Engine Tuning for better improved MPG

obi_waynne

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Tuning for economy. With the rising price of fuel one question TorqueCars frequently gets asked is how can a car be tuned for maximum economy. Short of getting the family to push the car everywhere there is a little that can be done to improve fuel economy.

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Car in a good state of tune and a remap. All Celtic remaps offer improved fuel economy but they also do a map specifically for this if economy is your sole aim.
 
It can be tuned leaner in the cruise rev range if needed but the best fuel consumption comes from the way the driver uses his right foot. IE don't take off like a startled rabbit and rev it to the red line OR make the motor struggle chugging along at lo revs. Roll off the gas when you see the red lights or slowing traffic instead of driving and braking at the last moment for starters.
 
Lean as possible without causing overheating. David Vizard once set up a mini to run super lean just to see how much extra economy he could get out of it. Dont remember the exact results but they were good.

Getting away from the engine for a moment, over-inflated tyres and lowered suspension also helps
 
I didn't know lowered suspension helped with fuel economy, that's interesting. Don't suppose you know the rationale behind that one?
 
If you ignore the woeful thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines, and the effect of braking on economy you find that the great majority of losses for a car come through aerodynamic drag.

Drag is the force that's produced by the car the act of pushing air out of the way as it travels, and it increases as your speed increases. It's a squared relationship so if you double your speed, you multiply the drag by a factor of four.

Getting back to the point, the drag produced for a constant speed is calculated by multiplying the Coefficient of Drag (Cd) by the frontal area of the car (A). There's not a lot you can do about the Cd other than removing wing mirrors or spoilers, but you can reduce the A part by lowering the car. The reason that this works is because the air flow under a typical car is pretty disordered and 'draggy' so you can consider that area to be in the A part to a certain extent. If you reduce it by lowering the car then you can reduce A. This reduces drag, and increases economy.
 

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