Do you think I can get 60 mpg out of my Paseo?

[Daox]

Thats what I'm aiming for this summer. Keep in mind I have hit 52 mpg already in the Paseo in January.

[half fast Steve]

Been following your thread in TO and TN. 60mpg w/ mods or no mods (i.e. thinner tires, no A/C & PS belt, etc...)???

[Daox]

There will be mods. I'm not sure exactly what yet. The underdrive pulley will be taken off shortly. I have a stock throttle body to put back on it. I'd like to get a stock head to do a little work to, but not port. So, some things will be to bring it back to stock condition, while others won't. I'll be keeping the A/C and PS (although I have considered a manual rack conversion).

[half fast Steve]

I'd be interested in a discussion on the mods necessary to get there. 3ee injectors? 3ee throttle body? Valve lash set to min clearance? Port matching? Low weight oil & gear oil/ATF? Windage tray? Thicker/thinner head gasket? Anything that could be done to keep it in closed loop mode more often? Spark plugs? Indexed plugs?

Why don't you think porting would help mileage in the same way as power? Just as long as you aren't really hogging out the ports.

[Daox]

Well, to be quite honest, I know I can hit 60. I just don't know if I can hit 60 consistantly on my daily drive. My daily commute is 90% highway. Half of that is 65 mph, and half is 55 mph. The remaining 10% is 25-30 mph city driving through stoplights and stop signs. Therefore, most of my modifications are aimed to get best returns at high speeds.


Here is what the plans are thus far

Improve driving techniques further
Install stock throttle body (currently using custom bored out TB)
Install stock intake air system or a different custom air intake (currently using custom cold air intake)
Install stock crankshaft pulley (currently using underdrive pulley)
Install Hotshot header or stock exhaust manifold and new 1.75" custom exhaust (currently using Pacesetter header and 2" mandrel bent performance exhaust)
Install 4 speed differential into my 5 speed tranny
Aerodynamic modifications
Possibly install new modified head (currently using ported and shaved head)



Improving the driving techniques is an ongoing process and will always be one. My driving techniques keep me in closed loop almost the entire time I drive. Being an OBDII car, its almost hard to kick it out of closed loop to be honest. I can monitor this with the scangauge I have.

Installing the stock throttle body increases low rpm torque which aids in fuel efficient acceleration at low rpms.

Installing the stock intake air system increases low rpm torque which aids in fuel efficient acceleration at low rpms. This one will need to be tested as I believe I designed my CAI fairly well to being with so I didn't loose much low end torque. Some testing with my GTech will prove or disprove this.

Installing the stock crankshaft pulley increases battery recharge rate which can be a problem with my driving style. This does hurt fuel economy, but I feel it is worth it. Theres also the issue of the underdrive pulleys harming the engine due to the lack of harmonic dampening.

Installing the Hotshot, Pacesetter or stock exhaust manifold are aimed at improving low rpm torque which aids in fuel efficient acceleration at low rpms. I'll be doing testing between the Hotshot, Pacesetter, and stock exhaust manifold to determine which will give the best results.

Installing the 4 speed differential into my 5 speed trans will lower rpms on the highway. This increases load on the engine and more load on the engine means it is running more efficiently. This is somewhat negated by my driving technique of pulse and glide. But, it is still useful when I'm not able to use pulse and glide. I'll also be replacing the tranny oil with Royal Purple synthetic.

Installing the new modified head allows me to increase compression. Increased compression increases efficiency assuming constant fuel ratios. Since my driving techniques keep me in closed loop this is quite possible. I will most likely do some work to the ports, but I will not 'port' it per say. Porting a head increases the rpm at which you achieve peak torque. As you can see, I'm trying to do the opposite.



As for your ideas...
I won't be doing any injector swapping. The 3E-E throttle body is not interchangable with my engine, and it has the same bore diameter anyway (45mm). I may look into cam options if I install the new head, however, I'm not planning on it. I'd like to not spend a ton of money on this. The head gasket will be stock. Windage tray is not necessary as I don't rev my engine high at all (reduce friction losses). Controlling oil level is more than enough to keep oil from frothing up in the oil pan. New spark plugs will be on order if they are needed. That'll have to be seen when I get to it. The plugs that are in there are normal copper NGKs, nothing special. I will look into indexing them though.

[draenor]

Reducing your drag co-efficient will probably be net your biggest gain.

[thoughthard]

If you have got 52 MPG already, hitting 60 should not be a problem.

If you have the guts to, inflate your tires to MAX pressure. If you usually pump them up to far below that, you will see MPG gains from that for sure.

I could not imagine getting 52 MPG doing 55-65 MPH. I pulled off 50+ MPG, but that was from me setting the cruise at like 25 MPH for a few hours.

[clintster77]

when you say .driving technique are you talking about hypermileing ? Is your paseo a man trans if so I could give you some pointers on driving for milepergal

[t_cel_t]

hey daox you should really stick in a manual rack, if you get one with some miles on it it spins smooth as glass. its not even as hard as you would think it would be to turn it when stopped.
it really easy to swap also, just 4 bots on the rack, 1 on the column and the 2 on the tie rod ends. takes less then an hour.

[Daox]

Yes, I'm talking about hypermiling clinster77. The Paseo is a manual trans and I am already using quite a few hypermiling techniques. Feel free to shoot some pointers along though. I've only been doing this since about November, so I'm no master of it.

I'd really like a manual rack for the Paseo. Before TO went down I had been searching on doing the swap. Thats whats on my 93 Tercel and your right, it takes almost no effort to steer. However, I heard that you need to swap the steering column in addition to the rack because the power one is shorter. Even at that I'm still considering it. Its just the price vs other mods right now, and you know how the WI salvage yards are (they think they're gold mines for those outside WI). I'll try to check out prices later on today.

Thanks for the tips guys.

[clintster77]

how often do you kill the engine? one thing that can make a diff while hypermiling is paying attention to any area you have been before . if it's 5 blocks from your next turn kill the engine and coast to your next turn or stop .If you have to hit the brakes to much then the next time you come the same area you know to start coasting earlier . to restart your engine smooth without using your starter give yourself one more gear than you think you need and it starts smooth without kicking off any speed before you turn . that gives you your power steering back just in time. Also remember you only have one good stop left in the brakes before you loose the pedal when the engine is off.

[Daox]

Yeah, I'm pretty much doing all of that already. I pulse and glide everywhere possible. The only time I don't pulse is when I get stuck in stop and go traffic under about 20 mph. Its hard to bump start smoothly under 15 mph. But, other than that, bump starting is not a problem and a very smooth process. My brakes are probably rusty from not being used (yes, a slight exageration). I have run them out of vacuum a few times, but I can get a few good pumps before its gone.

[clintster77]

sounds like you got it down pretty good. It took me a bit of experimenting to not jerk it at say 10 mph. You may know but I'm going to say it agian just in case you missed it. when kick starting at ten mph or so don't kick start it in 1st gear cause the engine puts the torque on the wheels and causes it to jerk (but if you go a gear up 2nd or 3rd gear and kick start it because all the torque is put to the engine not the wheels)my instinct was to put it in the gear I would be traveling at norm rpms .. I say 2nd or 3rd gear cause my car is a 94 tercel not a paseo the gears may be a bit different . oh yea , as soon as the engine starts then push in the clutch and proceed to the correct gear . it only takes a second and your flying along at 15 mph again haha. I'm not saying always do it in stop and go traffic but it comes in handy when you had to slow down fast or you want to glide that extra 50 yards before restart. that was a lot to say if you already know all that (cool)