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Re: [T3] Gas mileage experiments


On 29 Aug 2005 at 19:04, John Jaranson wrote:

>   Two things that really stick out. Temperature has a significant role 
> in the mileage (at least with carbs...the FI might be better) as can be 
> seen by the difference between the summer and winter months mileage.   
> I get an average in the summer of 24.3 mpg and a winter average of 18.8 
> mpg.

The FI is a little more consistent, summer to winter, but winter is still 
clearly worse. My winder mileage hardly ever drops below 20 mpg, but it hardly 
ever gets above 23 in the summer, both measurements just around town. Long 
trips in the winter are almost as good as long summer trips.

>   The other thing is that there is a bunch of variation from tank to 
> tank depending on where and how you drive, long trips vs. short, 
> highway vs city, etc, etc. It is not uncommon to see 4-6 mpg difference 
> from one tank to the next.   The best tank full is right around 29mpg.  
> The worst is a tick over 14 mpg.

Absolutely. That's why I did my tests the way I did: The 2 trips were over 
similar roads, in identical, ideal weather, and in the same car with the same 
load. I tried to remove every variable other than road speed.

My best tank was about 25 years ago, in my FI '71. My mileage was so good that 
I'd driven all the way from Madison to Iowa and not noticed the gas gauge move. 
I actually stopped and rechecked the timing, etc, just because I was afraid 
that I'd done something wrong and was going to burn the engine up.

In the midst of that stop at the rest stop, someone pointed out the tailwind we 
had. It must have been 40-45 mph. This meant that my road speed may have been 
70 mph, but my air speed was only 25-30. I believe I got about 36 mpg on that 
whole tank.

The next day, the wind had shifted, and my mileage was back to normal.  ;-p

Basically, I've found that if the mileage falls much below 20 mpg with the FI, 
there's something wrong with the car.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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