past 10% until the year 2013.

In addition, he asked about saving money. He can't save money if he 1) spends more money to buy the more expensive fuel and 2) burns it up faster than regular gas.

From the article:
And..

I really need to build an mpguino.

This tank is continuing my test of driving 60, using minimal ac/or windows down(it was 92 and muggy and then rainy today!), but still doing everything else the same plus the addition of as much neutral off coasting as possible. Probably up to at least 15 miles of 240 with the car off.

So today, for the second time ever ,while driving 60 and then 65 the 20 miles before, I reached half tank at 200 miles. Last time I did this I had a 39mpg tank.

Going to drive this tank a bit more and fill up soon.

I'm starting to think my car is better at 60 or 65 verses 55.

Also, used a gps to check speedometer. up to 45 mph is spot on. 55 reads two over. 60 reads two over. So when I used to drive 55. I was going 57.

What state do you live in? The warmer weather should help. I live in Wisconsin, and have yet to use the A/C or drive with the windows down, although it has been tempting.