I used to share a lift to work with a collegue, he had a habbit of accelerating right up to the rear of traffic queues before braking. He also used to moan like mad about the poor fuel consumption he was getting.

I remember back in the early 80's hearing about someone switching off their engine to save fuel whilst running down a long hill. However they also left the car in gear so the engine kept turning, when they turned on the ignition at the bottom of the hill the fuel that had collected in the exhaust system ignited and destroyed the exhaust.

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

[quote="Inventor Productions"]I believe with all this good info I should be able to improve my 16 mpg I currently get from my 5.7L V8.

Daniel Membry
Inventor Productions[/quote

There is no hope for a 5.7L V8 (Hemi?). Short of shutting down 4 of your cylinders while cruising...which, if you did that would get you to 2.85 L (which is still more than my 2.5L SE-R which gets 25 mpg)...

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Swim - Bike - Run ...Repeat
@BreakingChad
The Company Website

It's a chev and there is certainly no hope when my right foot weighs 42.8kg
I'm not sure that what i do is called driving anyway, could be more of a low level flight

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I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

I added a cold air intake to help my 4.7L Dodge tow my travel trailer. Worked.. has much more torque now. I also reduced the city MPG by 3 mpg. <sigh>

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
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Getting my radio interrupted every time I turned the car on/off would drive me nuts.

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MechMan

<Jedi Mind Trick> You want to go home and re-think your life.

My radio IS my V8...... the best bass note around!

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I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

I know, you cant compare the UK with the USA when it comes to motoring matters but that did make me smile. I tow a 1200kg 4 berth caravan with an unmodified 1.9L diesel with no problems. Mind you, I bet your trailer is a bit bigger and that the 4.7 sounds a lot better

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

Actually no, my trailer does not look much bigger than yours. Maybe a little...it's 22 feet long. The big issue is that it's higher (more wind resistance) and you have a diesel. Diesel's have tons of torque. I'm not surprised that your van hauls better than my truck.

Curious what is the difference between diesel and regular fuel costs in the UK.

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
Follow @seandotson & @mcadforums & @rndautomationon Twitter

Diesel is currently around

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

Much close in costs than here. Looks like about a 9% diff there while it's a 19% diff here. Of course diesel USED to be cheaper than regular...

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
Free 30 day trial of iPropWiz v5
Follow @seandotson & @mcadforums & @rndautomationon Twitter

Diesel used to be cheaper here and it was much cheaper over the channel in Europe. Its a con, as a car doesnt use so much diesel then the tax man takes a bigger cut.

Mind you with a diesel car you can run using veg oil although the cost of that in supermarkets has shot up. Some drivers have been using used oil from resturants.

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

Wow Nick, a diesel minivan...there's something you won't see in the states. i am not surprised at all that your little 1.9 L can haul that... like sean said, huge torque, especially low end...of course, that's all diesels have, as they really don't like to rev much over 3500 rpm anyway

Interstingly, I have a gasoline car engine and it produces its max torque of 172 lb*ft at 2800 rpms, but the max hp of 177 doesn't hit until about 5500 rpms (which is about 153 #*ft tq at that point)...has anyone out htere seen any other small 4 cyl gas engine that produces that much tq that low end?

Actually, speaking of low-end tq...figure out how much tq a mountain biker creates at a stand still (forget about the hp though)...I calculate at my wt, and a 9" crank arm, and considernig i use clipless I put about 150#*ft of tq (and .25 hp )

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Swim - Bike - Run ...Repeat
@BreakingChad
The Company Website

The 1.9 is supposed to give 310Nm of torque, the problem is that it uses a Japanese automatic box which is right on the limit for the torque. A couple of years ago my box had to be fixed at around

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

$5600 for a transmission...that's a crap load of money..I think here in the states you could get a used/remaned tranny for about $1000 installed on most non-luxury vehichles (or trucks)

227 lb*ft tq isn't too shabby...

I think the Euro Ford Galaxy would be the equivalent of the Ford Freestar or Windstar over here (I think the Freestar replaced the Windstar)...a vehichle I would never buy...but, we don't have the luxury of the VW motor...

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Swim - Bike - Run ...Repeat
@BreakingChad
The Company Website

Nowadays, many people are doing hypermiling. In fact, an Australian couple has just set a brand new planet record for pushing a car