Terrible mpg's = new interest in old ideas.

[mhmitszach]

To Christ- I honestly don't know. I'm not to keen on the mechanics of vehicles and such.

So I finally got my coroplast and made decently temp wheel well covers for almost free. Coroplast is pretty much free but i'm going to give a bit of money in a while. Duct tape was ~$3 dollars( which I've been using for my car a lot and still have a lot left). So this should pay for itself pretty quickly!

Just cut the coroplast a bit bigger than the actual well and held in front of propane space heater to bend. Passenger side is a bit too curved out but oh well. Then tried to use as few continuous pieces of duct tape as possible so that it'd look nicer.

[Christ]

Doesn't look half bad!

Could be a great time to learn how to lay fiberglass LOL.

WE passed on that escort btw - rusted upper strut mounts.

[Tygen1]

Looks good Mhmitszach! Great start and I can't wait to see the result. Might want to consider deleting your wing as well

[Tygen1]

Any updates? I'm currious to see much it has helped...

I've been trying some neutral coasting and it's working pretty well. 38mpg on my last tank and it's been the coldest yet this year, cant' wait till summer

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Any updates? I'm currious to see much it has helped...

I've been trying some neutral coasting and it's working pretty well. 38mpg on my last tank and it's been the coldest yet this year, cant' wait till summer

Haven't filled up yet. Will later this week. It'll probably be like 33 mpg.

Which isn't great, except for the fact that this has been the worst week of winter yet. It's been -20+ with the wind most of the week and everything is covered in snow and ice, which adds a lot of extra little bits of driving. (i.e. driving in ways that get you out of snow and avoid you from getting in it.)

So once weather isn't completely terrible, I should be getting 35 easy in the winter.

I'm having problems with snow building up between car and coroplast in the bottom rear though. The tape is hanging down there. It's like a pocket that snow forms in. Need to figure that out soon.

Yeah, I used to do neutral coasting but it never really seemed worth it. Not to mention it adds a lot to driving time if you really try to take advantage of neutral coasting to a stop. Also fuel cut off works until 45 mph. Plus now that my transmission is funky I'd rather not try.

[Tygen1]

No snow for me, yet, and the lowest temps we've seen is +7 F. So I feel warm compared to you
I've found a couple great places to coast on my commute, about 6 miles of combined coasting and just generally getting better at hypermilling has helped. I've also started to coast up to stoplights and such. I figured winter would kill my mpg's and didn't think gains were possible. This tank was almost 4 mpg better than the last tank and it was a little colder out.
I've never tried the fuel cut thing, without scangauge I would never know when to do it. But now that you say it only works above 45 mph, then maybe I'll try that too. I'm assuming you are refering to shifting from OverDrive to Drive to achieve fuel cut?

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

No snow for me, yet, and the lowest temps we've seen is +7 F. So I feel warm compared to you
I've found a couple great places to coast on my commute, about 6 miles of combined coasting and just generally getting better at hypermilling has helped. I've also started to coast up to stoplights and such. I figured winter would kill my mpg's and didn't think gains were possible. This tank was almost 4 mpg better than the last tank and it was a little colder out.
I've never tried the fuel cut thing, without scangauge I would never know when to do it. But now that you say it only works above 45 mph, then maybe I'll try that too. I'm assuming you are refering to shifting from OverDrive to Drive to achieve fuel cut?

No. Fuel cut off is automatic when you left of the gas. Shuts off once you get under 45 mph. But when you throw it in neutral fuel cut off does not engage. I've never really figured out which is better. Coast, throw in neutral under 45. Or just neutral the whole time. Probably no difference as you'd make up extra distance with neutral vs fuel cut off.

[mhmitszach]

Small update.

Finally had a break in the cold weather. 45 or so this weekend.

55 at 21/22 tps , which is 40-46 mpg (in this weather), where as in under 35 degrees it runs more 23-24 (36-40mpg).

Summer weather should pull it down to 20-21 tps. So 45-50 mpg highway.

Also February goal of using less than 2 tanks of fuel.

8th today and I only have 120 miles on first tank.

[Tygen1]

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

Small update.

Finally had a break in the cold weather. 45 or so this weekend.

55 at 21/22 tps , which is 40-46 mpg (in this weather), where as in under 35 degrees it runs more 23-24 (36-40mpg).

Summer weather should pull it down to 20-21 tps. So 45-50 mpg highway.

Also February goal of using less than 2 tanks of fuel.

8th today and I only have 120 miles on first tank.

Sounds like things are on the UP for you, that's great to hear. 40+ mpg in the winter in a ZX2 is truly great! Wish I had a Scangauge so we could compare. If you wouldn't mind, would you be able to post up your gph readings at idle and every 500rpm, up to 3000 rpm? I know that's very specific, but I've got some gph readings from another ZX2, so I'm interested to compare.
Anyhow, I've closed in on 38 mpg with the weather in the teens. So I've made pretty good progress, however I've been trying different stuff that hasn't worked as well so my mileage has suffered on the last few tanks, thus the need for instant mpg readouts... Scangauge is in the car budget for this year, so in about 3-4 mounths I ought to be able to order one. In the meantime, I had some money stored away in Paypal from selling some parts, so I ordered a block heater and two addhesive backed heating pads for the oil and trans pans to try and win back those wasted mpgs from the warm ups in these cold temps. That was the origination for your thread anyhow. I also ordered a fan controler so I could dial in higher running temps to gain some FE from that. I've read of another ZX2 that got some good gains from running between 210-225 degrees. That's what I'll shot for, not from the start, but I'll work up to it. I'll need to make an under tray for that to happen though.

So whats happening with the under tray and rear wheel skirts?

[mhmitszach]

Under try and rear wheel skirts are still hanging on with good ole duct tape. Driver side skirt need revised as there was a gap that snow was forming in. The tape probably needs replaced again as salt finds its way underneath it.

I can try to get gph but its all over the place. I will try to figure it out next time I drive and the weather isn't terrible out.

Also, I might be getting close to 40 mpg trips, but I've still got to drive 4 miles on a cold start two times a day , close to five days a week. Which is about .30 gallons for 8 miles. Terrible mpgs.