Hello one and all! Yes, another thread, I know, but this one is good

This is Project Hypermile. If you do not know what hypermiling (is that the correct way to spell it?) is, it is basically changing driving habits to maximize fuel efficiency. Here is a website that explains what and how, to save me some breath...er... fingers:
http://www.wikihow.com/Hypermile


A little background on my car first hand:
1982 Mazda RX-7 GS
Stock 12a, Stock transmisson, Non LSD rear end.

Upgrades:
Shocks/springs (not sure if that has anything to do with it, so no specifics)
Blaster 2 Leading coil
2nd gen Direct fire leading
NGK Plugs (4 months old, maybe 1500-2000 miles)
Stock trailing running through the Leading pickups on the dizzy
Dizzy cap and rotor 3 months old (1500 miles max)
Dual fuel filters, one pre pump (4 months old) one pre carb (metal screen in glass case, clean, maybe 6 months old)
Stock Nikki carburetor, stripped of everything, mechanical secondaries (no choke)
Stock manifold, block off plates
No OMP, premix
RB Header, 2.5" exhaust
Electric fan, dash toggle switch for on and off
Oil 2000 miles old
Yoohoo belt (pineapple racing)

Ok, so here are my rules for this project:
No higher than 3000RPM max. Most shifting will be at 2500rpm.
Highway is restricted to 55mph (There will be no highway miles with this tank)
No secondaries, as I am barely on the throttle (Mechanical sec's keep me completely out of secondaries)
Keep distance from car in front to minimize braking
As little braking as possible
Park as close to where I pull in as possible
Pull through parking space to face out (because backing up then going forward is redundant)
Tire pressure set art 40PSI cold.


All my driving will be documented, as well as weather conditions, tire pressure, average speed limit, and mileage driven.

---------------
So today is day one.

The weather is cloudy and rainy today, but as I was driving, no rain was falling. Temps at this time are 73*F.
Tire pressure is
40-40
40-38

Adjusted the rear passenger PSI to 40 cold and set off to the gas station.

Put oil in the gas tank, and fill her up.
Problem #1, my gas tank will not auto-fill, as in put it on the first or second notch for the pump and walk away. It has to be dribbled in by hand, so I never know when it is actually "full" or not, I just go by how often it resets itself and I have to re-squeeze the trigger.

Here I am parked at the gas station:


I filled it up, 12.8 gallons.


Made my way home, max shift I did was 2800RPM in first (once), then generally 2500 after. Averaged 40mph for 3.7 miles until I got home.



Gas gauge was still rising when I took the picture (I had the car off for a second, then turned it back on for the gauge readout).

 

If anyone has any pointers or questions, feel free to ask. I will keep this thread updated every time I drive the car, and drive it the same way every time until the tank is pretty much as is in the first picture.

As I said before, all this tank will be city driving. I can't wait til I go highway driving... 55mph... wooooo

 

When you fill it up, you should keep filling it until you can see the gas in the filler neck. If the gas doesn't go down right away, it's full. This is what we do at work if a customer comes in and says they're doing a mileage check. (I'm 17 and pump gas to pay for my Seven )

 

2 items of advice. 1. Always fill up at the same spot for consistency. 2. The 2nd gens have a little light in the cluster that comes on when it's time to upshift for the best fuel mileage. This is of course, load dependent. In general, the light comes on between 1500-2000 rpm. Happy trails with your test.

 

this is a cool project, but it takes lots of concentration to do it , i think top gear did something similar , anyways hells yeah keep us updated.

 

Not how a 7 was meant to be driven!!! This is going to be boring, but I'd like to see the results.

 

Believe me, it kills me not to put my foot down. But I was always curious what I could get if I drove like a grandma in a prius.

Oh and for those worried about carbon buildup, I did some seafoam earlier last week

 

They had the Prius around their test track driven as fast as possible, and a V8 M3 following behind it. M3 won

 

i'm really interested to see how this turns out. i average about 270 miles to a tank on my 56K mile 84 GSL on highway trips. thats usually on about 14 or 15 gallons. in the city i'm at 17.8 mpg..

 

I think you will fall in the 25ish mpg range. If you keep that Nikki off the secondarys, it should do pretty good. The sad thing is, I drive the Beamer pretty hard most of the time and she still gets 26-28mpg. I would probably get alot better if I drove it like I had some sense Good luck Stu.......

 

Thats some good mileage! You reminded me, my engine has 20k on it, if it makes a difference?

 

the newer the engine, more than likely the better mileage you'll see. the newer the engine is the more efficient it will run as far as fuel consumption is concerned.

 

they also did 1000 miles in an audi diesel driving similar habbits a few seasons back.

No radio, no air, no accessories. try and coast/accelerate down hills, coast up hills.



As for not following close to minimize braking, you could flip it to tailgate the **** out of the car in front to maximize the draft effect (but im talking like 1 foot max distance lol)

 

Ah yes, I remember that episode! He got back driving on fumes or something! I'm going to go watch that now

Saw some MYTHBUSTERS on drafting on the highway. I would do it, but if I did I would stay like 10 feet back. I just hate being behind semi's, I fear chips in my paint.


EDIT: Here you go
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=mKa90jSvkPs
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=7jYICn...eature=related

 

i stay far away from tractor trailors..they mean bad news when you're behind them. can easialy mar up the paint on the front end or break your windshield....

 

Can I challenge you ... I can easily manage 30mpg on the highway with my streetport and thanks to my Megasquirt

Haven't really tried the city mpg ... but this gives me a good excuse

 

Hell, why not? I'd say go for it. I can't wait to do the highway

 

megasquirt to oem ecu..this should be a good comparison test!!!

 

i don't know if i'd call it stock ecu as its carburated and the ecu doesn't do much really as far as MPG

 

We should have a hypermile thread spreadsheet like the dyno sticky. For kicks

 

Anyone ever read the shifting recommendations in the owners manual for your car? Its interesting, haha.

~T.J.

 

Good luck Stu. You know my mileage and I don't hypermile it at all (17/24). I'd challenge you but I know I wouldn't be able to keep the discipline.

Have you thought about acetone? Some folks on here swear by that one.

 

So after that huge rain we had last night I went out to go run around in the 7. Something stopped me though...



We can't be having that now, can we? Must have been like 2 gallons in there... thats like 14 lbs of dead weight we need to get rid of! Sarcasm aside, I was pissed though. Wet/Dry Vac to the rescue, now the car is in the garage drying off.

Anyways, I wnet to grab the vac, and started suctioning the car out. Just the trunk was wet, so I semi-crawled in there and ended up tearing a big hole near the fly of my pants. Suuucked. So after I got her suctioned out, I went out for a drive, Ram-Air pants and all. I will admit, I went past the speed limit 4 times, but hear me out. Down hill. Aww yeah, I was doing about 35 and started going down a big hill, and pushed the clutch in as I was at the top. Ended up doing about 43MPH at the bottom and just let her ride down until 35 again, and back into 5th. The times I went faster than the posted limit, I never used the gas. That was the fastest I went over the limit (43 in 35) so the others were generally about 5mph over. No gas, no problem, gravity/momentum rules.

So I was cruising around and this guy keeps revving the snot out of his car. I laughed.


All in all, weather was cloudy/80*, all tire pressures shown 40PSI.
Here is the Gauge shot for the day:



23.2 miles so far, 19.5 done today.

 

yeah this is the one i was talking about but i couldn't remember what kind of car it was


what gas station did you go to? just curious, i've been trying out several gas stations near town to see which ones are better and what not, so far from best to worst citgo, hess, shell......................marathon. haha. .. i really need to start putting numbers down, so far i've just done it by how far i drive it, and how many times i get on it and what not, maybe this will give you something to think about while on your project and ****.

 

^^I fill up at the local Citgo