Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Repairs & new high MPG

Over 222,500 miles on this 1993 Ford Probe 2.0L means that things are worn out. The radiator was replaced two weeks ago, and the timing belt and water pump two weeks before that.
I was running with 20W50 motor oil and an oil additive to stop smoke out of the tail pipe, but went back to 10W30 with an additive. It smokes a little when cold, but things tighten up after about a minute.
Despite this, the car got 37.8 MPG at the last fill-up!
Driving to maximize fuel efficiency can be accomplished without standing out in the crowd on the highway, even in a place like Atlanta where flow-of-traffic is well over 65 MPH on the highways, and 10-20 mph over the speed limit on many surface roads.
The techniques I use include using cruise control set at just under 60MPH, coasting with engine on or off, depending on circumstances, and accelerating slowly. Off the highway, there are many opportunities to coast, and driving in a higher gear is possible most of the time.
I have noticed that I spend more time moving than before. When I drove like the crowd, I found myself standing still or crawling at less than 10 MPH a lot. By driving slower, I find myself in clear roads most of the time, and moving. There's a lot less stress, and I'm probably safer.
Before changing to hypermiling techniques, I averaged about 30 MPG in mixed driving conditions. I am basically picking up an extra 100 miles per tank of gas, which is about 22% in gas savings just by driving differently.
Imagine if everyone did what I'm doing. We could really do a slapdown on the OPEC nations in a hurry, and gas prices, at least temporarily, would plummet.