...I drove from Morgan Hill CA to Manteca CA and back. About 180 miles of flat road. I tried not to deviate from 55 MPH while on the road. (hypermiling really pisses off a lot of drivers)
I've done that too. But I say let 'em be pissed. Just don't give 'em a real reason. Hypermiling is great. I always say just don't do it on my time! But the slow lane is fair territory and I don't consider it an imposition if someone is doing that even if it keeps me from getting around slower traffic in the left lanes. Not the slow-laner's fault.
So unless you were doing your 55 in anything but the slow lane, keep trying to squeak that last mpg out of the beast. Since 55 is still the minimum legal speed, they (the rest of us that is) can just go the heck around.
Now, don't get me wrong, I
AM one of "those guys" out there. I drive fast and aggressive even in my trucks. But I never get cranked up about someone doing any limit in their space. Whether it's 55 in the slow lane, 65 in the fast lane (unless they won't get out of the way), or 100 coming up behind me so I have to move over. Never bothered me to do the polite (and legal) thing, and let someone in when they signal, let them out when they need to, or let them speed past if they want to. As long as nobody is driving clueless, life is good out there.
Just don't pass me at 100 then slow down to 60 when I pull back in behind you! Yes, happens just about every day.
Idiots!%)
I think with fuel injection, 16 MPG is doable. I'm still on the fence about adding that upgrade.
With EFI it becomes all about the gearing I think. With my super finely tuned Explorer setup I can't even get 14 around town or combined, but I can push 20 pretty easily out on the highway.
Around town normal driving I get maybe just slightly better than my carbureted days. So for me, that was always in the 9-11 range with the carb and 4.11's with 32" rated tires.
Now with the EFI and 4.56's and 29.5" tires (31 rated) I get about 10-12 around town, and 18-20 on the road @ 2300 rpm.
I bet I could push that up a tad with taller gearing, but I don't know if that would help around town or not.
Can't wait to try though!
If your overall gearing is not too bad and you do some tuning on the engine you should be able to hit 11-12 no problem.
I'd agree with that, especially the overall gearing part.
But for me that 12 was a tough nut to crack. And though my tunes were pretty spot on for not having an O2 sensor to get readings with, I don't think I ever did crack that nut.
a well tuned carbed engine will get similar mileage as a EFI but the EFI engine will be a little better in most cases not enough to justify a swap just for mileage purposes.
Definitely not enough to justify the cost just on fuel economy alone. Luckily for most of us the swap has more facets than that. Probably for you too. I know you've been talking about being on the fence for a long time. But fuel economy/dollar payback aside, it's just way too nice once it's done.
Mileage be damned!
Well, I actually like getting better fuel economy. Not because it's a big savings for my wallet with how little I drive in a year, but because for a given mile I'm wasting less fuel. Simple as that.
I havent checked the mileage on my bone stock bronco but my modified one gets 13-14 when all is good and the wind is blowing the right direction and its due a rebuild. Best I remember getting was 16 but that was with narrow tires.
Just about the same. I could regularly get 14-15.5 on the highway (never got 16 with my normal setup) with the same setup described previously. But for an all too short time, changing nothing else but slapping a Holley 450 Economaster on there, I was able to consistently get 17.5 on the road. But it could not get out of it's own way around town (probably too lean, looking back at it) and got about the same fuel economy around town too. Sure did smoke the charts on the highway though. And you practically could not stall it letting out the clutch!
So it took EFI for me to get back in the range of a specialty carburetor. But it was still worth it I think.
Of course, I bought a Bronco around the EFI this time, rather than doing it the other way like most. But the result is a happy smiles-per-mile quotient of about 85 on 661buster's and Tugross' scale of measure.
Paul
