what are the best mpg mods

[junkyarddsm]

I have searched this site up and down and haven't really found this question but what mods will get you the best mpg? I have the 420a nt with cia, header, high flow cat, 2.5 exhaust, and ngk plugs. I am looking at doing the 2001 neon tranny swap as soon as i can find some good feedback on the swap. For the people that have gone turbo if you run a low psi how much dose it affect it? I know with more power less mpg. Its my dd and i am trying to do upgrades but not kill the mpg. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[LiquidX]

Best thing you could do is get a program to change your fuel trims and lean them out while keeping stock .

You are at least getting better MPG than myself.

 

[junkyarddsm]

I want to get the af/x ecm but want to see what every one had to say first

 

[knochgoon24]

The best improvements often come from weight reduction of your right foot.

 

[DSMDriver69]

I dont know about N/A dsm, but staying out of boost as much as possibile for us helps alot. I would think very slow driving would help. Just dont go WOT to much

 

[tkelly27]

If I remember right, at a certain load level the turbocharger is helping the engine overcome pumping losses to the point where it can be more efficient than if it didn't have the restriction in the exhaust. However, if you have a turbo, you'll be getting into boost, and boost is bad for mpg.

Some things I've found that helped my mpg were hotter spark plugs (bad idea for turbo), advanced ignition timing (only good while off boost for turbo), leaning out the fuel (duh), and the standard tires, oil, air filter, etc. This took my N/A plymouth horizon from 23mpg up to 35. I think I could have done more with weight loss and a better tune, but who knows.

In a NT car your right foot only does so much. You can eek out a few more mpg, but driving on egg shells I was only able to get about 5mpg more than when I drove it normally. Romping around I still got about the same as normal driving. As they say, your mileage may vary.

 

[Fotowntalon]

carbon fiber and fiberglass. As said above, reducing weight will save gas. Also a UDP and a crank scrapper and basically anything that reduces rotational mass should theoretically improve mpg because you are taking a load off your engine. With that being said, they normally don't increase gas mileage because most people who are modding end up using more gas with... spiritual driving.

 

[nothingfiction]

AC removal is also something to look into and think about too. that's like 45 pounds not to mention whatever you get for pulling the ac lines out and cleaning a little of the engine bay.

 

[LD25Delta9]

Get Nitrogen in your tires. There's talk of it allowing better MPGs. LiquidX drops the info bomb a couple posts down.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

These are all good suggestions guys, just remember that the OP has a 420A, so the turbocharger talk doesn't help him.

 

[Fotowntalon]

AC removal is also something to look into and think about too. that's like 45 pounds not to mention whatever you get for pulling the ac lines out and cleaning a little of the engine bay.

this will also reduce rotational mass by relieving the strain on your engine to run an AC(which should give slightly better mpg), downside is you have no AC anymore. Personally i pulled mine, cause if i am warm i have windows to roll down but if you live in an area that has a lot of traffic you might want to not do this.

 

[WIDECLIPSE]

Take your ps/ac belt off. Easy to do, free, and you'll get a lot more mpg's.

 

[LiquidX]

Get No2 in your tires instead of air, too. Not N2o or Nos....Nitrogen....

I would stay away from "NO2" since that's Nitrogen Dioxide and isn't healthy to breath in. Nitrogen, which what you wanted to put in is just "N". Nitrogen doesn't fluctuate air pressure as much as a compressed air mixture during driving. I think it's a little funky to believe that nitrogen alone will improve gas milage unless you never check your air pressure. Just be sure your tires are always inflated properly and you'll be fine.

If you plan on racing on a road cource or autoX, then I believe that nitrogen would be awesom to use as the change in a couple PSI will result in the car handling in a different manner. The PSI change between nitrogen and compressed air during warm up will be different resulting in nitrogen maintaining more consistant PSI numbers with fewer adjustments needed to acheive the wanted PSI/tire.

I thank Brian for allowing me to witness that a couple psi will alter the handling of the car from his latest autox event.

Nitrogen is also used in the paintball scene as a better gas to use than compressed air or CO2 because it doesn't fluctuate air pressure as much. Results would give you a consistantly accurate air pressure setting resulting in consistant FPS speeds which would make every shot land in a tighter circle.

 

[ramsack]

N2 is marketed to lazy people who don't check their tire pressures. a lot of lazy people i have come across working for a lube shop wanted their tires overfilled too because they said it increases their mpg. i don't know if it's true because i won't try it.

 

[LiquidX]

N2 is marketed to lazy people who don't check their tire pressures. a lot of lazy people i have come across working for a lube shop wanted their tires overfilled too because they said it increases their mpg. i don't know if it's true because i won't try it.

I hear about it too, I let them tell me what it does and what not but I don't pay any heed to it (taking g/fs car to shop for certain things). I already knew how it worked with pressure but I wouldn't run it unless it was free to put in.

I would never overfill a tire as you run the risk of blowing it while either filling it or hitting bumps. I couldn't tell you if it would increase MPG by over inflating but under inflated lowers your milage.

 

[ifeelubu]

one way is to try to travel more on highways than going local since you get more mpgs on highways than stop and go traffic

 

[LD25Delta9]

I stand corrected on the label! Useful info.

 

[bullettdsm]

Ok, the Nitrogen thing is kinda controversial (please don't hit me up with a lot of links for support ). I'm not saying my support either way, but the general argument (as alluded to by LiQUiDx) is that it would be helpful in a consistent hard driving situation (where tire pressures will fluctuate quickly because of heat generated), but for daily drivers, you just need to check your air regularly.

As for overfilling, yes it will help. When you overfill your tires, you get less contact patch area. Less contact patch means less friction. Less friction means less force used to move. Less force used means less gas to move it.......BUT it also means less contact patch to save your azz in an emergency manuever situation! If you gotta swerve a couple of times to avoid something, you now have less contact patch and a firmer sidewall to work with (keep in mind that at the track, I regularly run my rears at 55 to 60psi. No they are not going to blow out). Of course a thinner tire will cut down on contact patch and give you better mileage.

As many have mentioned, LOSE WEIGHT! Less weight to move less force to move it....blah, blah. Rotational weight is also included in that (basically anything that's associated to the turning of the crank - piston, rods, valve train, crank, crank pulley, accessory components on the pulleys and belts, rims, tires, etc. Making any of those things lighter.)

Driving style will probably be your biggest offender (and hardest to overcome). Supposed to be slow starts, light foot.........meh, skip all that crap and just accept the way you drive. The way I see it is, if I gotta drastically change the way I drive, it takes away from my driving experience. I'll acept that as my handicap.

Now I would suggest an SAFC. I used it (in conjunction with the AFX/ECU) and got her to just shy of 40mpg with the car in the low 14's). It will definitely save you gas (but please tune properly. Don't just willy nilly pull fuel and say "Hey it runs great". You may not be running for long if you do that).

There are some other "crazy" water injection ideas and "atomizer" screens out there. You're welcome to try those, but I've never used them and the jury is still out on their effectiveness.

MB

 

[ramsack]

overinflating also wears out your tires quicker. the pressure on the door of the car is there for minimum wear and best mpg for min. wear. also yea you make the circumference bigger, but you also need more power then to overcome that, so i could see no difference. keeping a car maintained well is the main thing.

 

[bullettdsm]

overinflating also wears out your tires quicker. .

Yup, meant to add that but in all my ramblings forgot to put it in And the tire overinflation has been tested and proven over the years. But I can understand your theory on larger diameter.

MB

 

[Novec64]

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

 

[bullettdsm]

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

Good link.

From front page of EcoModding.com;

"What is Ecomodding?
Welcome to EcoModder.com, an automotive community where performance is judged by fuel economy rather than power and speed."


But I'm guesing you won't see me on that one any time soon, .

MB

 

[Lil' Shaun]

I picked up 4mpg on the highway after lowering the car. it was a 420a car too.

 

[Fotowntalon]

I picked up 4mpg on the highway after lowering the car. it was a 420a car too.

eibachs site is claiming that with all 3 of their suspension stages they improved i believe it was a camaros mpg by something like 13%.
Eibach Springs : Eibach Performance Testing | MPG | performance | suspension | springs | Pro-Truck | Pro-Kit | speed | mileage | Test | technology

 

[pgarland]

Makes sense to me, lowering the car changes the aerodynamics around. Less wind resistance means less fuel needed to push through the resistance, therefore more gas in your tank at the end of your trip. I'd be interested in seeing the actual numbers on this on a 420A though (mpg at factory height vs. mpg at say 2 inches below factory height), I am sure it helps, but I doubt we'd see anything near a 13% increase like was done on the Camaro in that link (good read though, thanks for posting it!).