Re: Saturn is doomed?

Neon John <no@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:r28vj4lfctc3kvn828gsss9p9elvgh383b@xxxxxxx:

On 09 Dec 2008 20:04:44 GMT, "RAM³" <s31924.nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Michael Dobony <survey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in

When in college, I used to take bets on the fuel economy of my '62 MG
Midget (948cc engined roadster) to support its fuel bills. <g>

At a time when 15 MPG was the average, I'd get 33 MPG in town.

I'd offer a bet of 50 MPG on the highway and, if the sucker was
willing to give good odds (10:1 was common), I'd go as high as 55 MPG.

With the two sidedraft SUs set according to the Owner's Manual and
properly driven, the car would deliver 56.8 MPG. <G>

There were always suckers... <VBG>

:-) just out of curiosity, how did you measure the mileage for the
:bets?

Fill the tank to the top of the filler pipe at a gas station on the
highway while the sucker watched and confirmed the tank was full, drive a
30 mile loop with the sucker as passenger, then refill the tank at the
same station while the sucker watched.

The sucker got to do the math for himself. <G>

The "trick" was in the driving: when the carbs were set up according to
the book, the engine would die if you pushed in the clutch. By coasting
down and restarting by letting the clutch out, much fuel was saved.
Additionally, maintaining a steady 4150 RPM provided for the "Most
Economical Cruise" setting for the engine.

I used to do similar bets with my converted Z cars, and in those
instances, actually set up a burette and fueled the engine from that.

My procedure was to get on the interstate, get up to speed, switch to
the burette, start the stopwatch when the level reached and agreed to
a value and then drove until the burette reached zero, whereupon the
stopwatch was stopped and mileage computed. I made quite a bit of
money (and sold number of conversions) using that technique. I'd
fabricated a little burette holder that clamped to the hood air vents
that look real professional :-)

You could have improved your mileage even more with an air bleed
system. The air bleed system brings the lean cruise mixture right
down to the limit of flammability. A high-energy ignition system is
vital to pulling this off. I used first a homemade system and then an
MSD set up. The General Motors HEI system was also good enough.

The air bleed system caused the throttle to feel very soggy, and so I
normally wired it to operate only during cruise control operation.
With patience, a gentle foot, and a tolerance for a soggy throttle, it
could be driven manually.

The effect on a cruise-controlled trip was dramatic, bringing my 79 El
Camino up from around 14 miles per gallon highway to around 30. That's
with an engine fully equipped with a four barrel carburetor and all
the smog equipment that I could not manage to remove.

I could, of course, do better with electronic fuel injection but that
wasn't a real option back then.

Today, I have a program that I can load into my 94 Caprice's PCM that
will get me right at 45 miles per gallon on cruise control on the
interstate. It's not a very pleasant program to drive with manually
but it does economize on fuel. Some of the 'vette hackers (same PCM)
have developed a process for loading two programs into the PCM and
switching between them using an otherwise unused input. That way, you
can freely choose between the two, or if you want to get fancy, switch
programs when the cruise control is activated. Ahhh, the miracle of
modern electronics.

John

I haven't "enhanced" my '03 Dodge's programming yet and the '89 Chubby
G20 doesn't have a computer in it (unless I take a laptop along). <g>
.

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