Home remedies for mileage/performance

"I'll bet a car with a 1200cc engine gets better mileage than a 1200cc motorcycle."
Sorry, but I'm calling Bullshit on this one!. There is no way that an automobile with the same engine as a motorcycle, 1200cc's or any other size, is going to get better mileage than a bike. It just can't happen. Consider the weight difference. Consider the aerodynamic footprint of the car vs. bike. Consider whatever you want, you'll lose that bet. How much did you wager?

 

More ignition advance. If you drive with a real light foot, you can get away with more advance without pinging and that will almost always help mileage. Same line of thinking, make sure your vacuum advance is hooked up and working (diaphragm not leaking). A lot of distributors have adjustable vacuum advance, by putting an allen key into the vacuum port - check yours first though, or you're back to *diaphragm leaking*.

 

One "trick" done in rural Missouri (and other places I would imagine) during WWII and slightly after was to disconnect the accelerator pump. Mileage in town driving improved dramatically.

Jon.

 

A buddy tried using acetone mixed with gas......burned a piston.

Gerrys,WOW, when you pencil it out it does not make a big difference.

 

Nope. I had a 602cc car = 35 mpg every day. That's the only one I recall, because it was recent. 600cc bike would get better than 60 mpg.

However, there is one more item to consider:

Where are you going to buy a 1200cc car?? (Smart is 900cc, gets 40 mpg) My bike is 955, gets 45-49 mpg.

Cosmo

 

Good stuff!!!!..............................Did I miss "Don't use a drive through window", ( fast food types)?

 

I've tried Acetone in the fuel. It did absolutely nothing but waste my money

http://www.nndb.com/people/452/000044320/

Might want to read up on that. The "Energy Catalyzer" as it's called is having a hard time being patented. Apparently there are a few folks that question whether or not it really works. It sounds like it's right up there with HHO and perpetual motion machines.

I'd take that wager. I had a 95 Suzuki Swift with a 1.5 that got an honest 50 mpg. My friend's bike with a 1500 got high 30s low 40s. I had a little Kawasaki KE100 that got 55 mpg. The bike was more fun but the car was more practical. Most motorcycles get pathetic mileage for their weight and motor size.

 

Life's short.

Burn gas.

 

Use a vacuum gauge.Assuming a Holley, set the overall main jetting off the trap speed at the track. Calculate the total orifice area, mains and PVCR's. Then go out and road test or use the chassis dyno, lean the mains until you get a lean surge at steady throttle opening when cruising at 45-50 mph in high gear. Now jet up again until you get the highest vacuum reading at the same speed. Then go back to the area you calculated, and drill the PVCR's to compensate for the reduction in main jet area. Drill and tap the IFR's with a 5-40 tap, and buy a handful of 5-40 brass set screws, and using a pin vise and number drills, drill one pair to the same size as the existing IFR's in you metering block, drilling several others in smaller sizes, using the number drills in sequence. Now repeat the process at the speed the car will cruise at at minimal throttle opening. Now drill and tap the transition passages in the main body, and repeat. Fine-tune any transition problems off the air-bleeds. A bit generalized, and of course the timing should also be set properly ect., but way more effective than dumb-ass gizmos and "magic" additives. More work too, guess thats why hardly anyone does it the right way. Not only will it get better mileage, it will be much crisper and nicer to drive as well.

If you have lots of money, you can use a Lambla sensor and a chassis dyno, and you can buy the 5-40 set-screws pre-drilled from Braswell.

 

There was the Cagle fuel pressure regulator in the 70's. I ran across one new a few years ago and tried it . No change in milage.

 

You need to have the price per gallon in your first calculations.

What are the other calculations?

 

I came up with it taking like 40-something years for the difference in mileage to add up. Sweet jesus. Not to mention that the car would have long since turned into a undrivable piece of shit. You'd have to buy batterys, switches, sensors, etc. as well.

My grandpa used to have a '79 C10 2WD long bed. 350/350 with 3.something rear gears. Headers, glasspacks, mild cam, performer intake, 305 heads. Loaded full of tools and other crap it got about 15mpg. He gave $700 for the truck. Drove it 5 years and replaced one rear u-joint, a $30 starter, and a $100 radiator.

I had a 86 Nissan Hardbody with a 4-cylinder, 5 speed that got about 25mpg. Bought it for $1500. $100 clutch, $100 for brakes, timing chain jumped, warped all the valves, set me back about $500 in labor and parts. Driveshaft yoke broke $50, rear-end went out, $250. Starter died, $75. Heater hoses exploded, fancy molded pieces, had to be ordered. Set me back about $25.

Only later did I realize I could've bought a shitload of gas with the money spent on parts, not to mention spent less time walking, hauled whatever I wanted and had a easier time fixing what did break-if I'd just drove grandpa's old truck and got somewhere between shitty and decent mileage.

Talk about false economy.

 

the other day a man was arrested for impersonating a police officer, they found him sleeping in a donut shop.

 

I can attest that my 1300cc bike gets 45 mpg, day and night. My 1.6 supercharged Mini gets 26 on a good day. They are both fun to drive without regard to fuel economy.

 

My bike gets 80mpg. Take that, stupid prius.

 

LOL my father in law was actually selling some widgets like those in the '90s. For some reason he bought into the company that made them, The clincher on it was that he would tell people that they didn't improve a thing but that they were hard to come by and were good conversation starters. he sold a ton of them before someone at the company go found out and they bought him out.

My pickup would be happy and I could even make the Green peace people happy by putting on my beeeeg hat and speaking broken inglish. Then they would just think that I was the gardener.

 

Unless I missed it; nobody has mentioned cow magnets.

 

Chemical concoctions and gizmos to increase mileage have always been an amazing waste of time to me unless they actually produce more power. The cost of fuel is insignificant compared to the other costs of buying and driving a vehicle. That said, in my experience with low gas mileage, I'd say leaking fuel systems, low tire pressure, and dragging brakes are common problems.

 

I only get about 40 out of my shovel. I got better mileage out of my big inch pan when it was fresh. I did discover that a clean carb and fresh plugs made all the difference in the world.

OK no one wants to admit this but how many remember the V Dubb bug that went coast to coast for a gas mileage record. I don't know what all had been done to the little bug but what you could see were skinny motor cycle tires and they did say that the coasted whenever they could, I'll bet they made good mileage going down the western side of the great divide.

 

If I need some gas I just siphon it out of my neighbors Escalade with monster tires and fart big exhaust. He doesn't even notice its missing and I get revenge for him waking me up early in the morning.

 

drive on windy days with a home made sail, not to tall so you can still go under the bridge!

 

Make more power at lower RPM,run numerically lower gears to pull them. And if you do this at home it will be your home remedy.

Study the theoretical advantages of water methanol injection. Purposely build an engine with circumstances to take full advantage of those theoretic ones. Adding water methanol injection to a common engine built without the circumstances will benefit little

 

Acetone is a strong solvent, used in lacquer thinner. I would expect it to dissolve plastic and rubber parts eventually.

Some typical hot rod tricks improve mileage as well as power because they burn gas more efficiently. Headers, higher compression, synthetic oil, the right cam, can all help mileage.

So can Water injection if your compression is high enough to require it.

Haven't tried the electric devices that break down water into oxygen and hydrogen, in theory you should lose more by the power used to make the gasses, than what you get by burning them. But some believe they act as a catalyst to burn the gas more completely.

One trick that never gets mentioned, Chrysler's Lean Burn system from the seventies. They found out you could burn a very lean mixture, 18:1 compared to the stoichiometric 13:1 if they advanced the spark to 52 degrees. This meant they got 25% more MPG on this alone.

They made a distributor with 2 pickups, a carburetor with a solenoid valve to switch the jets, and primitive computer control. They went to lean burn when the motor was warmed up and the car was cruising. Tramp on the gas and it went back to standard mode.

They made big boats of Chrysler Cordobas, Plymouth Furies, full size Chryslers and Dodges with 360 and 400 V8s that got 25 MPG on the hiway.

Their downfall was oxides of nitrogen, when smog rules tightened up they had to abandon the Lean Burn. But, with today's fuel injection and electronic spark it would be a cinch to program a computer to do the same thing.