Terrible mpg's = new interest in old ideas.

[Tygen1]

Looks like we got a competition going At least in my mind. My last tank shot me ahead of your average, I don't expect the next tank to do as well because it is supposed to get bitter cold here this week.
I'm definatly interested in how the partial under tray works out....and the rear wheel well covers. COZX2 credits his Grill Block and rear fender skirts to a 11mpg improvement. Although I think he is assuming some engine on coasting benefit from the aero mods. So I don't think we will see this type of benefit. He also did two under trays. One under the bumper and the second extending to the back of the motor. He used a plastic sheet from home depot. The type the use on bathroom walls. He claims the extending it any further had a negative effect on the wake pressure behind the car. He also used 4 tire spats and had his lip spoiler to within 2" of the ground.

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Looks like we got a competition going At least in my mind. My last tank shot me ahead of your average, I don't expect the next tank to do as well because it is supposed to get bitter cold here this week.
I'm definatly interested in how the partial under tray works out....and the rear wheel well covers. COZX2 credits his Grill Block and rear fender skirts to a 11mpg improvement. Although I think he is assuming some engine on coasting benefit from the aero mods. So I don't think we will see this type of benefit. He also did two under trays. One under the bumper and the second extending to the back of the motor. He used a plastic sheet from home depot. The type the use on bathroom walls. He claims the extending it any further had a negative effect on the wake pressure behind the car. He also used 4 tire spats and had his lip spoiler to within 2" of the ground.

I couldn't quite figure out the tire spats or what exactly they were.

I was going to do a bit more of a under tray than that. Bumper to front wheels. I still may. But it just didn't seem to important. We'll see if insomnia kicks in later though.

I really want to do wheel well covers but I want to wait at least a tank with improved grill block and under tray. Good thing is I have a scanguage. My goal is to get the throttle position down one. 16=0. It's usually between 21-23 highway. 23/24 is where it peaks up to regain speed in cruise. So keep it away from 24 and less 23.

EDIT. Insomnia kicked in. I put more carboard from bumper to front wheel. One side has way more tape because there was more of a gap to stock plastic guards.

[mhmitszach]

Well first trip with under tray only showed a little as winds are at least 20 mph out today. I need to tape it better. There is tape blowing under my car.

But, it did keep my water temp much higher. It actually peaked at 217. But kept steady around 206. Which is operating temperature in the summer. It even stayed that high with heat full blast.

Before I was lucky if it hit 180 and with any heat on it would drop to 130.

Tygen. Do you know what acceptable temperature ranges for the zx2 are?

[Tygen1]

Sounds like your under tray is working, at least to keep your temps up. I think we got a team going here. You try some mods, I'll try others. That way we can eliminate the bad ones and find the good ones faster
I wouldn't go any hotter than 225, it can take more, but you risk getting hot spots that could cause trouble. You gotta realllly over heat it to warp the head. I would try this under tray on my car right now, but without the scangauge, I don't want to take a chance. So I'm relying on you to gather data
Here's a couple pics of the begining of the manual shifter. The four switchs are, the 4PST switch is to switch from auto to manual, the 3PDT is 1st to 2nd, the DPDT is 2nd to 3rd, the SPDT is 3rd to 4th. The extra switch pictured is for the Torque converter lock up, which I am not hooking up yet, one thing at a time. I kinda messed up the switch placement, I'll go back later, after it's working, and get that all straightened out and looking nice. Besides, I gotta make sure it's ergonomic and easy to use before I obsess over looks. Of course the Led's are to indicate which gear you are in. I'll do a full write up in the Sucess Stories, assuming it is successfull

[Christ]

I'm liking this little project.

I remember a picture of a car that my grandmother had, long before I was born... it had pushbutton automatic tranny... gear selection was via buttons on the dash. I'll have to ask my dad what car it was though. (I first saw it on a KodaChrome, then 8mm... if that's any clue as to how old it was...)

I believe my Gram was born in 1930-ish... so around '45, she'd have been driving age.. she'd have gotten her first "new" car around the 60's sometime. To put it into perspective.

I fully intend to check up on this manu-matic project of yours, so that maybe I'll get around to doing something similar myself.

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Sounds like your under tray is working, at least to keep your temps up. I think we got a team going here. You try some mods, I'll try others. That way we can eliminate the bad ones and find the good ones faster
I wouldn't go any hotter than 225, it can take more, but you risk getting hot spots that could cause trouble. You gotta realllly over heat it to warp the head. I would try this under tray on my car right now, but without the scangauge, I don't want to take a chance. So I'm relying on you to gather data
Here's a couple pics of the begining of the manual shifter. The four switchs are, the 4PST switch is to switch from auto to manual, the 3PDT is 1st to 2nd, the DPDT is 2nd to 3rd, the SPDT is 3rd to 4th. The extra switch pictured is for the Torque converter lock up, which I am not hooking up yet, one thing at a time. I kinda messed up the switch placement, I'll go back later, after it's working, and get that all straightened out and looking nice. Besides, I gotta make sure it's ergonomic and easy to use before I obsess over looks. Of course the Led's are to indicate which gear you are in. I'll do a full write up in the Sucess Stories, assuming it is successfull

Well I can't hardly say if it worked for mpgs. Trip back was about negative 5f. So I can't really expect the engine to be running very easily. Bit of wind too. Trip back was only 31.5 mpg. Usually can net at least 34-35.

Needs more tape too. Concern is bumper sloping to bottom of stock radiator air dam or to the bottom of radiator so that stock radiator air dam still hangs down?

That looks way nice. I'm anxious to hear how it works out!

[Tygen1]

Have you considered a HAI? To keep you intake temps up to minimize the losses? The ZX2 is a CAI from the factory so I'm sure your IAT is just as cold as the outside air.
It's bitter cold here today, so I'm expecting this tank will not be as good as the last.

[mhmitszach]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Have you considered a HAI? To keep you intake temps up to minimize the losses? The ZX2 is a CAI from the factory so I'm sure your IAT is just as cold as the outside air.
It's bitter cold here today, so I'm expecting this tank will not be as good as the last.

?

Just searched teamzx2 an nobody really has said anything about it. I don't think i want to try that one though.

Searching came up with this though.

"14) remove your rear spoiler.. ( mm&ff did a test and it showed almost a 2 mpg increase on the sn95 body mustangs) "

Official Fuel Efficiency Thread! - TeamZX2.com

Also. I'm not sure about under tray from bumper to radiator. Should it slope down to the bottom of the stock air "dam" on radiator or stay flat so that it still hangs down?

[Tygen1]

I never heard of a Hot Air Intake until I came to EcoModder. Check your IAT reading to see what your air temp is. If you can rig up a tube to collet air from around your exhaust you can get you intake air temps up to summer time levels so you can use less fuel. Don't go to hot though
There is a nice round tube protuding from the bottom of our air filter housing. Just turn the housing sideways and route a flexable dryer vent type hose to it. Block off the one going into the fender and you got hot air.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

?

Just searched teamzx2 an nobody really has said anything about it. I don't think i want to try that one though.

Searching came up with this though.

"14) remove your rear spoiler.. ( mm&ff did a test and it showed almost a 2 mpg increase on the sn95 body mustangs) "

Official Fuel Efficiency Thread! - TeamZX2.com

Also. I'm not sure about under tray from bumper to radiator. Should it slope down to the bottom of the stock air "dam" on radiator or stay flat so that it still hangs down?

Remove the stock dam/lip/underspoiler thingy... it's just going to present frontal area at this point. If you've installed a partial undertray, you'll be compromising the smoother airflow by leaving it there.

Originally Posted by Tygen1

I never heard of a Hot Air Intake until I came to EcoModder. Check your IAT reading to see what your air temp is. If you can rig up a tube to collet air from around your exhaust you can get you intake air temps up to summer time levels so you can use less fuel. Don't go to hot though
There is a nice round tube protuding from the bottom of our air filter housing. Just turn the housing sideways and route a flexable dryer vent type hose to it. Block off the one going into the fender and you got hot air.

This is where you need to be careful. I've noticed mention of removing the knock sensor... if you remove the knock sensor, you really need to monitor knock yourself, especially when using a HAI or WAI. The car is tuned to use a CAI from the OEM, so adding hotter air that what it would see even in the summer might cause an issue with knocking, especially if you already had an issue before removing the knock sensor.

BTW - The main reason to bypass the knock sensor is that it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.. on just about any car. The knock sensor picks up inert vibrations in the metal of the engine, and translates it into pinging/detonation, so it tells the computer to draw back the timing. Some engines inherently vibrate at "knock-level" frequencies when operating at high speed, so the knock sensor will tell the ECU to pull timing even if you're not knocking.

You can test this by using high-test (102 octane) fuel, and reinstalling your knock sensor w/ a signal feed. You'll notice on the signal feed that even at 102 octane, you're still pulling timing out. Special ECU tuning can avoid this, but it costs money, and is never worth it for a stock vehicle. Unless you're running custom fuel/spark management, it's just a drain on your pocket that you could have spent on something worthwhile.