I have been in China for the past 5 months. I will be home in 3 weeks. I drive my 1973 Pinto 1600 stick about 110 miles a day, about 70% of that is freeway miles through the rough & tumble Detroit freeway system.
Gas has gone up a LOT since I left :hypno: :hypno: :hypno: :hypno:
So I will be trying to maximize my mileage with minimal investments. I will splurge a little for fun & the challenge to see what I can achieve. Below is what I have done to date and what I am considering. Right now I can get 32 mpg on my 70% freeway, 30% city mix. Before I was driving about 65-75 mph on the freeway. I can get 38 mpg on the freeway at 62 mph.
Engine is stock and in excellent original condition.
PRESENT MODIFICATIONS
1) 15 inch Tempo wheels with oversize tires. The large rear tires create a 21% overdrive condition.
2) Electric radiator fan, thermostatically controlled. It only comes on when I am not moving. So in my commute it may only come on once for 30 seconds or so.
3) Electronic ignition & hotter coil with no ballast resistor. Recurved
4) Platinum plugs, gap opened up an extra .005 over stock
5) 195 degree thermostat.
6) Stock exhaust.
7) Eliminated everything not used to reduce weight. Spare tire stays at home. No charcoal canister, hoses, etc.
6) Synthetic engine oil. 15W-50 Mobil 1. I don't use thinner oils or other brands because I want the zinc protection for the camshaft. However, this is open for further discussion.
7) Don't use any petrol with ethenol.
8) Good driving habits.
9) Air pressure around 28-30 psi. On my other cars I run 32-34, but the Pinto is so light. 28 feels hard.
CONSIDERED ADDITIONAL MODIFICATIONS:
1) Better flowing muffler. Maybe a small tube header if I can find a new one somewhere. Do you know of a source?
2) Direct cold air to the air cleaner instead of underhood air.
3) Change stick shift transmission fluid to synthetic. What would you use? What weight?
4) Change rear end fluid to synthetic. What would you use? What weight. It's the light duty 3:55 geared rear end.
5) Rear spoiler. I seen one on Ebay by MAP351. Do you know if he is still selling them?
6) Front spoiler. Are these available?
7) Partially block the front grill for smoother air flow.
8) Draft trucks :lol:
YOUR IDEAS & COMMENTS
try this
http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,9267.0/topicseen.html
if you change the exhaust don't go too big. i think with this motor/tire/rear gear setup 2" would be max. engine rpm at highway speeds might not need a bigger pipe. you need to keep a decent velocity in the exhaust gas stream. sometimes going too ig can decrease (noticeably) power & mileage in certain situations. if you get a header for it get a long tube header with primary tubes no bigger than 1 1/2" or 1 5/8". the longer / smaller tubes will help with torque and keep gas velocity up in low load situations which will translate into your foot not having to be so deep into the carb to keep up a decent cruising speed.
get a vacuum gage. use it. try to drive the car with the highest vacuum reading-lowest engine rpm-highest gear-lowest road speed.
Make your intake and exhaust as efficent as possible. Also to answer your question, I have arear spoiler from Map and I highly recommend it. good quality.
jim
A 5 speed trans would be a great add also.
Below is a link to an old article on improving mpg in a Pinto. I did not know Pintos ever got this low a mpg.
http://www.ecomodder.com/blog/2008/03/12/11-on-mods-plus-new-tires-car-and-driver-improves-mpg-by-25/
This 2 part article experiments with aerodynamics on a Prius. I do not know if similar modifications would help a Pinto.
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2455/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2456/article.html
i remember when that article was written and tried all of that plus I did have a thin gauge aluminum 'belly pan' under the engine to just ahead of the front u-joint.
Pintony,
What brand & weight synthetic did you try in your rear end that started leaking?
Did the pinion seal or axle seals start leaking?
I just purchase Mobil 1 75W-90 but didn't have time to change the fluid yet. You have me worried!!!
SRT,
You say you tried those modifications. What was your results?
The issue with synthetic oil is the molecules will penetrate anything and leak even if there is a good seal for standard oil. The trick is to have a " very good" and tight seal on everything. You may need to replace seals on things you might not have needed to with standard oils.
Quote from: Starliner on June 27, 2008, 12:38:46 PM
Pintony,
What brand & weight synthetic did you try in your rear end that started leaking?
Did the pinion seal or axle seals start leaking?
I just purchase Mobil 1 75W-90 but didn't have time to change the fluid yet. You have me worried!!!
SRT,
You say you tried those modifications. What was your results?
I used Dunlop SP4 tires that were pumped up to 40 psi (they gripped better at higher pressure anyway). I didn't do the convex headlight covers but I did block off the area behind the grille that didn't lead directly to the radiator core. Prior to the turbo and later after I went back to a naturally aspirated motor, I did run an air duct from the grille area into a duct to the carb.
I made a rear 'spoiler' from a piece of 14 gauge aluminum & pop-riveted it to the edge of the deck lid. (that made a very noticeable difference on a road course at the top end)
I did use a lighter weight oil in the trans but that didn't work out. I was into street racing real heavy at that time and after i literally blew up a couple of German 4 spds I went back to a more normal weight and never had any problem there.
Used to drive a lot of long distance trips (1000 miles or more-the car had over 40,000 miles in the 1st year I owned it) and the partial belly pan along with the air dam below the front bumper ,IIRC, helped by about 1/2 to 3/4 MPG increase in mpg over a long trip.
Of course I also had the car dropped to the ground. It was so low I had to step up to get out. The air dam & the little belly pan (i think) worked better with the car down so low. But I really don't recommend dropping a street car so low. It's hell on your a$$ as well as the car in general; especially if you have to drive it daily.
With the 2.0 turbo a 4:11 - 1 rear gear and 24" tall tires(with a
CORRECTED speedo) the car would return 24 mpg on a weekend trip thru So-Cal deserts/freeways/mountains ( we would usually cover 400-500 miles) and I didn't baby it either. I drove the livin' crap out of it.
There were a couple of us that had turbos. The other guy had a 73 wagon that we did and he was getting 21 or 22 with his wagon with pretty much the same modifications but with a 3:40 rear gear.
After a while I took the turbo off and the mileage went up to between 26-28 during everyday driving. This time the motor was the same 2.0 with a head that I ported myself (valve pocket work) and a set of Dougs Headers running thru a 2 1/4" pipe. The motor had a head that had been cut .060" and the block was set up with "zero" deck height. The compression ratio was kind of high. With the good gas available then and some conservative driving habits I really liked this setup the best. It was super reliable on the long trips and a LOT easier & more predictable during mountain runs.
The last mileage checks I did before was in the winter time. It was "on the choke" at start up, the oils were thick, and I had to run headlights both ways to & from work. I have been in China since the end of winter.
This is the first week I did my first warm weather mileage check and slowed my driving to 63 mph.
At a 110 miles a day I did the mileage check two times this week.
It turned 39 mpg & 40mpg with a 30% city stop & go with 70% highway!
:amazed:That is really great mileage Starliner. Wish I could get that out of my truck . :'(
allot of place are offing nitrogen put into tire's to improve gas milage. any one know more about this. how much better is it
Quote from: Pintony on June 28, 2008, 10:50:51 PM
Hey SRT,
What carb were you running on your turbo Pinto??
How mush boost??
What was your Static Compression?
From Pintony
At first the carb was a stock 2bbl re-jetted. The after a few times running lean under pressure and having to replace the resultant melted pistons (#1 or #4) I grabbed an autolite 2bbl off a ford truck that had a 360 motor in it. I jetted it way down in size and did the same to the air bleeds/emulsion tubes and never had that problem again. (it was cheap too!)
The only boost gage that I was able to get my hands on was a VDO unit that would read out to 20psi max. The car would pump that much at the top of 1st gear and peg the gage immediately after that in any gear if my foot was on the floor.
The car came out of the factory with "0" deck height pistons. I think the 'advertised CR was 9 to1. I did have a head on it that was very well massaged by a guy named Jocko Johnson (google it) out here in LaLa Land, and the head had also been cut 0.060" so th e CR was really WAY too high for reliable use on a turbo motor but damn, did it haulass.
apintonut,
Based on what I have read, nitrogen for street cars is not cost justified. Even Consumer's Union had an article stating this about a year ago. Nitrogen is dry and thus will not change pressure as much as humid air when the tire temperature changes per the articles. It is justified where temperature changes and costs are high, i.e. large air planes and high end race cars.
The air we breath is about 80% Nitrogen.
OK is correct, unless you are racing and tire pressures are ULTRA CRITICAL, regular air is fine.
Bill
This week traffic was light because of the fourth of July. I had no stop & go freeway traffic that I usually run into as I approach the downtown interchange.
I got 44 mpg !!
In the next two weeks I plan to do the following.
* fix my exhaust manifold crack. (only leaks when started cold, seals in 2 blocks)
* change to a Flowmaster series 50 scavenging muffler.
* Install the unilite distributor & 12 volt coil (3 ohm)
* Re-adjust the valves
* Try Mobil 1 75W-90 in the rear end (I have 85W-140 in the rear end now)
* Try Mobil 1 75W-90 in the transmission (I have 75W-90 conventional gear oil in the trans now)
* Save some coin & contact MAP351 to buy a spoiler ;D
Hi,
While your picture is rather small it appears that your car has the 16" tires from the Turbo Coupe? The reason I ask, (and someone else hinted at it before) if they are the 225-60-16 tires, they are approximately 16% taller and create a corresponding error in mileage.
I based my own corrections (the 16%) on the size comparison of my stock "factory" spare tire and my somewhat worn tires off the Turbo Coupe.
So, I'm curious, are your MPG rates based on correcting for the tire size?
Tom
The rear tires are larger in diameter than the front tires in the picture.
The rear tires are P225 / 70R15 Yeah, SUV tires!
I used this site for the calculations: (good site, check it out)
Link: http://www.differentials.com/calc.html
I found another site that gave me the diameter of the original non-metric sized tire.
Locally they have several radar units in constructions zones that displays your speed.
I verified my speedo speed versus the actual readout many times.
Since my overdive is 21%, it is easy to estimate my actual speed to keep me from getting tickets.
I just take my speedo reading and figure 10%, then multiply by 2. Very easy.
Example: If my speedo reads 60, I just say 10% is 6, then x 2 =12. 60 +12 = 72 mph. I'm actually a hair faster, but close enough.
For the 44 mpg run I was running 50-53 mph on the speedo which is 60-64 mph.
The engine is in the 2700 rpm range.
My present electronic ignition is installed in the stock dual vacuum advance distributor. I will be playing with the mallory centrifugal advance distributor next week.
See the attached two pictures.
The rear tires on the 73 fill the wheel well to within 3/4 of an inch of hitting the body.
Look at wifey's 79. It has oversize 13" tires, then look at the rear tires on the 73. What a difference.