TAndrus said:

It's got about 119,000 miles on it and the "intercooler gasket" was replaced 1000 miles ago supposedly.

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What the **** is an "intercooler gasket"???

DSMunknown said:

What the **** is an "intercooler gasket"???

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Yeah?!?!

I honestly could not tell you. It looks like an I/C pipe. Maybe that's what the guy meant.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

Welcome to DSM. You will find yourself visiting this site often. You will learn the car fast.

Maybe a hard UIP.
Is the pipe the blow-off valve is on metal?

Um... is it the elbow up by the throttle body gasket? Intercooler pipes don't have gaskets there held together with couplers... Hmm.. pictures of your gasket?

Okay. I'm pretty sure it's the pipe that the HKS blow off valve is attached to.

But that's just a side note that I put up. I'd really like to know what could be causing such poor gas mileage. The 12mpg is killing me right now and I cannot afford to fill up every week. Could it be a bad o2 sensor?

A bad o2 sensor probably wouldn't rape your gas that hard.. check for leaks make sure your car is running properly also. Compression test, wet test, leak down test etc.. Check for boost leaks also there are so many things that could cause poor gas mileage. Any smoke coming out of the tailpipe? Also that pipe with the BOV on it is your upper intercooler pipe it connects to the throttle body elbow. There's a gasket up there maybe that got replaced...

[We are so stupid. Or blind. Or illiterate.]

Is the HKS SQQV venting into the atmosphere?!?! If so, buy one of these. Venting with the MAS will definately have negative effects on your gas milage (as well as other things). Recircuate it back into the intake pipe. I don't care how "cool" or "pimpin'" you think it sounds. Do it right now, whether you want to or not, whether you like it or not.

Alright.

Like I said before, I honestly am pretty clueless about this car. You mentioned a bunch of tests that I could run, but my problem is, I don't know what those tests are! Are there any walk through things I can read on them? And you asked about smoke coming out the tailpipe, and yes, there is but not like all the time.

DSMunknown said:

[We are so stupid. Or blind. Or illiterate.]

Is the HKS SQQV venting into the atmosphere?!?! If so, buy one of these. Venting with the MAS will definately have negative effects on your gas milage. Recircuate it back into the intake pipe. I don't care how "cool" or "pimpin'" you think it sounds. Do it right now, whether you like it or not.

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That might possibly be it. Here is what it looks like, and yes, it makes a pretty loud air release noise if that's what you're meaning.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Badboy89/?action=view&current=random011.jpg

Even venting to the atmosphere won't kill the gas that bad.. holy shit.. he's losing like 17 mpg come on.. On a basically stock setup your mpg should be double that. A boost leak test is easy and if you type it in the search field you will get about a million posts about it. It's just a way to pressurize your system to find out where the boost is escaping and trust me it is. Even if you don't think there are leaks believe me there are. These testers can be built by yourself from parts you can find at home depot for like 20 bucks. Read up on it type it in the search field it's probably the first thing you should do before you worry about the other stuff. Granite venting to atmosphere is also bad and should be fixed also that only takes a few minutes to fix and I doubt highly it's causing your horribly bad gas mileage. If anything it would cause a shitty idle possibly stalling your car out. Don't be afraid to use the search button a lot of info is on this website.

Oh and by the way that picture you showed is a good setup it's not being vented to atmosphere. The black hose coming off of your blow off valve connects to your intake pipe and recirculates the air out your intake pipe. So that's setup fine therefore not causing your mpg decrease. Do a compression test, and boost leak test.

Have you checked plugs, wires, and if intake filter needs cleaning?

a_flint87 said:

Have you checked plugs, wires, and if intake filter needs cleaning?

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What plugs and wires would I be checking? And how would I clean my intake filter?

Im sorry I was speaking about spark plugs, and spark plug wires. And about cleaning the air filter, it depends on what kind it is, washable or not. If it is just a cheap autozone filter, just buy a new one, if money allows, if it is a K&N or something comparable, wash it with soapy water, rinse it VERY well, and then oil the filter. You can get oil for the filter at your friendly neighborhood autozone! Like I said it would depend on what kind of filter you have!



PS can we have a picture of your engine compartment?

TAndrus said:

What plugs and wires would I be checking? And how would I clean my intake filter?

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The ignition plugs and ignition wires. Just buy a new filter with the MAS adapter plate (you can see one here).

pull your air filter out of the car and hold it up to some sunlight see if you can see through it. If it's dirty buy a new one simple as that. Unless you have a K&N filter then just buy the cleaning kit. Your spark plugs and spark wires are located on top of the engine... If you look you will see 4 wires running underneath a black ( should be black ) plastic cover on the top of the head. That would be where your spark plugs are.. Depending on the mileage of the car you should probably get those replaced.

A picture of your engine bay would be wonderful

^ It would be wise to start using the "Edit" button if you have additional stuff you wish to add to your very recent posts.

Check for any unregistered air this would make you run SUPER rich and KIL gas mileage do a boost leak test
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201554 check this out it shoudl help

When I got my first DSM, it was getting about 12mpg also. I did all of the tests: boost leak, compression, etc. and they all came up good. Then I searched for "bad mileage" and a post came up about checking base timing. Come to find out, my cams were one tooth off causing my rough idle, low boost, and terrible gas mileage. I read the vfaq.com about timing belts, tackled the job the first time in 10hrs and the second time in 2 hours (messed up oil pump sprocket).

Check your timing, make friends with the search button here, and read through the vfaq.com

Hope things turn out good!

-Jeremy

Here are some pictures... Not sure if this is what you needed

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I get pretty bad gas mileage too. One of the larger killers of mine is boosting. If I am on the freeway at about 70-75 MPH, then my 16G is spooling and it's causing more air to enter my system. This then gets calculated by the MAS and adds the needed fuel. So even if I am cruising, I go through gas like crazy. I tried keeping my speed at 65 (really hard to do with all the A-holes in California...especially LA) and I saw a noticeable increase in my mileage. I suggest staying out of heavy throttle when you can and also following what others have said about changing your spark plugs and spark plug wires, and doing a boost leak test and a compression test.

Since you may or may not know how to do a boost leak or compression test, I recommend going to the DSM VFAQ site to further your DSM learning.

http://www.vfaq.com/index-main.html

Be sure to post back if changing anything made a noticeable increase in your MPG.

bjw24 said:

Oh and by the way that picture you showed is a good setup it's not being vented to atmosphere. The black hose coming off of your blow off valve connects to your intake pipe and recirculates the air out your intake pipe. So that's setup fine therefore not causing your mpg decrease.

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You were wrong. He is venting.

BTW, TAndrus, thanks for the pictures. You. just confirmed what I had suspected.