Torque App Questions
 

How many of you use the Torque app? If you use plugins for the APP what plugin do you use? What information do you have displayed? I have MPG, trip MPG, total MPG, Trip speed, and Fuel consumption. How do I find the volumetric efficiency for a 2000 accord, googling 2000 accord volumetric efficiency didn't give any results

If I wanted to check for DFCO, what sensory would I have Torque display?

Injector pulse width if available, fuel gallons per hour, intake temp, coolant temp, load, spark advance, vacuum.

Why coolant and intake temp?

These are important to watch when using a grill block. If you see the coolant temp rise into the 215 F range and then suddenly drop down, you know the radiator isn't cooling well enough, and then the fans kick on.

Same with the intake temps. Too much grill blocking can make the intake air too warm, which might retard engine timing or if severe enough, cause the engine to knock.

I probably have 80 gauges that I monitor on a 7" tablet. This is because my car is a plug-in, so I have 12 battery voltages and resistances to look at, along with other EV specific stuff.

My main page on all cars is

MPG instant, Coolant temp, Timing Advance
MPG Cumulative,Intake Temp, Engine Load

For a total beginner to Hypermiling, as I am, can you explain how you make the most use out of monitoring the Timing Advance and Engine Load?

A gasoline engine is most efficient when it runs around 80% engine load, and very inefficient at low loads. I shoot for 85% engine load when I accelerate, but the truth is that engine load isn't very useful for steady cruising because it doesn't take that much power to maintain speed.

This is the reason why the pulse and glide technique is fuel efficient. The engine is run at high load briefly, and then the car is coasted until it's time for another speed boost.

Timing advance isn't too useful either except that it can be an indicator of engine warmup (timing is retarded when the engine is cold), intake temperature (too hot and the timing retards), acceleration (timing retards during higher engine loads), and fuel grade. My Acura specifies 91 octane, but can run on regular 87. This comes at a cost of slightly retarded timing. Fuel economy generally improves with more advanced timing, so everything is a balancing act.

As a beginner, the main thing to focus on is avoidance of using the brakes. This means anticipating what traffic will do, looking down the road to see what traffic lights are doing, etc. Usually this also means leaving a larger gap ahead of you, so that you have time to coast or change lanes.

Braking is energy wasted. Other details such as engine load are very minor compared to what is lost due to unnecessary braking.

You have already read through this link, right?

Brakes have always been my main method of economy driving. I pride myself in seldom needing to use them (and seldom needing to replace them). Since signing up here I have been intrigued by all the other tips and methods employed.

I use it for three month now. What a great app!
I display Km per liter, Liters/100km, air intake temp,coolant temp, battery voltage, fuel gauge % and fuel trip cost.

This is how my dashboard looks like. Since I drive a diesel, i am using fuel rail pressure to check if DFCO is active or not. Engine revs and load to be in sweet spot regarding torque and consumption, and turbo boost pressure to avoid driving with load in too low revs ( i do not want to clog it.) I use different themes for day and night driving.
Edit: I use my 3.5" smartphone, so the dials are a bit crammed.

I use it on an electric motorcycle, great app.

while talking about this app...
Are you able to use the fuel economy plugin while using the realtime status. It seems it stops recording my mpg infos when return to realtime status display...
It would be nice to use both.

Maybe mine is just a bit busy...

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/v...1-21-57-45.png

I always thought that enabling plugin kind of restarts whole app. But I am not sure about it. What advantage does the plugin have against regular gauges?

Hey Seifrob!
The good thing about the plugin is, it records everything for you. So afterward it's easier to analyse what you did. It gives you a map of where you've been with indication (color) about places where you used more fuel. Plus, it place everything in order so you can keep track of your deplacement by date...

I don't thrust the MPG indicator of Torque, I think it's a little optimistic... Not sure it's accurate. The other infos seems alright.

I may build a consumption indicator with a raspberry pi....

Anyone know if logging with the app logs the Average MPG, and how to recover it? Torque crashed on a long trip, and I lost the average MPG data. Was wondering if anyone knew hot to recover it?

Hallo back! Now I am little confused as what you described Torque does for me without any additional plugins (I have just standards - realtime, map view, code check, adaptor status etc that cane with the app. Then I made my dash and then set logging in Settings, DataLogging and Upload menu. Back home I use either map view, or export to Google Earth. In the evening I will try to write more, from my desktop PC.
MPG info can be calibrated. Take full tank, reset torque trip, drive with torque on. The further the better. Refill at the same pump, calculate your MPG, and compare to the average MPG reported by Torque. Then divide these two numbers, you should get number around 1. Enter this as MPG trim adjustment in Vehicle profile. Again, more hopefully in the evening.

I was driving and the app was showing 26 mpg average. Then the app crashed, when it reloaded it was now showing 18 mpg average. I wanted to know if there was a way to get the original number back

I think there is not. Trip MPG is calculated from distance travelled and fuel used, so after restart you get a new current trip MPG. But I nay be wrong.

It wasn't the trip mpg though, but the average mpg which should be long term

The more screens you have the slower the data is acquired.

I don't ask much from mine. Instant and Average MPG, intake vacuum, coolant temp, O2 voltage (for lean burn indication). The MPG readings are pretty significantly different from what the car itself reports, I think due to the app not understanding the hybrid Civic properly. I may not have configured the app correctly but it at least keeps me up to date on trends, which is enough for behavior modification.

Just tried a few for the first time today, but most of them did not work:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1624918221

Hmmm I never have used that app. I have a gauge that plugs into the OBD2 port. Hopefully someone replies for you.

The most common culprit is a bad obd2 adapter. Next place to look is which protocol is being used.

Torque and kw are calculated and will only show when accelerating IF you have vehicle information filled in the vehicle profile.

Do you know how I can find out which protocol I should choose?

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1625001908

You should use automatic, unless you believe something isn't working properly. Also and FYI, not all data points will be supported by your ECU.

Alright, thank you. That's the list the Torque pro app can read from my ECU.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1625338694

I did test some new gauges, now at least most of them work. For some of them I don't even know what they mean.

My biggest hope was that the gauges were more accurate than what my "vehicle information display" shows. For example the "remaining fuel (percentage)" and "remaining distance left (kilometers)"

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1625478083

But unfortunately they're not. If it shows "0 kilometers left", there are still 7 liters in the fuel tank, which means I can easily drive another 100 kilometers.

Those are always wrong for me also, I don't use them. I think it is because they are calculated by the app and not read from the ECU.

To bad, that would have been so nice to have a reliable number how empty my fuel tank is.

Anyway so these two (green ones) are the only helpful ones when hypermiling right?

I mean I can observe them and keep them low or I can set a maximum value, so that the app will give a warning signal when putting too much pressure on the gas pedal right?

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1625518231

It's possible to create a custom PIDs which can display the real air fuel ratio, if you don't have access to that number already. Generally it's best to accelerate just shy of fuel enrichment.

EDIT: In most vehicles, the fuel remaining in tank is not pulled from a sensor, but is instead an estimate based on your fuel economy (estimated) subtracted from the last time you reset the tank tracker to full.

How accurate is the torque app? Im running the free version just to check trip average and instant fuel consumptions.

So i usually coast in neutral with engine on down hills and to a traffic stop/light. the instant fuel consumption skyrockets but the average barely goes up, however yesterday on my trip home from work, i decided to coast in gear down hills, the instant fuel consumption went up but nowhere near as high as usual however the average went up faster than normal and i got my best average consumption while using the app. I have read that on modern fuel injection engines, the injectors shut off when coasting in gear, could this be the reason, i use more fuel coasting in neutral than i do when in gear.

The app is just reading sensor data from the bus. It is as accurate as those sensors are, BUT you can apply external translation formulae in the PID. You could define fuel flow as volts if you wished.

CALI required the injectors to not fire on engine on coast in 2000 and apparently everyone copied that for 50 state compliance