GAS SAVING TIPS
Paying for gas sucks, you hate it, we hate, so what can we do about it?
In this article we discuss a few easy things anyone can do to get better gas mileage along with some more involved fuel saving tips you may not have even considered
ENGINE BASICS
ICE (internal combustion engines) make power and torque by taking oxygen, compressing it and then burning it. For this process to happen we need a propellant, this is where gasoline comes in. The aim of the game is to burn air not gas, gas just allows the burn to happen in a controlled manner.
SO WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT CAUSE HIGH RATES OF GAS USAGE
There are a number of things that cause vehicles to burn gasoline at different rates. The five main categories are:
-Engine size and efficiency
-Drag
-Weight
-The Stig behind the wheel (Driver)
-Vehicle condition and environment
Engine size has a big say in fuel usage, no matter how efficient an engine is, a big displacement engine displaces a lot of air, a lot of air means it needs a lot of gas to go with that air and there's just no getting around this.
Engine efficiency has an even bigger role to play, the more efficient an engine is the better it makes use of the gasoline that is uses. In this instance less equals more and this is exactly what manufactures strive for along with other goals such as emissions, power, drive ability and reliability.
Drag comes in 2 forms, aero drag and frictional drag.
Aero drag refers to how much force is needed to move the car through the air. The more stream line we can make our cars the better it glides through the air and the less the engine has to work to move the car meaning better MPG!
Frictional drag is things like: engine and drive-line parasitic drag or the friction drag caused by the tyres being in contact with the road.
SGM RACING'S GAS SAVING TIPS!!!
We'll start off with easy tips anyone and everyone can do with a brief cause and effect of each item leading into more complex things for the more keen readers.
1) Tire pressures.
Keeping on top of your tire pressures will minimise the drag between the road and the tire. Less drag less fuel it's as simple as that.
This is one biggest impacts on your fuel usage and its free!!. We recommend slightly over inflating your tyres for added more noticeable gas savings. OE have tyre pressures setup up for performance, safety and also ride comfort in mind not ultimate gas mileage. If you're happy to sacrifice a bit of ride comfort you can usually add 10+ PSI extra on a passenger tyre safety without taking a tyre outside its safe limits, this dramatically reduces the rolling resistance and saves gas. ALWAYS refer to your tyre specs and check the safe working tyre pressures prior to inflating tyres. It should be noted this will also alter how the car drives so keep that in mind.
2) Replace your 02 sensors
02 sensors can be found online and are relatively cheap. 02 sensors are one of the main inputs the car's on board computer uses to determine how much gas to use at any given point in time. Just because the engine light isn't on, doesn't mean the 02 sensor is performing the way it should. In fact many 02 sensor manufactures whom make 02 sensors for car manufactures only rate their sensors to work efficiently for about 50,000 miles on average. After that they'll still work but not as efficiently causing more gas to be used than needed. It should be noted that only the upper 02 sensors in the Exhaust manifold or down pipe on a turbocharged car should be replaced. These are the sensors that aid in gas table trims. The sensor post catalytic converter is solely used to monitor the cat converter performance for emissions purposes and has no effect on the gas table trims unless they register a fault.
3) Weight
This one is pretty simple, the more weight you have in the car the more hp and gas is being used to do nothing more than to push that weight around! Time to lose that junk in the trunk!
4) Aero drag
Aero drag actually has quite a big impact on gas usage, don't believe us? Put a set of roof racks and a light weight ladder on there and monitor your throttle position sensor. You'll see and feel the difference caused by trying to push the car through that air. Remember at speed air is like soup, and the faster you go the thicker the soup is! In racing, hundreds of HP is used to just over come the drag of a vehicle being pushed through the air and not to accelerate it! So remove any items like roof racks to make your car more slippery and stream line.
5) Frictional drag
We mentioned tires before. But when was the last time you got a wheel alignment? Toe in (when the front of the tires are pointing inwards) and toe out (when the front of the tires are pointing outwards) cause what is known as tire scrubbing. This is literally when the tires are 'scrubbing' or are dragging themselves along the road as you drive along adding a lot of friction and taking extra gas just move the car. Toe angle is apart of the suspension geometry and is required to have a good handling car. Excessive toe in or out is what we want to avoid here however. Most cars will come from factory normally with small amount of toe in front and rear as its considered "safe"
6) Use of AC
Now we love our Air conditioning as much as you do, however this has a massive impact on the usage of gas. The AC compressor is a pump, and this pump is driven by the engine when the AC is on. This causes additional load on the engine and causes the engine to burn more gas. Minimise the use of AC where possible.
7) Driver mod
By far the biggest contributor to MPG is you! Take it easy on the gas pedal there big fella! You're paying the bills remember! Don't accelerate towards red lights, you're going to have to stop anyway! Life style changes like planning your trips to be more efficient makes a big difference as well. If you have a number of things planned, try and do it all in one trip. Less miles driven is less gas used! Cold starts also burn a lot of fuel, so the less cold starts you can do the better. This will also prolong the life of your engine oil
8) ECU Tuning
Modern day ECU's or car computers as you may know it as, are pretty damn powerful. Even factory OEM Ecu's can be tricked up to do magical things.
Make use of this and get your car tuned for a Eco gas map. Here in Australia, long before E85 was a thing, we've been running multiple maps on our cars for years and years. It's not uncommon to see cars on this side of the big wet pond with a performance map, a sport map and even an economy map purely for gas mileage. Here's a few of the things you can do on a modern ECU with an electronic throttle body to save gas:
-Set up different engine maps or modes as mentioned above.
-Limit throttle percentage to save you from yourself eg: set max throttle to only 50%
-Lean off the gas mixtures safety for a leaner eco burn (OEM don't run the car as lean as they can, not because its dangerous to, but because they have other emissions factors to worry about to sell cars such as NOX. (Nitrogen oxides)
-Slow down the opening and closing rates of the throttle body, this translates to smoother more efficient driving.
-Fuel cuts when off throttle and trailing throttle such as when coasting down a hill
-Adjust engine timing to maximise fuel economy
-Adjust your cold start settings
-Adjust your cam timing and EGR Valve usage where these are fitted and able to be adjusted.
-Adjust your base idle
-Transmission shift settings
-Torque converter settings.
We could on with this, but you get the idea. GET A TUNE!
Our final gas saving tip is for you automatic owners out there!
Torque converters... most of you are rolling around on the stock converter. Converter technology like all technology moves on with time.The torque converters of today are wayyyyy more efficient that the converters found in cars built 15 years ago. So if you're in the market for a converter. Make sure you speak to your mechanic or trans shop and get a converter with the latest tech in it to transmit all the hp the car is making.
The goal of this article was to help our fellow car enthusiasts out, we know you're feeling the pinch of gas prices as are we in Australia. If your like what you see, why not share the article with a buddy and help him or her save a few bucks!