10% Mileage increase... free...

[e34.535i.sport]

Hehehehe... you already done this! Didn't you get your extra 10% fuel mileage improvement?

To be honest, since I claybarred, swapped back to the normal chip, fixed small fuel leak, adjusted the valve timing and changed the engine mounts (one was fooked!) my average has gone up around 3mpg (16.7%)! It reckons I'm getting 24mpg around town too at times with an m30 driving 'normally'... I think not. Time to get my calculator out!

[Morgenster]

I was told by an old guy once that WW2 air staff were told to polish the wings of the 'Spitfires' to keep their speed up. I don't know whether there was any truth in it, or if it was just a wartime morale boosting exercise, but with the E34 having the aerodynamics of a fridge then anything may help!

Cheers,

Shaun M

Believe it or not: smooth surfaces have less drag and at higher speeds this is all the more interesting. So it may seem silly but a grimy car will consume more fuel going 120-140 km/h than the same car being spotless and waxed.
Also, the E34 does not have the aerodynamics of a fridge: Cd is 0.34.

[Morgenster]

kids nowdays... My 51 chevy truck had no power steering or power brakes, we hypermiled without knowing about it back then....Coming back from the mountains we would frequently shut the engine off and coast as far as possible which was at least half way back on a 50 mile one way trip. No a/c no power brakes, no power steering , no turn signals except your arm. My 63 VW was the same way with the exception of turn signals. But things that were common then aren't so simple now.

It's the 'no power steering and brakes' that made it easier for you.
Power steering components are actually much harder to use when disabled.

[Robin-535im]

Recently I came across a car holding up a long line of traffic. When I finally got past I noticed the offender had a hand lettered sign on the back window of his mini SUV that read HYPER-MILER.
In his defense he was in the far right lane on a six lane highway. This was morning rush hour on a road where the typical speeds, even in the right lane, are well above the posted limit. There were lots of on-ramps and his pace was impedeing not only the regular flow of traffic but causing people from the on-ramps to brake after accelerating for their anticipated merge into fast traffic.
This guy was a ****ing menace and should ride the bus, perhaps the short one.

Don't get me started - this is a pet peeve of mine too. Some people don't realize how important common courtesy is when driving. Really gets under my skin when people are jerks on the roadway. Cutting people off, going too slow, driving erratically, no-signal / no-look lane changes, not letting people merge when they need to, speeding up so you can't merge, tailgating, excessive speeding... the list goes on.

I'm training my kids to be uber-aware of their surroundings so at least there will be some more positive examples out there.

BTW - I rode the short bus as a kid...

[sevenphotos]

The speed up/coast method is actually used for those high gas mileage contests. There should be some stories about them floating around the web.

The basic principle underlying it was that engines are not more efficient at part throttle. In terms of gas burnt/time to speed, a full throttle burst was more efficient than slowly creeping up to speed. Then they would shut off and coast.

However, those cars were built for the contest, and were not examples of real cars. Everything was optimized for this, including aero drag.

There's lots of ways to get slightly better mileage. One of the simplest I found was to find a nice 1990 Honda Civic 1.5-liter - no power steering, no power windows, no A/C. Easily gets 42-45mpg on the freeway at even 75mph. Sounds like a rather boring crapbox ride? Yes. Compared to driving on the freeway by accelerating coasting? Probably makes a lot more sense than the accelerate/coast method.

Realistically, get some narrower tyres, fill them with a proper amount of air and then some extra, wash/wax that car, keep the windows and sunroof closed, keep the car running in tip-top condition, and you'd likely get that 5%-10% better gas mileage.

However, how much fun is all that???

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

Stop running ethanol

That would give an F'n boost

[E34-520iSE]

Believe it or not: smooth surfaces have less drag and at higher speeds this is all the more interesting. So it may seem silly but a grimy car will consume more fuel going 120-140 km/h than the same car being spotless and waxed.
Also, the E34 does not have the aerodynamics of a fridge: Cd is 0.34.

A Cd of 0.34 eh? How about dropping it to 0.17 like this guy?

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...4-0-a-290.html

Shaun M

[Tiger]

Power steering at near crawling speed is a wrestle... Even at 15 MPH is hard and I don't think any girls can handle that much wrestling. I think in the older days, they make the gearbox much more mechanically advantage to the driver so it is not so hard as the modern steering box without power steering.

Same goes for the brake... I think the older car's brake booster is much much bigger too.

[Tiger]

Sounds great! Make sure that wax is still there. Clay bar is once a year thing.

[repenttokyo]

Power steering at near crawling speed is a wrestle... Even at 15 MPH is hard and I don't think any girls can handle that much wrestling. I think in the older days, they make the gearbox much more mechanically advantage to the driver so it is not so hard as the modern steering box without power steering.

Same goes for the brake... I think the older car's brake booster is much much bigger too.

you are right.

cars without power steering have radically different steering gears than those with. When your power steering fails, you are fighting against the power mechanism. It's not at all analogous to manual steering. My mid-80's ford pickup had no power assist in the steering.