I had to include these photos from our recent trip to Colorado. Enjoy!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
photo-op and prelude to restart of blog
I had to include these photos from our recent trip to Colorado. Enjoy!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
It's been awhile!
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.
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.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Old Mustang - good aero? Photo for thought.
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:
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Still shooting for the 500 mile club...
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.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
New Tires...Yay!!
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. :)
Monday, August 18, 2008
More Mainstreaming of Ecodriving
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!!!
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!!!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Plans for Partial Alternator Elimination
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
