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SyntheticShield
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| Joined: | Tue May 25th, 2004 |
| Location: | Bartlesville, Oklahoma USA |
| Posts: | 887 |
| Year/Model: | 2001 Pont. Grand Prix GTP ... | | Occupation: | Telecommunications | | Interests: | Storm chasing/Photography | | Male/Female: | Male |
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Posted: Sat Apr 23rd, 2005 06:16 am |
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Okay, so anyone that has read my posts since joining TF might have by now realize that Im a curious person and willing to experiment to either prove or disprove something.
Well Ive been playing some with my fuel mileage to see what I could get it up to. This is something Ive done quite a bit in my years and with the vehicles Ive had. My best success to date has been with a Buick Skylark I had that I was able to take from about 32mpg on the highway to around 38, which in my mind is pretty freakin' substantial, thats like a 20% increase.
So Ive tried off and on with the Focus and have had some moderate success, but most of that came from the use of Amsoil in the oil and tranny and I havent really been able to push it much beyond that. On top of that, in November of last year my mileage started slipping. I went down to the high 24mpg range before finding out, by mishap, what the cause was.
As you recall I recently had my fuel pump replaced with the newer version. I had it replace once before right after getting the car but they had not come out with the revised design at that time so I was stuck with what had already broken. Well the thing went out again and this time I got the revised design. At the time, about three weeks ago, when the pump went out you may recall me posting thinking it was the ignition system due to oil all over the bay from a loose oil cap. Thinking it was the ignition system, I yanked out the Screamin Demon coil and Live wires (herefore refered to as the firepower ignition) and re-installed the stock wires and coil. Then a couple days after that after using the scan tool I discovered that the fuel pump was bad and brought it to Ford where they, with no hassle I might add, replaced it AGAIN under the recall. Needless to say, I was happy about that.
Well my mileage started coming back up and leveled off about where it was prior to November. I average about 27.5mpg and if I am really good (read: keep my foot out of it) I can hit 28 or so but never able to get deep into the 28 mpg range. The absolute BEST I have ever done mileage wise was all highway and that was 31mpg. Now keep in mind that Ford doesnt rate the ATX in mileage as high as the MTX. But if you do a search for economy on the Focus, in almost all cases you will find numbers that were for the MTX. I want to say, the one time I found the numbers for the 2000 Ford Focus that it was rated 25 city and about 27 or 28 highway. I'll leave some room for error on that though.
At any rate, when I hit 31mpg the one time on my trip to Florida, I was pretty happy, but for the most part, I average 27.5 about 60% highway and 40% city, maybe a little more heavy on the highway mileage at times. But try as I may, I just wasnt able to break seriously above that 28mpg range in my normal driving. I had resided myself that that was the best I was going to be able to do. Saddened as I was at that, I was willing to accept it as it is still good mileage.
Well I dont know if the article was on here, but I ran across information about Side Gapping spark plugs. I read the article, was intrigued. Did some research, got more intrigued. Decided I had to give this a try. I tried to find some plain copper core plugs but alas I dont think they make them for the Focus or at least they are not available locally so I grabbed four single plat. autolite plugs. I grabbed my trusty do anything Dremel tool and went to town side gapping my plugs. I gapped them and installed them, keep in mind, the stock ignition and wires are still on the car. The firepower ignition is still waiting to go back on.
Now also know this. Ive already got some mileage after the fuel pump and have established that my mileage came back up to normal and has leveled off. So I go fill up and start driving. Normal stuff, back and forth to work and around town. Then I notice, at the half tank mark, Im sitting at over 200 miles, 209 to be exact. I do some quick figuring 3.3 gallons of fuel for each quarter tank mark. I allow for some error in fuel quantity and realize Im squarely in 28mpg range. This is good. I figure, well side gapping the plugs has helped out a little. Not overly significantly, but its helped. When I filled up on that tank I had 280.8 miles and filled it completely back up for a total of 9.90 gallons which works out to 28.3mpg. This is good folks, I have an ATX and Ive broke into territory I was never able to before.
Well, I fill back up and drive again. This time my mileage is high 27mpg, in fact just shy of 28, still about 0.5mpg better. And in my book any mileage increase is good for the amount of driving I do. I bought the car two years ago with less than 50k miles on it. It now has approaching 104k if that gives you any idea. I go and fill up once again figuring that if I can average out to be squarely in the 28mpg range, I would call it a success. Nothing to really write home about, but nonetheless better than I had been getting.
So I drive, and I drive and I drive and I drive some more. I drive more and I realize I have hit 209 miles and I have not yet hit the half tank mark. I get excited. Im thinking of the possibilities, can I break into the 30's? Nahhh, Ive never been able to do that in normal everyday driving. Cant happen, thats just not normal for this car. So I drive some more back and forth to work, around town. Im thinking now, the sending unit has to be screwed up. Im now eager to fill up. I hit the quarter tank mark at nearly 311mile on the tank (310.7 to be exact). So I go fill up cause I think the sending unit has flaked out and Im probably close to being on fumes.
Thinking that, I go to the gas station, pull in and start pumping the gas. Thinking it will take a bit to fill up, I set the handle and start washing off the rear glass. I think I should be able to get the rear and front glass done about the time it takes to fill up the tank. Then I hear the 'CLICK!' of the handle and gas pump shutting off. Im thinking thats odd, I havent finished the rear glass. I look at the pump. 9.3 gallons. NAHHHHH, that cant be. So I shake the car as I normally do (I fill up my tank folks, until nothing else will go in). I pump a little, shake the car, gas settles into the tank, pump some more. Alas, no more gas will fit in that tank. Pump says 10.16 gallons. My trip odometer says 310.7. That works out to 30.58mpg. In an ATX folks! I so despirately want to go on vacation now to see what my all highway mileage will be.
So now, Im thinking about putting the firepower ignition back on there and seeing if it will help even further. I would hope that with a more powerful coil that the spark would be a little more solid and would promote a better burn, we shall see. I wont re-gap the plugs, I'll leave the gap itself where it is and see if just the coil and wires will help any. The problem with the wires is that one of the connectors that goes to the coil towers is busted. So I think I will do all of them the same way, break off those connectors and just hold the things on there securely with some zip ties. The connectors never really did anything anyway, they never had positive hold on the coil connections, so it wont be any different than it was before.
If I get better mileage I'll report back. Id definately like to stay in the 30mpg range, but Id like 29 mpg as well. So we'll see. You can search for information on side gapping your plugs, I'll see if I can post something soon. Its a trick the racers use apparently, and based on my useage, it does seem to work.
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My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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Chelly03PZEV
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| Joined: | Wed May 26th, 2004 |
| Location: | Always On The Ocean, Maine USA |
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Posted: Sat Apr 23rd, 2005 03:29 pm |
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Daniel, this is really interesting.
Both of my Foci have been/are MTX so are Dan's. We've seen anywhere from 25-34mpg between all 4 cars.
My car now, the 2.3 PZEV must have a larger capacity gas tank or something. my 2k2 used to get me an avg. of 30-32mpg on a regular basis (as you said so long as I don't put my foot into it). HWY 60% (also, while on the hwy I'd keep the rpms at or below 3k = 70mph) and I'd say 40% city.
The PZEV has different gearing so while I'm on the hwy I can be @ 3k rpms and be going 80mph. so, I'm saving the use of fuel by only going between 70-75 mph now (yea, I know, I got a ticket the other day saying I was going 79mph) but I do normally stick between the 70-75 mph mark. I've been stating that I've recently gotten 347 & 355 miles on a tank, but this car is taking more fuel...which makes some sense, but then again...I wonder if my 2k2 wasn't as accurate with the gas guage and this one is nearly dead on. The time I filled and I had 355 (last week) it took 12 gallons (I have the actual written in my log book in the car), but that would put me in the 29mpg catagory.
Dan and I just read your post and I'm VERY interested in this experiment - especially with the cost of fuel just going up, up, up. Dan and I will be going to the Tire Rack Event at the end of July so hopefully we'll have all the tweaks done in my car and pull 400 miles out of a tank? We'll see, but hey, keep this thread alive with updates! 
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Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
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SyntheticShield
TF Moderator
| Joined: | Tue May 25th, 2004 |
| Location: | Bartlesville, Oklahoma USA |
| Posts: | 887 |
| Year/Model: | 2001 Pont. Grand Prix GTP ... | | Occupation: | Telecommunications | | Interests: | Storm chasing/Photography | | Male/Female: | Male |
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Posted: Sat Apr 23rd, 2005 10:37 pm |
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Okay, here is my fuel mileage from November to present. I chose that time frame because when I looked at my mileage over the past year, thats when the down slop started, thereabouts. Disregard the spike on the far left of the graph, its a gas reciept that I lost and could not account for, so when I entered the next reciept the software naturally assumes I went a billion miles on one tank.
You can see that it would spike at times but generally was falling until it hit in the high 24mpg range the week I had the fuel pump replaced. Also, keep in mind the fuel pump wouldnt cut out on me until I had passed the 4000 RPM range. So if I stayed below that then the mileage didnt take an abnormally huge hit, but in my drive to and from work I cruise around 70 - 75mph so Im usually at or just below 3000 RPM.
The dashed line is my average mpg. Notice its around 27 mpg. Which is normal in the overall picture of things. Notice that on the last part of the graph on the right hand side my mileage steadily coming up. I personally would like to see 31 perhaps 32 mpg. Also, keep in mind, the ONLY time I have EVER hit over 30mpg is all highway drives.
Now, lets look at just the last couple of months overall. You can see the trend even better here I believe. So at this point, Im just trying to solidly establish the side gapping has done what it appears to have done.
I have now also re-installed the firepower ignition and wires to see if it will have any effect on the economy. My hope is that it will. I can open the gap on the plugs with this ignition set up, but I left it the same for the test. I have the gap set at 0.045" as per the instructions (audiojunkie posted the link) to lower the gap by 0.010".
If the mileage stays steady or increases further, I'll open them up 0.005 - 0.010" and see what happens. I'll try and keep everyone posted.
____________________
My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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uniquezx3
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| Joined: | Tue Oct 12th, 2004 |
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Posted: Mon Apr 25th, 2005 05:11 am |
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| hmmm... i thought with the demon(which i have) you got from .50 to .65...zx3 here..???
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SyntheticShield
TF Moderator
| Joined: | Tue May 25th, 2004 |
| Location: | Bartlesville, Oklahoma USA |
| Posts: | 887 |
| Year/Model: | 2001 Pont. Grand Prix GTP ... | | Occupation: | Telecommunications | | Interests: | Storm chasing/Photography | | Male/Female: | Male |
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Posted: Mon Apr 25th, 2005 01:25 pm |
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uniquezx3 wrote: hmmm... i thought with the demon(which i have) you got from .50 to .65...zx3 here..???
You do, with normal plugs. But with sidegapping, you have to close the gap down 0.010" (according to the article anyway). Now, that being said, I plan on opening up the gap in small increments once I can establish the mileage will stay pretty consistent.
Im also considering getting Nology wires and their PowerCore ignition amplifiers to see what if any affect they have. I believe it was TXFO that stated that most aftermarket ignition systems weren't really anything to write home about. I tend to agree simply because you need to be able to open up the gap for an aftermarket ignition system to be of any affect. If you put on an aftermarket ignition and you leave the gap the same you may have slightly better, more reliable spark (which is a benefit) but the cost to benefit may not be worth it.
Now, if you make a major boost in the ignition voltage and use wires that can deliever more of that to the plug where you can make a major adjustment to the plug gap, then you could see some mileage benefits. My hope is that the Nology system will provide this. The PowerCores are supposed to boost ignition voltage up to 50% which if I got the full benefit I could see voltages from the 60 - 70,000 volt range and that should definately help mileage, in theory. I like to experiment, so its worth it to me to find out. I should be able to open the gap on such a system beyond even what the Screamin' Demon coil alows. Couple that with sidegapping and I hope to see some good improvements.
We shall see though, I got to get the funds together in order to get all this but in the mean time I can continue to test with the firepower ignition and see what happens with it. I'll keep everyone posted. I'd like to sticky this thread up, but I dont know how often I will be able to update. May be just once a week or so depending on how much driving I do. The more storms that come through, the more driving I will do and thus the more updates I can provide.
____________________
My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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SyntheticShield
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| Joined: | Tue May 25th, 2004 |
| Location: | Bartlesville, Oklahoma USA |
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Posted: Thu Apr 28th, 2005 07:14 pm |
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I thought I would do a follow up.
My mileage is obviously affected by whether I drive in the city or on the highway. On the weekends I do a lot of city driving and then obviously during the week going back and forth to work I do more highway driving. There is still some city driving in there but as mentioned it is about 60%/40%. When I do mostly city driving the mileage is sticking around 28.3 - 28.5 mpg, which is an improvement from around 27 or so prior to the sidegapping.
When I do the highway driving with some city driving mixed in Im staying between 29.8 - 30.5. Which is again an improvement. My average prior to sidegapping the plugs stayed around 27.2 - 27.5 mpg combined. With the sidegapping my combined average is sitting around 29.4 - 29.5 mpg. Not bad, definately worth the effort and time it took to sidegap the plugs.
However, Im not wanting to have to pull the plugs very often and check the gap and edges. Its not a hassle nor a big deal, Im just too lazy to do it very often. So my next test will be to see if I can get my hands on some E3 spark plugs and run a test on them of a few tanks of gas and see if their claims are accurate. I'll have to report back once I have them and have been able to install them.
I should add that it doesnt look like, at this point, that the Firepower ignition did anything for the mileage. Kinda disappointing, but thats okay too. I havent opened up the gap yet either.
I may try opening up the gap on the plugs and running a couple tanks to see if there is any change before gettting the E3 plugs. We'll have to see on that.
____________________
My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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03 white zx3
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Posted: Sat Apr 30th, 2005 01:27 am |
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well, I work 4 miles away from my house. My daughter's school is less than a mile (or about that), lots of trips to Walmart lol- so about another 3-4 miles for that.
Mostly in town driving, but twice a week to hockey practice 35 miles round trip.
No jackrabbit starts, I try to keep it smooth.
The mileage seems to be getting better as time goes on- I'm not really sure why. I was absolutely amazed last time I filled up I got 27 mpg!!!
I have a 2003 Zx3 (zetec engine) with about 19500 miles on it.
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SyntheticShield
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Posted: Sat Apr 30th, 2005 01:49 am |
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03 white zx3 wrote: well, I work 4 miles away from my house. My daughter's school is less than a mile (or about that), lots of trips to Walmart lol- so about another 3-4 miles for that.
Mostly in town driving, but twice a week to hockey practice 35 miles round trip.
No jackrabbit starts, I try to keep it smooth.
The mileage seems to be getting better as time goes on- I'm not really sure why. I was absolutely amazed last time I filled up I got 27 mpg!!!
I have a 2003 Zx3 (zetec engine) with about 19500 miles on it.
The short mileage trips are not good for mileage, so that could be the case for ya. Another issue with short trips like that can be fuel dilution in the oil. If you let it idle for long periods of time in the winter it can cause a fuel dilution issue as well. The fuel will get in your oil and thin it out and reduce your protection and cause accelerated wear. The only way to tell for sure is to do an oil analysis. I would think that your 35 mile round trip hockey practice would evaporate some of that fuel off. And thats if you are getting fuel in your oil, but its pretty common on short trip driving and for vehicles that idle for a long time such as in the winter for warm up.
With only 19.5K miles on it, its entirely possible the motor is still breaking in too. Contrary to popular belief your motor isnt broke in during the first 3000 miles or so. Ive seen vehicles, verified with oil analysis, that took 20k+ miles to get completely broke in.
So I would say that the short mileage trips are probably more of the reason for your mileage, though I would think you would be averaging more than say 22 - 24 mpg or so. I would every now and then stomp on it. You could be getting some deposit build up in the combustion chamber or on the valves, depending on the quality of gas you are using. Step on it every now and then and run it in the upper RPM range and get things heated up and blow out some of those deposits, and use a quality fuel additive every once in a while and that should keep that situation under control.
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My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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So it does get a little "stomping on" every now and then.
