Rx7carl

I know, we're not the owners of the most economical of cars, but with gas prices being what they are this seems appropriate for the times.

Everything from the tech stuff, to simple ideas are welcome. And with our non computer controlled cars I think we have an advantage. And lets keep it reasonable ok?

Heres my quick ideas.
1- carry less junk in your car. Or none at all better still
2- A good wheel alignment and proper tire inflation
3- synthetic oil in the trans and diff.
4- wash and wax car (cleaner aero)
5- heavier spring in the vacuum secondaries if you still have them (this applies to Holleys as well).
6- run with the windows up (use the AC if you need it, its proven more efficient at highway speeds).
7- Keep the vacuum advance or reconnect it.
8- Tune up if you havent lately.

flight_of_pain

do you think the drag from the AC outweighs the drag from having the windows down?

9- stock tires instead of 10 in wide rears



isaac

peejay

This past weekend, I got 26.5mpg driving down to Columbus with five wheels (three loaded with tires) in the back, and then back up again with four wheels (fully populated) in the back.

I filled up to shut-off that morning at a certain fuel pump, drove 7 miles to my house, then embarked on my journey, and when I got back I went straight to the same station and pump and fileld to shut-off again. 10.479 gallons in 278 miles, average speed about 75mph.

My wheel alignment sucks and is variable (trashed ball joints and alignment set by eye), I was running 44psi in the front 185/70s and 28psi in the rear 205/60s, use ATF for the transmission, car is dirty from bugs and it doesn't make *that* much of a difference, i have no secondary spring at all, drove with the windows down and sunroof up the whole way, and I still can't get the spark plugs out after nearly 20,000 miles of having this car so I figure they'll be in there until the engine gets disassembled who-knows-when.

seanrot

iTrader: (2)

10- buy a civic and do all the above.

HeX

11- granny shift.
12- put the car in neutral or press the clutch in during a downhill.
13- opt for highway cruises rather than street cruising.
14- make someone pick you up for a change (like your girl).
15- don't drive so much.

peejay

Accelerate slightly downhill, back off a bit uphill. Keep your momentum.

The trick to getting good MPG is to drive decisively. No shifting slowly (wastes time getting up to speed, time spent driving slowly is time spent burning fuel with little to show for it) no early braking (reduced time spent moving at a good clip, see above), no excessive speed changing...

Mr_Rx7_Au

Just for trivia, what is the price around the states these days? Here in Australia, currently unleaded is between 88cents - $1 a litre....and premium is around $1.10 a litre...not sure the conversion of litres to galleons but I'm pretty sure there are a few litres to 1 galleon.

peejay

3.78 liters per US gallon (4.5ish liters to the Imperial gallon)

Generally where I am it is right about $2USD per gallon. That's right about 53 cents per liter. I don't know the USD-AUD conversion rate but I don't think it's near 2:1, is it? In any event, you may call the rest of my fellow countrymen a load of sniveling whiners.

More conversionage: 26.5mpg is 11.22 km/l, or almost 9 l/100km.

edit: xe.com says 53 cents USD = 76 cents AUD. So flame away! I'll even help.

Mr_Rx7_Au

1 galleon is 3.7 litres... my rx7 tank is 63litres.... so about 17 galleons.... so a full tank fill up over there is about

There (Usa)= 17 * 2 = $34
here (Aus) = 63 * 0.90= $56

Damn war. Damn Aus economy being bad. Damn underpopulated Country!

Oh, and don't even get me started on Premium high octane!!

Illswyn

Yeah peejay, it's something funny about us. We complain about a 5 cent increase in gas, but nobody bats an eye when they pay $1 for a liter of WATER.

If you haven't guessed by now...I am FURIOUS over this fact.

My girlfriend works at a natural organic health food store (read: high priced tasteless grocery store) and they have water there that costs almost $2 for a liter. It's the enhanced stuff...with, I dunno, minerals or something. So that'd be more than $6 per gallon. For water. I can get water out of the tap, for around $0.003 per gallon. I won't die or get sick from drinking it. For $6, I can get 2,000 gallons of tap water. That's a frickin lot of water!

peejay

Yeah but you don't need 8-9 liters of water to get to work and back...

BTW - re: premium... right now premium (generally 93 average RON/MON which is about 97-98 MON... or was that RON?) is barely 10 cents more expensive. Hmm, 93 is only 5% more than 87... seems like as good an excuse as any to go turbo!

RotaryRyan

lol, i cracked up when i read that

Mr_Rx7_Au

Our premium is 98 octane... which as I said is about $1.10 atm..... I hear in Japan their "regular" unleaded is like already 98 octane!

BigRTII

ok the fuel shortage is not becasue of the war!!! i cant stress it enough!! bush is an idiot yes and he is not helping the situation.

Opec is the problem they are rationing there supply y becasue there *** holes and if we all dont fill up for one day Opec will crash and be forced to lower there prices becasue people r paying for it n e wayz no matter the price becasue we need it so lets say screw opec and not get gas pass it on

1vea74

don't forget to factor in stupid stuff like all the different formulations of gas throughout the country and the mere fact that a new refinery hasn't been built since the 70s. Our refineries are operating at peak capacity and have been for sometime. Can gas be much cheaper? HELL YES! Record profits each year for the oil companies while we get it in the ***. OPEC isn't as much of a factor as you think. To top it off, the tree huggers throw a fit whenever we *think* about building a new refinery.

My only happy time while filling my car(s) up is thinking about the SUV land whale owners spending $50 filling up their beasts and getting 13mpg on the parkway.

Let's just say if things keep up, there are going to be many land whales being sold off soon. The SUVs are going to lose value FAST.


Next time some butthead reminds me of what a bottle of water costs and how much that is per gallon or says that mouthwash is like $20/gallon or something then I'll be upset ONLY when we put those things in my gas tank to use as freaking fuel.

Right now two things pee me off....price of gas and price of milk. well...three...can't forget the ice cream.

karism

Hi.
You think your gas is expensive?

Ok,here we go.

R4.40 per Litre.Litre * 3.7 = gallon.R16.28 per gallon.
R16.28 devided by +- 7 ( 7 Rand for a dollar )

Gives you about :$2 .38 per gallon.

Lets talk in Rand for a bit. I get 5km per liter (+-10 mpg)
Costs me R276 ($39) to fill up,and only get 272 km (170 miles) out of tank.

So you guys are off so bad...

I think the most effective way to give good fuel consumption,would be to completely dissable the secondary stage alltogether.

Other wise,leaving it vacuum operaed,will allso yield a small gain,if you drive it like grandma.

Sorry for the long post.

Karis

Illswyn

1vea74, you don't use water as fuel, no. But supposedly you should drink a gallon (8 8 ounce glasses?) a day. That comes to roughly $6/gallon, which SHOULD be your daily consumption of water. Granted, that's about as pricey as I've seen water. But appearantly, people buy it!
I drive about 500 miles per week minimum. At $2/gallon, 24mpg, guess how much that is per day? $6 in gas per day on average.

Equivalent? No, I NEED to pay $2/gallon for gas. I could get water for $0.003/gallon. I can't get to work without the gas, I can get by without the designer water. But my point is, PEOPLE BUY IT!

PinkRacer

Gas here in Nova Scotia, Canada is now 99.9 cents a litre for self serve regular (87 octane). I hate gas prices here! It's like $1.10/litre for Supreme (91 octane).

wae

I saw 87 as "low" as 1.81 at a UDF in an out-of-the way (for me) station yesterday.

Quite frankly, I don't see any potential for a lowering of gas prices. They've figured out that while we all whine about it, we're still buying it. And we're still buying high-consumption vehicles. Sure, there are a good number of hybrids being sold, but the hot sellers are still the SUVs that are so big, there's a flight deck installed next to the roof rack.

Like someone else mentioned, there are all sorts of different "types" of gasoline being sold around the country, and refineries being shut down. Ironically, the solution there would be for the government to step out of the first and to step into the second. (If you buy into that whole government needing to regulate the bejeezus out of businesses. Personally, I don't like paying a lot fo gas, but if the market will bear it, then let them charge).

But... all of that is pretty much off-topic, so I'll wind around to the actual topic at hand: How to make the Rex gentler on the fuel budget:

I heard a "Car Talk" where they were talking about a study that BMW did where they found that "progressive shifting" was the most economical way to drive a stick shift. Basically, it involves running up the RPMs in a gear right to the point where you're about 100 rpms past the point where the next gear would be lugging. Apparently, while not much fun, it's supposed to be the best way to shift, in terms of miliage. Since the RX-7 is a toy, I don't tend to drive it that way, so I can't report results there... however, I have found that I can get my Saturn (SL2, 1997) to pull a pretty consistent 37mpg on my mostly intra-city highway commute of 35 miles each way. Which isn't a huge gain over the 33-35 when I drive it like a rental, but every little bit helps.

What I really enjoy, though, is filling up my motorcycle and asking the guy with the building-sized truck if he gets anything close to the 70mpg I can get on my bike...

Rutnick

Actually, that was my post but for some reason this board likes to have fun and log people in as someone else. What exactly is YOUR point? I may ocasionally buy a bottle of water at a convenience store. I may sometimes go to a supermarket and buy a 12 pack of water at around...$4 for the pack or something. Most of the time, I just drink tap water and reuse the bottle. Also, I don't know of anyone I know that drinks $6 of bottled water/day.

I'm still trying to figure out what point you are trying to make. Gas prices are WAY too high and someone (probably domestically) is breaking it off in our rear. Are you one of these liberals that make some comment about the price of milk, water, mouthwash per gallon and try to say it is alright? Sorry about Australia and Europe having very high gas prices. In Europe, it's the price of having everything else handed to you. Free healthcare costs $.

Illswyn

I'm only comparing them. I didn't say EVERYONE drinks $6 worth of water a day. But some people must, or they wouldn't stock it at the store. And you SHOULD be drinking a gallon a day. Health nuts go to health stores, and that's where I'm talking about $6 water being.

I don't see what makes me a liberal because I compared the price of water to gas. Should I just say $6/day for 2 people to work 40 hour weeks, is not too much to pay? Last year, I would have paid $4-5. I'm not so broke that a dollar a day will hurt.

Do I want to pay $2/gallon? No. But I know an increase was inevitable, with increasing demand for high use vehicles (SUVs). The problem I have is the justification they use. Oh the war. Oh refineries closing. Oh we're at maximum capacity. Oh terrorism. Just admit that the price went up in preparation for the summer travel season, when demand peaks. Supply price adjusting for demand. End of story. Quit freakin lying!

PinkRacer

1 U.S. Gallon = 3.785 litres

An average price per U.S. Gallon for 93 Octane: $1.87/Gallon

$1 can = $1.3858 usd

$1.87 usd = approx. $2.59 can.

$2.59/3.785 litres

$2.59 / 3.785 = 68.4 cents per litre for supreme. DAMN YOU! Ours is 1.04/litre around here for supreme!

$1.04/litre = $3.94/gallon (CAD)

$3.94 (CAD)/gallon = $2.41/gallon (USD)

We pay the equivalent of $2.41/gallon.

Count yourselves among the lucky!

jorx81@aol.com

iTrader: (6)

Wae, what kind of bike do you have?
I have a Rebel, I love buying 70 miles for $2.00, until I get caught in the rain at least.

Yea, it's funny how much closer europe is to the supply yet prices so high.

oh yea and bush is a ****-off.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

actually the gas price problem is 2 fold

1. china is demanding more as it industrialises, in fact our demand goes up every year as well

2. theres no new supply, theres no bottomless pit of oil in saudi arabia, we're all demanding a limited supply, hence price will go up

enigma32

Ya know, Rx7carl had a great idea for a thread...
And it's been destroyed by bickering that belongs in one of the other threads that've been floating around lately... :P