Success comes in increments....
 

I have had to do some driving my minivan this week. Was a mixed bag of 50% 4 lane 40% two lane a bit of in town and some SAG duty behind a bicycle 20 miles. 50% was relatively unloaded and half was with two people 3 big dogs 5 cats, guns and food for our trip to the farm.

I have used information posted here and good sense about driving habits. I am not going to do the pulse and glide with my automatic, it inevitably likes to choose the next lower gear when shifted back to drive.

My mini van is pretty stock. I went around and aired up my tires. 3 were at 30 and one 28. I have a rating of 44 on the side walls and went to 42 as a trial last week. I took out the grill and made a carbon fiber cover for it. I took off the rear mud guards (behind the rear wheels and moved them to in front of the front wheels. They are about 2/3rds as wide as the tires but better than none.

A week ago somehow the battery got run down after some 200 miles or so. The trip odo reset. I estimated low and got 21 mpg. Today I filled up again and ended up with 24.9 on the third click. 25.8 on the first click.

I always round to three significant digits. I figure that is accurate enough to land on the moon and this is not rocket science. None of the miles are straight highway miles yet.

I bought this car when it had about 70,000 miles on it for 5400. Hey it is a ford and that is just broke in.

My motor is not new. My transmission is not new. Nothing is new. I have to admit I looked from a distance at a blue geo metro that did not have that much rust but was not for sale. :) I don't think that I could pay for something like that with fuel savings once I figured in Insurance and repairs. Seems like most repairs happen in the middle of winter when I least motivated to change a starter or do an oil change.

Still 25mpg seems like a success at this point considering the load and numerous ridges that I must climb to get home. Yeah no trailer this week.

In the 7 years that I have owned this car I have not gotten this good of mileage. Next tank might lower or higher.

Varn, 25 mpg i call that success too, im stuck with a old automatic which didn't get great efficiency to start with but that just makes it easier to get gains.

I just thought id comment on the pulse and glide in the automatic, i do this technique with my auto, i found that if im on the freeway and i shift back into drive at high speed without having rev'd up the engine enough to match drive shaft speed the car will down shift and rev really high.
You might try when in idle and traveling at speed to rev the engine a bit higher than it would be if it was in drive then shift it into drive, you might find that the engine just shifts in with no issue like mine does now.
Also you could consider moving to a manumatic which lets you set the gear, this is a mod im looking at myself at the moment.

well happy ecomodding, also if you haven't come by the wiki yet its well worth a look.

thanks for the advice on shifting. We have a lot of steep hills that are fairly short. At 55 I coast down them in gear at about 1500.

As far as getting a new vehicle. Out of the question at this point. My car has devalued to nothing and I don't have the 10,000 or more to save 500 dollars a year in gas if that and having to spend 500 more a year in insurance with collision. Numbers don't add up.

...true, but FAILURE always seems to come "...all at once!"

Gee, I wonder why? :rolleyes: Yes, it's a very effective way to ruin an automatic transmission. You might save a few bucks on gas, only to discover it'll cost you a small fortune to rebuild the tranny.

I've been saying this here for a while now and it usually meets with an argument. Nothing like experiencing transmission failure firsthand to fully understand the point.

Thymeclock, i agree im likely reducing my transmission life significantly but my car is on its way out anyway so i dont mind and hey if the transmission dies then i can get a manual :). After shifting into neutral and back to drive while moving at speed for probably 4 months now i haven't yet had any issues.

Varn, sorry i should have been clearer, when i wrote it might be worth moving to a manumatic i wasn't referring to buying a new car i was suggesting modifying your automatic to a manumatic there are a few threads about this topic, they dont have very good instructions though but i am about to give this modification a go myself soon and ill be posting a how to if it works.

You have been doing this for 4 months! Your car is on the way out, hmmm.... I wonder why. Thanks for the advice but I will stick to normal driving and keep my car running another 6-8 years, I hope.

Checked my mileage tonight. Got 25.5 for 190 miles.
Was 150 miles of continuous running and various shorter miles some on non paved roads. Max speed was 70 with an average closer to 60.

Not bad for an old minivan.

"and half was with two people 3 big dogs 5 cats, guns and food for our trip to the farm."

If you lightened the load a bit it would help. Send the guns to ....:D

25 ain't bad for any mini-van. Good job.

Browning, from my cold dead hands:). Any relation to John Browning?

I have an improved 3 tank average, 25.6. My last fill was over 26.7 No dogs, cats, food and only a few guns.

Nice work Varn. Those are good numbers out of the beast. Especially with the loads and equipment you're working with. 75% improvement and still on the rise.
:turtle:

Yeah I get the turtle icon. Accelerating at 1500 in this vehicle is sluggish and it can take half a mile to get to 55.

My fill-ups have been 10-20% commuting, 75% highway and 10% in cities with traffic lights.

I am next going to pump my tires to 44, the max and work on my front grill block.

I have done some informal air flow testing. Hand out the window feeling the wind and it appears that there isn't much laminar flow on the roof a foot or two behind the windshield. Next step will be to use my tufted wand on the hood and windshield.

My windshield has a rather large rubber seal that appears to trip the flow. The wipers are behind a plastic nacelle that has a lip on it giving some deflection.

"Any relation to John Browning?"

Only in our choice of play things!

Casey's gas
 

I filled up last time at Casey's gas in Iowa and this fill up was a rather weak 22 mpg. Driving was similar local driving and commuting. I hope it is not a trend as I had 3 fills all over 25 mpg. I generally avoid Casey's after they raised gas price a dollar on the afternoon of 9-11-2001. Definitely gouging.

I am meeting with some success. I have an ultragauge system installed. Today I drove home with my stuff. Left the trailer. I reset the gauge when I left. My gauge read 29.1mpg when I turned off of the the 4 lane 180 miles later.

I have my grill block in place and my molded front wheel skirts. About half of this tank was driven without any aero aids as I was working on my grill cover and carbon front wheel guards. With the grill block out and full air being admitted I have seen 210 as the thermostat opened. The stock temp gauge is pretty useless as it just stays in the middle.

here is my mini van as it looks today, with fresh spay paint from yesterday. http://veloliner.com/minivan/camocarbonfrontend.JPG
My front wheel skirts are there but are difficult to see unless you look at the higher resolution image.