vaccum road results

[phh]

Originally Posted by star_deceiver

I try to keep the highest vacuum possible at speed. This becomes difficult with hills/mountains, sharp corners, ect.


Going up hills... define hills, here we have 8-10% grades... keep your speed constant. I find dropping a gear to hold your speed nets the same results as bogging down in a higher gear with your foot to the floor and slowing down necessitating a downshift anyways and using more throttle to regain the speed of traffic!

I see add-on gauges and instruments in your picture. What are they and what are their functions?

[gone-ot]

...the little round meter, just above the air-vent, is an Auto Meter 9100 ecometer™.

...I also have a 2009 Vibe and, for awhile, also used an Auto Meter before I moved up to the ScanGuageII™

[star_deceiver]

And behind the Ecometer Ecometer from Auto Meter is my Sirius Satelite radio.

[D.O.G.]

Originally Posted by nemo

Never having used a vacuum gauge for anything other than diagnostics. I would like to hear from someone that is using one and what process they are using.

Highest vacuum in the highest gear possible? Keep a constant vacuum up hill? Are you only concerned with drops in pressure? What about shift points in an automatic?

I use a vacuum gauge tapped into the distributor vacuum advance line.

It reads zero vacuum at idle, slowly rising with gentle throttle opening up to 95kph or so, then falls again as the throttle is opened further.
I'm not sure that this is a better indication of economical driving than the "normal" connection but it works well for me. I drive to maintain the highest reading in top gear that the terrain allows.
Of coures this only works on older models that have vacuum advance.

[Joenavy85]

my Jeep Liberty is the same way, i leave the overdrive off until i'm up to about 50 then turn it on, if i don't do that the TC locks around 40-45 and bogs down the engine. my Big Beige Brick gets it's best mileage between 65 and 70