Scientific Method meets Fuel Economy

Finished Photos + Results

2010-02-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation of the air dam + crash bumper post from a couple of weeks ago.

After completing it, I took the fam on a 1,000 mile road trip to see my grandma near Wichita, KS.

We were reminded that folks in other cities hadn't become used to the car as we got lots of gawking and laughing at stops and on the freeway.

Things unexpected: Car started overheating in the first half hour of freeway driving. I was hoping these issues would wait for summertime, or at least when I didn't have the car's heater on full blast and warming up fresh and very cold outside air (it was the whole trip)

I pulled over and moved the license plate (it was blocking 3/4 of the radiator inlet tubes). We drove a bit more, and this seemed to help, but not much.

Stopped at a home depot and I used some expanding foam to seal off gaps around the radiator (I had it pretty well sealed inside with coroplast before). Was impressed later to see that this stuff held - within 5 minutes, we were back on the highway at 70 mph.

Car still ran hot the rest of the evening (250 miles).

The next morning, it occurred to me that there was a tiny gap between the hood and the top of the air dam which would experience really low pressures and an escape point for intake air without going through the radiator. Fixed with a strip of duct tape. Drove another 250 miles, and car stayed pretty hot, but not overheated.

In KS, I added some oil and found that my amber oil (when we started out) had turned very black - a bummer to have cooked the oil with the high temps. One last effort - placed the license plate just above the air inlet tubes and used pliers to bend the bottom 1cm of it sticking out to the front, parallel to the ground. This seemed to work better, finally. I had to add some water to the car about 3/4 of the way home, but no worries with overheating, at least in cold outside temps.

I think I'm going to ditch the four individual dryer vent tubes and make one rectangular coroplast duct. (I had one measuring about 10cm x 30cm on my old grille block and it worked great, even with the A/C on. I'm also going to add a lip at the top to create a stagnation point there. Also need to find a way to create a door that can be opened from within the car. On my commute, in cold weather, I would probably keep the radiator inlet fully closed.

Will get more photos when I take them and after I really finish these plans.

New Air Dam + Crash Bumper

2010-02-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Started thinking about this midway through construction of my first air dam, and thought about it as I removed it.... and continued occasionally modifying my plans over about a year or so now. Finally got a day to dump into it, and got it started. Did take some changes to my original plan; bummer but still should work great.
Goals for this mod:
•Improve by +3 mpg highway (less than 10%) vs. car in its current state (all other aero and no front dam / belly pan) by lowering stagnation point and pushing majority of encountered air smoothly over top/sides of car to take full advantage of kammback, etc.
•Improve safety in a frontal collision by adding crush space and materials which provide significant support and resistance to crushing, but will fold up easily with substantial impact.
•Improve warm-up times in the winter by completely sealing off/controlling the radiator inlets.
•Improve ground clearance vs. original air dam

(notice my opinions about the shape of the air dam / nose of the car have changed.... more reading ;)
Pictures of progress thus far:
Framework and crumple zone complete:

Original plan was to have some of my spare lexan polycarbonate follow the curve of the following photo. Turns out this angle is way too far past the critical angle for air/polycarbonate. Translation: The majority of light from the headlight was reflected down to the ground rather than passing through.
You can also see my air inlets in this photo:
Had to solve the problem of the lexan angle; sacrificed some aero for it but still a big improvement over stock, I think. It's hard to see the lexan in this photo, but it comes down at about a 65 degree angle below the horizontal and meets a nearly horizontal piece of coroplast.
And here she sits... have to finish the other side and slap on some under-panels just going back as far as the engine/transmission to smooth things out and encourage the possibility of airflow through the radiator when it is needed. License plate will cover 2 of the 4 air inlets during the wintertime, and be moved in the summer. Planning an adjustable door for the other two.

SolarArray

2009-08-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating this mod for a while - about 6 months. I was waiting to figure out the alternatorless stuff so it would actually be coupled with improved fuel economy, but I'm confident that I'll get that figured out soon, and my free time is running out fast with the school year approaching. Enjoy.

For starters, I had to clean up the roof.

I got this $45 piece of plexiglass for $25 at Lowes thanks to the damaged chunk. I thought this was a terrific deal until later when I noticed it is about twice as thick as the pieces I used on the Kammback, making it stiffer and more likely to split... Argh. I think I'll have to re-do this with a different material after this winter - time will tell.Plegiglass, cut to the roof's shape:Removing the remaining pieces of protruding roof-rack materials that I didn't delete yet - they're the loose pieces atop the roof.The roof's ready - or not.
I decided to paint the top white for three reasons.
1. Extra insulation from the bottoms of the conductive panels; there were bolt-holes and some surface rust on the roof.
2. Keeping the roof cooler in the sun - like school busses and mini coopers - for me, for the panels (they work better when cool), and to slightly reduce the Earth's albedo. :)
3. The silicon caulk that I plan to use to seal the plexiglass against the roof is white, so matching the roof will improve the W.A.F. (Wife Acceptance Factor)
The sandpaper to roughen up the surface:
The roof, lightly sanded:Taped off and ready to paint:Primer painted on:White paint:Now for the fun part - Solar Cells!
I bought a bunch of tabbed solar cells on Ebay in March for a project my students were doing in class. The auction was for 108 cells, way more than they could afford, but I assured them I would use the extra.
They run $2.50 apiece and are rated at: 3.7A, 0.5V apiece (1.85W) under maximum sunlight. Each cell has 2 tabs attached to the top side and two rows of solder points on the back. To attach them in series, you lay one cell's tabs atop the next cell's back, and solder at the solder points. I made strings that were 14 cells long. I was planning on doing 15 cells, then putting 2 strings together for 30 cells * 0.5V per cell = 15V for a good input to the charge controller I haven't built yet. My roof was slightly too short, so I'll probably have to put more cells on the Kammback to get the voltage up enough. I ran electrical tape across the tabs and put a dab of silicon in the center of each cell. (One string - ready to install, other - just soldered)

Laying out the strings on the roof. Yes, I realize I have 5 strings, and I can only use 4 with my plan to get the voltage I desire, but I figure if I do this, I'm going all out and I may want to put panels elsewhere later. This was my downfall; if I had only used 4 strings, I could've used the size available of the thinner, more flexible plexiglass.
I used bricks to hold the setup down overnight. Later, when I was screwing it down, I used about 15 bricks to hold the plastic to the roof's slight curvature. It helped to leave the protective peel-off plastic on until the end. (just had to remember to remove the underside when I was ready to screw it on)
Finished product photos: The back of the roof - notice one string of cells has a bit more space behind it than the other. I scooted it forward and added my homemade desiccant. I was worried about condensation on the inside of the glass looking horrible, decreasing performance, or damaging cells. I wrapped up some of my daughter's dry rice cereal mix inside a paper towel, and voila! Moisture trap! The visible wiring:More top pics:

My wife actually kind of liked it - she said it was "nice". First thing she's ever liked on this car! Now: Performance data: (preliminary)
In the shade (only using 4 of the 5 strings): 14V, 1A (14W)
Pushed the car into the sun at 2:45PM: 14.5V, 5.4A (78W)
So the whole roof is worth about 100W for probably 4-5 hours in mid-day sun after all wiring is eventually done. Cool.

Alternatorless... or not

2009-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I recently (two weeks ago) tested the effects of disconnecting my serpentine belt while driving. Others have done this (or similar things) with much success:
Orange4boy's Toyota Previa
MetroMPG's Firefly (metro)
Daox's Paseo
The belt on this vehicle runs the a/c, p/s, and alt. The timing belt runs the water pump, conveniently.
I had tried monitoring tank-to-tank runs earlier this year without much repeatable success. This day I decided to do some A-B-A runs.
I did a 10-mile round trip run, all highway with a turn halfway, and did no pulse -and- glide, so as to maximize the effect of having the accessories running or not. I did the first couple of trips with the belt on, then did two with it off. Average FE went from 42.5 mpg to 43.2 mpg. Not convincing.
I went home and decided to do some monitoring of my voltage while driving beltless, and measured it to be hovering around 12.2-12.5V. In an effort to boost that, I connected another battery in the car to my normal battery via a 6A battery charger, hoping to get voltage up to 13.5V or higher. I repeated my test run, but alas, the voltage remained below 12.5V even with 6A coming in from the charger.
I'm not ready to call it quits, because I know there is a way to solve this somehow, in a cost-effective fashion. I know there is energy being wasted by my belt and accessories, even without the alternator being included. This should lie somewhere around 8% or higher with no belt at all, and it should show up easily in testing. Time to re-formulate a plan to delete the darned alternator system!

Kammback

2009-07-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

Finally! I had some time to play with the car after doing some needed repairs and working on the house/yard this summer. This is a good mod; it is the first one I have tested to my satisfaction since installing and calibrating my MPGuino fuel economy gauge.
The theory of this modification involves two things, changing the shape of the rear of the car, and changing the size of the rear of the car. Both contribute to dragging around a smaller wake.
The air flowing over/beside the car needs a clean, crisp "separation" edge, so a fin extending past the rear of the car will help this. Many new cars have integrated these little fins into their design to improve economy. A common and easily seen example is the back of the Dodge Caliber, but smaller ones are all over, including on the top of new truck tailgates.
Reducing the size of the wake also yields benefits, so tapering at the rear of the vehicle (at the correct angle) Typically this angle is around 30 degrees below the horizontal. From the explanation by Phil Knox, the tail on your vehicle should point to a place on the ground that is 1.78 times longer than your car's height where you want the taper to begin.
My inspiration comes from 4 sources:
Basjoos's Aerocivic
AndrewJ's civic
Darin's Firefly (Metro)
TomO's ClearKamm
Ok, on with the photos!!!
I chose to use galvanized 1/2" metal conduit for the frame. Cheap, strong, and easy to bend with a hammer. This shows how it's connected to the top of the car's hatch. A sheet metal screw through the top now holds it in place permanently:
The conduit extends 1 meter from the top, is hammered flat and bent, then attaches to the bottom of the hatch:
A cross-bar is held in place by bolts on the hatch's underside and two small pieces of conduit go down the edges of the window:
This shows the completed frame. Next step is to figure out where to use coroplast and where to use plexiglass, to cut down on the cost:This looks like it might obscure the rear visibility with this much covered with opaque coroplast, but here's the view from the inside:Not too bad. Well, the wife didn't approve. Something about "no more campaign signs on the car" and "I'm not going to ride in it anymore" Something I'm sure many other ecomodders hear all too often! Well, the solution is to spend ridiculous amounts of money on all plexiglass:Note the placement of my two shiny new Ecomodder decals courtesy of Dan (Intrigued). They are way more visible than the static clings (they really are in the photos!)And all the utility of the hatch is preserved. I just have to bend my knees to open it; the tip reaches my shoulder when I lift the latch. Just have to remember it's on there when shutting it - it almost gave me a concussion the first time! :)
Drove it around for a couple days with no problems. Many more looks than I used to get though, so I definitely need to post my fuel economy up on the car to explain all the junk on the car. I even attracted the attention of two of my neighbors who are interested in getting better gas mileage and they're going to check out the EM forum now!

Now what you've all been waiting for: Fuel economy results!
I did A-B-B-A testing (After Kammback, Before Kammback) I left the frame on and just took off the plastic. My test route for this was highway only; 20 miles round trip with an overpass-turn around in the middle. I used pulse-and-glide on each hill, but set rules: I had to reach 60 mph before each coast, and I did not coast below 55 mph. Raw numbers:
A: 55.2 mpg
B: 51.2 mpg
B: 50.2 mpg
A: 54.8 mpg
Average of B runs: 50.7 mpg
Average of A runs: 55.0 mpg
I'm comfortable saying it is worth 4 mpg highway - a pretty good improvement.

photo-op and prelude to restart of blog

2009-06-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

I had to include these photos from our recent trip to Colorado. Enjoy!

It's been awhile!

2008-11-23T07:44:00.000-08:00

Since school started and my focus has been either there or at home with Charlotte, I haven't done much ecomodding. Actually, I've done negative ecomodding; I removed my coroplast stuff to get an alignment check and I haven't reinstalled it yet. The main reason I'm waiting is that I'm trying to build my MPGuino - I was really disappointed with my original idea to monitor tank-to-tank mileage with mods, because it wasn't reliable. In true form with scientific method, I'm stopping my experimentation and restarting everything after I get some electronic, instantaneous numbers.
Stay tuned for some ecomodding after Christmas!
plans:
-newer style front air dam and belly pan - starting out farther, about 4cm higher from the ground (old one scraped a lot!) and going up to the hood level. Also a sweet chin spoiler!
-complete detachment of alternator electronics via installation of Deep Cycle battery to have plug-in electrical power supplied from my home (we buy Wind Power Renewable Energy Credits from our power company for 100% of our needs, so no fossil fuel emissions!!)
-Removal of power steering system. This car definitely doesn't need P/S. I can turn the wheel at a dead stop with the car off, and looping the lines will make this even easier.
-installation of 45W solar panels in roof to augment alternator-less condition for more range
-something to clean up the wake of the car off the rear.
My target is 60 mpg on my daily commute.

Old Mustang - good aero? Photo for thought.

2008-10-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

Ugly, but probably had decent Cd and therefore would have high top speed. Might not be stable at speed without a spoiler though.
Something new:

Still shooting for the 500 mile club...

2008-09-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

My last several tanks have shown a 40 mpg average. I was hoping to get to 500 miles on this tank, but I didn't want to push it today, wussed out, and filled up with 1/2 gallon to spare. I wouldn't have made it anyway :( Of course, my odometer read 576 miles, but I'm pretty sure I just didn't reset the odometer at my last fill-up. Oh well, I know I can hit 500 on my next tank.... time to maxinflate the tires. I'm postponing official...official testing a bit longer.. turns out the baby and school are keeping me BUSY and I'm also watching the MPGuino project on Ecomodder.com - since my mpgs are all over the place by as much as 4%, I want to have a real-time, electronic measurement of my mileage. Right now that's available to only '96 and newer cars with a ScanGauge, but the MPGuino will make it possible to do it in the 'scort.

New Tires...Yay!!

2008-08-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

I took a trip with my daughter, Charlotte, to AutoTire today. I did some calling and they had the best deal, and the best warranty/free service that goes with the tires. They got the car in quick and put on 4 new tires for $200 including tax. I had one tire that leaked 5psi per week, two that were worn to ~ 2/32" - around the state minimum. The fourth tire on the car was horrible, with flat spots and bulges. All four wheels were out of balance, which resulted in lots of my down-the-road energy being converted to up and down vibration. Aside from being noisy as heck on the highway and making the back seat the "rumble seat", it takes a lot of energy to shake the car as much as it did. Time to top off and watch the next couple tankfuls!
I noticed a very quiet ride on the way home and longer coasts, even with the tires at the same pressure as before. School starts tomorrow, so I can run the car down my official "coastdown testing hill" a few times over the next two tanks to observe any change.
One other bonus for after I establish how much gas I was wasting because of bad tires: my old tires' max pressure was 35 psi. The new ones? 51. :)

More Mainstreaming of Ecodriving

2008-08-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Although they're later than others, so I don't think they should be able to trademark the term, "ecodriver", I'm happy to see US automakers and everyone's favorite governor backing ecodriving. Check it out!
http://www.ecodrivingusa.com/
Official testing of the 'scort is due to begin in a couple of weeks. It's due for some new tires, and my commute will become regular once our little one begins daycare. Stay tuned!!!

Plans for Partial Alternator Elimination

2008-07-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days, and after reading about mpg gains in the 10% range on ecomodder.com via removal of the alternator belt, reading about GM's EV-1 plug-in electric car (which worked fine, but they destroyed because... well who knows) and the new, exciting aptera, I've decided to hybridize the Gascort.
Removing the alternator belt is good for testing, but not especially valuable for long-term use. In addition, the computer, fuel pump, and injectors rely on a 14-15V source from the alternator; the battery only runs about 12-12.5V at best, so running them on the batteries when they were designed with the alternator in mind can actually cause worse performance of injectors and sensors, hurting fuel economy. Several other ecomodders have done this with no ill effects and increased FE, but I'd like to modify their ideas a bit for my own use. I'm planning to lessen the load on the alternator by only having it attached to crucial electronics and disconnecting it from the rest of the car. This should work to increase horsepower and reduce drag, because alternators vary the amount of resistance inside them to correspond with electrical demand. When my buddy Brandon had a huge (2000W at least) stereo in his car, you could feel the car dragging hard when he turned on his amplifier.
Whoa..Wait a second there, professor. You can't just disconnect everything else and have it magically charge up by itself, for free! That energy has to come from somewhere, doesn't it?
Yes. I'm planning on plugging my car in at night to charge for the non-integral systems, namely the lights, radio, wipers, blower fan, and the starter. Eventually I'd like to add a solar panel to charge while the car's parked at work.
How does this fit in with the whole saving fuel bit? Here are my three arguments as to why I'm doing it:
First, consider that you're using a relatively cheaply made alternator to take mechanical energy and turn it into electrical energy. The electric utilities have much larger and thus more efficient units with less mechanical energy wasted as friction.
Second, consider your source of mechanical energy. Your car, with its fairly advanced emission controls and fuel-injection technology is good at extracting energy from gasoline, but isn't as optimal as it could be.
Third, consider the cost of fuels from which we're making electricity. Coal (our traditional source) is WAY cheaper than oil and will continue to be for the foreseeable future; we have at least 300 years of it left. Nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and solar are cheaper as well, and will only become better (cheaper than the equivalent amount of energy from oil) in the future.
Google.org (Google's philanthropic group) is developing plug-in hybrid technology now with their fleet. Check it out - it's pretty cool and it drives the effective efficiency of their hybrids up considerably. They consider their gas MPG and log the cost of electricity used to charge them overnight for a cumulative MPG total.
http://www.google.org/recharge/

Here's a schematic of my plan. (click to enlarge) It allows for a cheap lawn mower battery to be used as a capacitor in the alternator - ecu circuit, and a source of power as the ecu needs to be on before the engine is turned over.
The regular car battery remains in its current state, wired to everything else on the car. I'll install a heavy gauge wire and a heavy duty "charge switch" between the two systems so I have the option of using the alternator as it's typically used. I think I'll try to use it when decelerating at offramps and down hills as well. The reason I want it to be capable of 50-60A is so if the big battery is drained down past the point where it'll turn the starter, I can use the lawn mower battery to do the job (infrequently, for sure, but a nice emergency jump-starter).
I will need to get a volt-meter to monitor my big battery's charge so I can charge it before it goes dead. For now, I'll probably wire my Digital MultiMeter (DMM) in to watch it.

Mirror, Mirror On The Car

2008-07-10T16:06:00.001-07:00

After the deletion of the passenger mirror yesterday, I was so excited about removing over one square foot of frontal area of the car and probably a large increase in the car's coefficient of drag that I decided I would go ahead and do the other side. Before removing both mirrors, I had to find some replacements for safety and to keep the car legal...
MO 307.170.4. Mirrors: All motor vehicles which are so constructed or loaded that the operator cannot see the road behind such vehicle by looking back or around the side of such vehicle shall be equipped with a mirror so adjusted as to reveal the road behind and be visible from the operator's seat.

Missouri's code doesn't have specific rules (basically, a mirror has to provide a clear view of the area behind the car), but in most states, there must be a minimum of one outside mirror. Many small vehicles came several years without a passenger side mirror (except as an option) such as the Ford Festiva, the Geo Metro, and the Honda Insight.

I followed others before me from ecomodder and fashioned some interior mirrors using homemade brackets and convex "blind spot" mirrors.

I found a great solution to having an outside mirror as well. Even though it's not required by law, I'm sure lots of police officers will think they know otherwise. I don't want to get hassled unnecessarily, so I used a really neat wedge-shaped convex mirror designed to be stuck under large SUV mirrors. It came in a two-pack for $8 at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Here are some photos - with the "baby mirror" and no passenger mirror, I removed over two square feet of frontal area.

I also finished the grill block wraparound and I decided while I was at it I'd continue it to make a partial wheel skirt. It looks pretty good - hard to notice except for the off-green color in my opinion.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Changes, Changes...

2008-07-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I was driving the car home yesterday and a huge thunderstorm hit us - probably one of the top 10 downpours I've ever witnessed. The previous owners stressed that the sunroof of the car leaked sometimes when I was buying the car, and I have noticed some dripping from time to time. Last night, I would have had less rain on me if I had the thing open! I had to take my wallet out of my pants pocket for fear of it being ruined, and I was soaking wet when I got home (the rain had just stopped) and got out of the car. First things first: Today, I had to fix the Monsoon brand sunroof. I popped it out and used some 3M Windo-Weld (from the roll) that I had left over from a buddy replacing some window glass. The stuff is really easy to use, and stays pliable and sticky for a long time. I just use my hands - I don't know that the warning on the label is about. Hopefully the sunroof will leak no more.

I had some spare time this morning, and I was in the mood to change the car. Low-hanging fruit, as many of the guys on ecomodder say, were the roof racks, passenger mirror, and passenger wiper. I started with the wiper, then decided to adjust the drivers' side wiper to rest in the lowest possible position:

Above: Before (pass wiper already deleted) Below: After

Next to go was the passenger side mirror. I need to go get a small convex mirror to mount inside.. will do that this afternoon. I replaced the mirror with a piece of coroplast.

I didn't like how the top was sticking out away from the car a bit (see above) - for drag and for rain purposes, so I fixed it with the ever-handy Windo-Weld!

Next came the roof rack. I'd been delaying this because I didn't want to re-do it later for official testing, then take it off again. I was also concerned with filling the big gaps in the roof trim for the mounts:

I decided to use some pieces of scrap Coroplast (that stuff is handy too!!) and duct tape over the top. If I like this method, I'll use some high quality duct tape when I make my permanent version.

Partial Belly Pan Complete!

2008-07-07T16:27:00.001-07:00

I worked most of the day on the grill block, air inlet, and belly pan. It took some time to get things going, but once I did, everything went fine. I'm thankful for the creator of self-tapping screws, and I'm glad I had the drill-tip type and the pointy-type. I incorporated some 45 degree air dams in front of the tires similar to those I've seen on other ecomodder rides and many new production cars. I test-drove the car in the alley briefly today, and I found that I should only scrape when I take bumpy turns quickly. I know of one such turn I'll scrape daily; the entrance to the high school where I teach. I'll have to be cautious elsewhere I'm sure; I know Linda will appreciate the extra slowness going into and out of bumpy driveways where I usually get yelled at.

Here are some pictures of the progress. I won't have the grill block totally done until later this week - I have to finish the sides right in front of the wheels and reduce the wheel well size a bit, but that won't take me more than 30 minutes to fabricate, attach, and paint.
New air inlet - note the coroplast ductwork - it extends through the original bumper, so air has no way around the radiator.

"frame" for belly pan, made from drop ceiling material scavenged from dumpster.

Unpainted belly pan - I painted the wheel air deflectors (front and back) green after I took photos. I don't think I'll waste paint on the underside seen here.

Tire Air Dams/Deflectors - they are held at an angle by a piece of the metal I was using - crimped around the outside edge, screwed to hold tight, then taped.

New grill block - work in progress

2008-07-07T08:35:00.001-07:00

I removed the old grill block completely, and made a new one with a new purpose in mind. Rather than direct air below the car where I'm unlikely to make it really aerodynamic, push air up over the car and to the sides. I did some reading on the ecomodder.com forums and decided to go for it, using a higher point of attachment on my bumper (the furthest forward part) and having the grill block hang straight down and slightly forward at the bottom, like I suggested in my "new idea" post, but not as extreme. Best would be to have a low, pointy nose. There are three reasons I'm not doing this. First, it would scrape on the ground EVERYWHERE. The one I designed will do that enough. Second, it would be forcing a lot of air upward when traveling on the highway. Newton's second law, F=ma, shows that a large force would be required to make a large mass of air accelerate upward, which would likely wreak havoc on my poorly constructed grill block frame. Third, (and Newton's Third - it's a good thing I did it in this order!!) the large force imparted upward on the air would be pushing downward on the block and my car.
A long lever arm in front of a lightweight car with some force on it could make the 'scort do funky things at highway speed by taking weight off the rear tires. Too much to worry about.
I used more free parts here: coroplast campaign signs for the flat stuff, and the frame that goes around the whole bottom and also attaches the center to the bottom of the radiator support is made of some drop-ceiling metal trim that I found in the dumpster by my house. I'll have to be careful; Linda will want to take out the trash to prevent me from finding more stuff if I'm not careful!
Here's progress so far; you can click on images to enlarge them if you wish.

I still have to do some work on the underside, to make my front belly pan, and on the air intake portion to keep air from just shooting down around the radiator.

BELOW: Shot from in front of air intake, looking slightly downward.

New idea...

2008-07-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

In response to cooling issues and aerodynamic theory (I didn't study enough before hastily starting the grill block), I'm changing my plan a bit..

Preliminary aero mods data is in...

2008-07-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

This isn't scientific (not enough miles), but I made a repeat trip to my friend's house in St. Peters, approximately 30 miles from home, mostly highway. On the last trip, I was able to get 45.5 mpg. I figured this might be slightly elevated by pump error, as this is incredible economy. This trip differed in two ways: it was hotter outside today, and this time I had my wheel skirts and grill block installed. 47.2 mpg is my new high; although the results aren't conclusive, they do suggest a gain of ~2 mpg at 55-60 mph. If this is correct, they will be most useful when traveling on faster highways to and from Kansas City (70 mph).
A side note regarding recent sensationalism in the news and AAA's press release denouncing hypermiling...
Some people might point out here with my 70 mph comment that they've heard that hypermiling involves driving slower on highways. I don't EOC or coast, etc. on highways except on offramps. My highway hypermiling is to drive at the speed limit (which does end up being slower than traffic), in the right lane with the windows closed. If I can find a large vehicle to follow, I do so from at least 5 car lengths.
Hypermiling has gotten a lot of bad press recently, and I make sure that my driving doesn't overly annoy other drivers or pose a safety concern. My EOC driving is on city streets when approaching stoplights/stop signs or when on a long downhill. I don't camp in the left lane and "police" other cars to drive the speed limit, and I don't EOC to speeds more than 5 mph below the speed limit if there is a car behind me on a two lane road. Doing so is counterproductive to the fuel economy movement, and I'm hoping to get more people on board.

Air to cool the engine? Who needs it?

2008-07-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I was a bit overzealous in my grill block. I originally had a small opening just below the license plate. This afternoon I worked to trim the grill block top to fit flush with the bumper, and I re-taped and re-installed before Linda and I went to the doctor (weekly ob checkup; our little one still isn't coming out!)
Linda was warm in the car so I turned on the A/C once we got on the highway. I noticed engine temps at the hot end of my gauge shortly after... I cracked the windows and sunroof and shut down the A/C for the rest of the drive and on the way home, but the engine temps stayed too high. I know the A/C will push the cooling system's capacity with a grill block, but I need to at least get to where I can drive the car, A/C off, without overheating. I trimmed it a bit tonight and made the opening about 2.5 - 3 times the original size. Tomorrow morning I have a 30 minute drive; we'll see what happens.

Added a little EcoModder Bling

2008-07-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

My wonderful wife found my lost ecomodder.com window cling decals this morning, and I installed them right away. I wasn't getting a whole lot of contrast between the white letters and the gray interior, so I painted the paper backing from the decals black and taped it on as a background. I put one in the passenger rear window and one on the drivers side of the hatch glass.

Two aero mods in one day...

2008-06-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

I finished the other wheel skirt today, and in response to a 6-2 vote on Ecomodder, I purchased some green Krylon Fusion paint (works on plastic). I used the paint already on my rain barrel, so I knew it was worth the $5 price tag. I got the skirts painted, which seemed to greatly please my neighbors, and although the skirts are a darker "hunter" green, they look great.

I still had time before Linda came home, so I started work on the grill block/air dam. I taped an individual sheet of coroplast in place, measured how long I wanted it, and got to cutting.

I taped all the edges really well with my heavy duty duct tape prior to painting, and I got to use the license plate as a giant washer since I put two screws through the bottom of it near my new (smaller) air intake. I'm going to trim it tomorrow to match the bumper lines, remove it, re-tape the top, and re-paint it. I'm really pleased with the outcome.

Before:

After:

Whole picture:

$2.50 Wheel Skirts!

2008-06-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

I set out today to begin streamlining the car. In an effort to satisfy my requirements of the car and its modifications paying themselves off, and because I'm known for my frugal nature, I'm using super low-cost materials. Here's the car's profile I started with:

No, I'm not campaigning for Hayes. That's a corrugated plastic sign (coroplast) that I picked up for free after the election. (I got 100 of them) I also needed some support structure that was cheap and lightweight. Luckily, I found something to fit this need in my basement, left by the previous owner; sheetrock (drywall) corner - reinforcing metal braces. (I don't know what they're really called) Here are my assembled tools; drill, 1/4" nut driver bit, 3/32" drill bit, measuring tape, duct tape (bought the highest quality type), self-tapping sheet metal screws, large washers, tin snips, pliers, and a comfy seat. The sheetrock corner-thing is the piece of metal there. I folded it flat (usually it is at 90 degrees).
I decided to run one brace across the wheel well and one at the bottom, attached to the sign. Here's the first brace. I attached it to the inside of the door opening with a sheet metal screw and to the back bumper with a spare interior trim screw.

I then taped two signs together, enough to cover the opening, , set it inside the folded sheetrock brace, taped the bottom up (coroplast is hollow and open at the ends)and ran 4 sheet metal screws through it to lock it in place. It felt pretty rigid after this. Here's what I mean by, "inside the folded brace":

I also cut the pointy heads off the sheet metal screws that would be pointing in toward the tire with my dremel.

Next, I bent the bottom brace out so that the coroplast would clear the wheel, and screwed the front side of the brace into the door opening, and the back into the rear bumper. I used my knife to cut the shape of the skirt, which took some trial and error, but luckily I cut off small pieces each time and all was not lost. After getting a good fit (especially around the rear door), I removed the skirt and taped all the edges to seal them and for support when screws and washers hold it in place. After re-installing the bottom brace screws, I used 10 sheet metal screws and washers around the edge to affix it to the car. You wouldn't want to do this to a nice car, but for my purposes, it should work great. I taped the leading edge into the door opening to ensure smooth airflow outside the wheel well, and the door shuts well, clearing the skirt.

I think I will add a little "class" to this mod and paint the coroplast, so they will end up costing about $5 in materials each. I'm going to either do white with my "ecomodder.com" decals on them to help them stand out, or green to match the car. I'll be running a poll on the ecomodder forums to decide for me.

Highway Mileage

2008-06-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

I made a trip to my friends' house yesterday and did about 85% highway driving with the air off, windows up, on my +5 psi tires. The 15% city miles I was very careful to EOC (engine off coast) as much as possible. It's getting very easy to predict when to shut off, by the way...
45.5 mpg may be a little inflated due to pump error, but it's indicative of some significant gains from my first tries at control tests. I'm going to run the next tank all the way down because I'm going to run some fuel system cleaner through at 5 gallons and then change the fuel filter. If things go right, and my aero mods (soon) are effective, I could break into the 500 mile/tank club next school year on my commute!

City Mileage with Hypermiling

2008-06-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've started doing modifications to my driving and the car; I decided it's best to do/build things now when I have time rather than reasons to drive, and then this fall do A-B-A tests and the like when I have a routine trip to make every day (to school) in order to get good data for this blog. This week, I'm going to start making aero mods and making them so that they can be undone for testing.

For my latest run, I hypermiled on 37 psi tires, and did 100% city driving with lots of stop lights and signs. I only used the a/c for about 5-10 miles, and the Gascort came up with 31.35 mpg. Not scientific data, but a good indication of what's in store for this fall!

Tire Pressure - Rolling Resistance relationship

2008-06-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I went out with my new bike pump today to test out the effect of tire pressure on rolling resistance. Tire pressure for the first test was 32 psi, and for the second test, it was 37 psi. I used a big spring scale for measuring grain that I inherited from my grandpa, a Kansas farmer.
Either time, the force required to get the car to move was 58 pounds. I know flat tires make a car harder to push (enough to feel the difference), and I also know the top end should be less dramatic. I'm anxious to try pressure out when I'm back to making repeated trips to and from school every day, since there was no effect here.
Maybe there's another way to test this...

A surprise... better than expected!

2008-06-11T19:58:00.001-07:00

This run was about 80% highway, more than before(50/50), but about 85% of it was with the air conditioning running, compared with 30% before. I'm very impressed and happy about the 34.5 mpg, but also worried about the large variance between the two "tanks" I've run so far, for the purpose of this experimentation. I knew this car's FE would react to little things easily,though - that's why I bought it. My Mustang never got lower than about 18 mpg when I ran the heck out of it, and never over 21 when I babied it. I think a little more time at factory settings might do me good, but I'm anxious to further my mods. I knew if worse came to worse, I could restart data collection next fall when I have a very regular and dependable commute to and from school, and do weekly trials with each mod separately. That will have to do, because Linda isn't going to let me turn the air off on her now!
For now, I'm going to bump tire pressure. I wanted to start hypermiling, but while I'm driving around a very pregnant wife, I don't want to do anything too oddball. The sidewall max on the tires is 35 psi; I'm going to set them at 37 - a nice, even 5 psi above factory settings. I think I'll work on calculating rolling resistance tomorrow.

A non- FE mod

2008-06-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our baby (Linda's due July 1oth), I installed the car seat base today in the Gascort. I had trouble at first, because I couldn't get the base tight without having it tilt too far to the rear. I then decided to remove the seat back to see if it was advantageous to place the base farther toward the back of the seat cushion. Once the seat back was off, I got side-tracked and decided to install a LATCH bar like newer (2003+ model year) cars have.

Now I have the seat installed via the LATCH and the traditional seat belt. My baby's seat is not going to budge from that position.

Saving another type of fuel

2008-06-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out the kitchen today (still waiting for an excuse to drive the 'scort, so I figured I could clean and then take the recycling to our neighborhood drop-off) and I discovered that our "fat jar" had become full. For everyone out there who doesn't know what a fat jar is, allow me to edify. When you're cooking with ground beef and you drain off the fat, it's a bad idea to dump it down the drain. The fat cools and returns to its solid state as it transfers thermal energy to your pipes. You don't want too much in your arteries, and the same can be said for your drains. Some people claim that using hot water while dumping it helps, but that's a huge energy waste as well.
To avoid all this trouble, we keep a fat jar - just an empty glass jar that we dump the fat into. We typically put it in the refrigerator after dinner when it cools down, which keeps it solid and prevents it from smelling or spoiling (don't know if it would anyway).
Anyhow, if you've ever done calorimetry of foods in a chemistry or biology class, you know that the bonds in food store lots of energy, and this can be released by combustion into lots of thermal energy and light. This got me to thinking, my grandmother used to burn oil lanterns in her cabin, and she always reminded us kids that they used to get oil for those from whale blubber. Now, I ask, is cow fat much different from whale fat? After trying it out, I think not!
Fats (lipids) have ~9 calories per gram, while carbohydrates and protein have 4 cal/g and alcohol has 7 calories per gram. My fat should be capable of releasing more energy than an equivalent mass of alcohol, and hopefully it won't end up like a molotov cocktail...
I stuck a birthday cake candle into the top of the fat and it burned like this for 30 minutes, without appreciably dropping the fat level. This is definitely something I'm going to start saving for the "just in case" scenario. ;)

Wiring Behind the Dash

2008-06-09T06:56:00.001-07:00

I got a couple of requests to show what I did here, and I'm too verbose to put it into words, so here's a little sample of my Microsoft Paint skills. Click on the image to enlarge and/or save.

Hypermiling, Here I come...

2008-06-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

See if you can find the switches!

I worked for a couple days on getting this done; it took longer than expected because I forgot some connectors at school. While hypermiling in my mustang, I noticed some problems; first, the ignition gets extra wear as a result and the steering shaft runs the slight risk of locking in place if you turn the key too far back. Second, it's really annoying to have the radio turn on and off 4-5 times on your way to work, especially if you have a cd player resetting each time. My solution: eliminate the ignition cylinder. The ignition on the Escort was already messed up from years of use - you could pull the key out in any position, and the door chime constantly harassed me because it thought the key was in. Cutting the wire to the chime is by far the best thing I've done to this car. :)
I installed a toggle switch to turn on the radio, a toggle switch to turn on the computer and fuel pump/injection, and a push button starter switch. I used a 40 amp auxillary headlight relay to reduce the current through the computer power switch, the stereo toggle is a 20A switch, and the starter button is a heavy duty one, so no relay was needed there.
For those of you who worry about melting switches, my stereo produces 40W to each of 4 channels. I only have one speaker in the car, so it draws (approximately) 40W/12V = 3.3A plus some to run the tuner and display, so 20A will be plenty.
I did my best to conceal my switches and make them look O.E.M. - I must give credit to my friend Jeremy, who came up with the first starter switch concealment like this in his '89 camaro.
Here they are; the cigarette lighter is actually the start button.

First Fill-up

2008-06-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I must say I'm pleased. The previous owner told me it gets around 31 mpg, and on my "control group" test, I logged 113 miles. 30 miles of it were with the a/c on, and miles were about 50/50 city/highway. 31.84 mpg is better than either of our cars, and I haven't done anything to the 'scort yet. Woohoo! I'm going to continue testing as a control group another day or two; I've got a 45 minute trip to a graduation party tonight and another equal-length trip tomorrow. I got almost all the wiring finished; first mod will be the tire pressure only, then hypermiling will begin!

The Gascort Lives!

2008-06-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

Finally got the car ready to go. I had to replace some worn-out suspension parts and do some exhaust repair. The carnage: Inner and outer tie rod ends, a ball joint, sway bar link, steering rack bushings, and a shifter stabilizer bar bushing. I got some of the parts at O'Reilly's and the odd bushings I got from Rob at Zxtuner.com. I was pleased with both, and was able to use only parts made in the USA (something I try to do when I can).

I went ahead and got rid of the license plate bracket that came with the car and mounted my shiny new plate straight on the car; I had to curl the bottom under to avoid having plate dangling below the bumper. Illegal because now it's a smaller target for radar and laser guns, but I think the police won't worry about me speeding in this car!

I gassed up at the local BP station; we're using new credit cards through them that give us 10% off for the first 60 days. Odometer: 246,425.8 miles Purchased 8.98 gallons of 87 octane at 3.86/gallon. Time to begin tests!

I made sure before I left to get gas that I had the full curb weight of the car and nothing else; I even got rid of the antenna and cable that came with the car. I did, however, have some stuff I had to carry around; stuff I already removed but don't want it to affect my tests. I got rid of the sagging and stapled headliner, the torn-up sun visors, the rear speakers and brackets, and the rear washer fluid reservoir. I noticed the washer reservoir had a cracked lid and it looked like it had leaked a few times. Underneath the washer tank I found the scissor jack and lug wrench. It took 5 minutes with a huge wrench to remove the bolt holding the jack down. That would have been a fun surprise on the side of the road. I hosed down the rusted shut jack with penetrant, but I'm not feeling optimistic. Might have to steal one from the mustang.

Ceiling without headliner; note the exposed roof rack bolts.... That will be deleted later. On the right: deletion items! Headliner, visors, washer tank, rear speakers, privacy screen (saving in the garage for shopping trips), and a huge stack of small screws and bolts.

I used some of the plastic retainer clips from the headliner in the place of a screw in each of the rear speaker grilles after I removed them. Tool storage space! (gotta carry tools with a 15 year old, 246k mile car)

After getting cleaned up, I went and had a leaky tire bead sealed (found bubbles around the rim with the soapy water test) on my way to the gas station. After getting gas, I went to the grocery store on the way home. Later in the evening, I used the car to pick up and drop off some dinner guests. They were dressed up, so I decided to try out the A/C (the previous owner said it worked fine). It worked great - a nice touch to have air available when I have passengers or when I'm driving with the baby in another month, but not something I'll ever use by myself unless I decide to experiment with A/C effect on fuel economy. It's been done by others.

Right now I'm rolling around on 32 psi tires, and trying to do everything a conservative driver would do behind the wheel to figure out what fuel economy this gets with no mods. The next few miles of driving will be the control in my experiment. Today I worked on making sure the alignment was perfect, and then I took to doing some rewiring to prepare for hypermiling. I'm putting in two toggle switches and a push-button switch. I need to pick up a couple of parts, so the install will have to wait a day or two. Luckily, I have time; I need some more miles on this tank to get a baseline of mileage for this car.

One more note: since I removed the rear speakers, I was listening to the Beatles on the radio while doing alignment tests today and I noticed that the left audio was missing. I investigated and found that the left front speaker is trashed. Another weight savings mod! I wired the stereo to play both left and right audio on the right speaker, which is a little blown but nowhere near what the left side was. Good enough; this car is a supplement to my nice car, not a replacement.

A scientific look at fuel economy

2008-04-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally made a smart automotive decision.... I think. Since I could drive, I've always been in love with fast, large-engined cars. This flies in the face of being a science teacher and always telling people who whine about oil prices, "It's only going to get worse!" I've been calling for $5/gallon gas prices to come way before Al Gore ever had an inkling to make a reactionary powerpoint cut-and paste show. But I digress.
I'm putting the mustang in the garage except for play now; I would make the sensible move and sell it like my parents did with theirs, but there are three things holding me back:
1.) It's not worth that much money now.
2.) I was mad when I became a teen and found out my parents got rid of their mustangs!
3.) My lovely wife told me that I can't get rid of the car; turns out that's why she likes me after all!

I just picked up a used 1993 Ford Escort station wagon (I swore I'd never drive a wagon or anything the wagon became - Minivan or SUV, etc. when I was 16) . It has some miles on it (246k) and some little problems here and there. But it cost me $500. From my wicked mathematical abilities, I can calculate:
At today's gas price of $3.48, (Yes, it will go up another $1 within 2 years I think)
I spend $6.62 each day to get to work in my mustang, just on gasoline; 21 mpg.
Assuming a modest 31 mpg in the escort, that number is $4.49.
$2.13 savings per day, plus I get to keep the mustang garaged for the nice sunny days.
Payoff time for the car: 235 work days - a little over a year, if I just drive the car to work and don't use it for trips out of town. Any time the car runs past the 235 day mark helps my pocketbook, minus repairs - there will be some for sure.
Oh yeah, and each time gas prices go up, my payoff period shrinks. Something for new car buyers to think about.

Now, I don't really want prices to increase, so how can I get the car to be "worth it" in a shorter period of time?
Learning to drive better will be a start. I lurk on the tdiclub.com forums quite often, and have learned quite a bit from the turbo-dieselers. I can't afford a tdi yet. Definitely one for my wife on her next car. Apparently the best trick to get better gas mileage is to get a dozen eggs and strap one to the accelerator pedal and the other on the brake pedal. The learning curve is rough, but when you learn to drive without breaking the eggs, you've mastered it. ;)
Jokes aside, I'm excited to experiment with driving habits to observe effects. But what if that isn't enough?
Customizations. Lots of them. I'm pretty flexible, and I might have to learn some bodywork. I don't think I'm as good as the guy on 1989geometro.com, but I'll try.

What makes me different from every other joe out there trying to squeeze his pennies tighter? I know science. I'm willing to go to incredible ends in order to get dependable data. The number one mistake people make when they're "experimenting" is that they change lots of things at once, and then point and say, "Look, this did it!" That's called having more than one independent variable, in science teacher talk, and it means you don't know jack about who caused what. I'm going to experiment, using dependable methods, and I'm going to report my data to share it. And you can count on me being trustworthy and reliable.