Noob, where can I start, please?
 

Hi all, my first post. I'm a Dad of 4 children, and we are like most of us, struggling to keep up with the rising prices of fuel. To carry the 6 of us, my wife and I, bought a Nissan Serena, a 94 2L model, the top one on this page

Nissan Serena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Its a thirsty vehicle, it has an SR20 engine. I have removed the spare wheel and I check the tires regularly. The engine is mounted beneath the front seeds, and the radiator upfront, has 2 electric fans and an engine fan beneath the engine. It has no top, vents above the bonnet, only slots at the front of the radiator. The air intake pipe snakes down with 2 90deg bents and a diagonal piece down from above the radiator to the front axle area. A small shovel shaped scoop, directs air from beneath the front of the car, up towards the engine. Obviously, this car has a tough time keeping cool. What can be done? Could you provide ideas, and if possible, link me to the right Forum and any discussions in previous threads. I normally build Loudspeaker cabs as a hobby, I do car maintenance, and my level of skill, I've done clutch changes on front wheel drive vehicles, and used to run my diesel with a veg oil mix. I'm keen to learn.

Thanks Mike:)

Hello mikee55. Welcome to the site.

By far, the best and cheapest thing you can do is look through our 100+ hypermiling tips. These can fairly easily get you to 20% above what your vehicle is rated for. If you want to start looking into mods, I suggest you check out our 50+ efficiency mods list.

Hi Mike - I'd strongly suggest going for fuel economy instrumentation as your first step (well second step, after browsing the links Tim posted).

Since you're driving the petrol engine, you could likely use a MPGuino in your car, and it would help you to refine your driving technique in real time, as well as evaluate the effect of mods you may do.

Welcome to EM!

cheers
Darin

Welcome from me as well.
Knowing where you are to begin with is probably the most important step so giving the family transport a very thorough going over is the best time investment you can make.

From there check the usual things (wheel alignment , brakes dragging etc) along with the suggestions from the links mentioned above.

The fuel consumption gauges are well worth their money too. They cost to install but you can actually use them to save as well.

Depending on how far you want to go a rolling road dynamometer session is also a worthwhile investment.
They can pinpoint specifics like over rich fuel mixtures with a competent operator.

Cheers , Pete.