Project: Hypermiler

[MazRoadAdmin]

Yeah, I get it. You're in the business of building cars and selling parts. Makes sense to learn what can be done to the car that makes a difference.

If you can be consistent in how you drive and the route is mostly the same, you should be able to collect some relatively scientific data about how your mods improved fuel economy.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Fuel economy mods/development should also be useful when applied to, say, I dunno...endurance racing?

[Satisaii]

Not sure what we will get out of it, other than a sense of satisfaction of finally doing it after 3 years of talking about it.

Consistency is an issue. The drive in is pretty easy since I do it at 4 am. I have a problem with the speed creeping up, but that is easily solved with cruise. The drive home can be rough. Some days I deviate by 30 miles to avoid traffic into downtown LA, and other days I just sit in it. Time smooths this out, but we don't want to be waiting a long time between changes to gather data.

https://www.fuelly.com/driver/satisaii/mx5-miata-2

Fill ups since I bought it.

I put a new damper on it and set timing to 15°. The old damper had debonded and could not be used to set timing. Also put in new plugs and Magnacore wires. Will take some baseline data on the engine next week (compression and leakdown.) I did not know that I had put that many miles on it. Time for an oil change since I have no idea when Sonny did it last, or what kind of oil he used. The good news is that it does not use much oil. It also passed smog last week FWIW.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Excellent baseline. Are you going to datalog? If so what parameters? Maybe interesting to tie that in with GPS tracking for elevation.

I often wondered what mods would be effective for reducing drag through datalogging, like a rear bumper cutout.

[Satisaii]

It may get a G2X for a bit (or byte?) We have some custom math channels from Racepak to do coast down drag testing.

We have discussed doing a couple of data points with no bumper, but I am not opposed to doing an "artful" cutout (when the helpful pictures get reloaded.) All in the name of science I watched him do one at Woolery's, but doubt I can recreate it without instructions.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Awesome! Jeremy is the master at those cutouts. I need pictures of it too!

[Rogue]

fyi, to track your mileage, you should use Fuelly.com.

are any of y'all using the app? Reviews are not encouraging.

[Sharpie]

What tire pressures are you running? Insight guys running 60+ psi. I increased my 97' civic hatch from 36mpg to 42 mpg minimal hyper miling techniques.

Cool project.

[AntiochOG]

are any of y'all using the app? Reviews are not encouraging.

I don't care much for the app, but you can text your fill ups in. This works really well for me.

[Satisaii]

Just did hot leakdown and compression tests for a baseline to refer to as the miles pile up on the car.

198 2%
195 9%
198 5%
185 18%

I would be busy swapping engines right now if it were one of the race cars. But it is not, so it will just be a reference for the future. I may consider doing an OEM rebuild at the end of the test... depending on my cash flow this year.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Was it coming from the block or head?

[Satisaii]

Exhaust valve

[— kung fu jesus —]

Easy.

[Satisaii]

You see the 1.6 SM head for sale on track hq? Must resist spending money on this car...

Been switching tires around. Finally got the Ecopias mounted and on the car. Of the 3 sets I have had on the car, they ride the best and are the quietest. No performance testing, but I bet they are not going to be the best track day tire.

So far I have run the following:

205/50/15 Dunlop DZ101 on 8" 6UL, weight 28lbs 9oz. These are almost worn to the wear bars.
205/50/15 Falken Ziex ZE912 on 7" 6UL, weight 30lbs 8oz. These are nearly new.
185/55/15 Bridgestone Ecopia EP150 on 7" 6UL, weight 28lbs 2oz. These are new.

I don't have the exact analysis sitting in front of me, but here is the gist so far:
Started out getting ~32 mpg on the Dunlops
Replacing the worn out harmonic balancer and resetting the timing to 15° from +20° dropped mileage to >30 mpg
Switching tires from the Dunlops to the Falkens got it back to almost 32 mpg.
No data collected on the Ecopias yet, but they feel like they are rolling easier. Good ol' seat of the pants HP measurement there.

Odometer correction is currently 55.1 miles actual vs 51.7 indicated, for a correction factor of 1.06576402

I need a good phone mount for the car, and possibly an app that can work as a running odometer. It would be nice if it could run on a phone with no data connection. I have a Galaxy S2 that does not read a SIM card (no phone) but everything else works on it. That would be perfect for just gathering GPS data. I have tried Torque, but it resets to 0 when it gets shut down.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I saw that head...ugh! So tempting!

Thanks for the update!!