Project absurd mileage completed!
 

Okay I finished that tank off last week. I've been too busy to get the results together, but here is the synopsis from memory. This was all done on 87 octane in my 5 speed lsd all options no roof rails SS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!


When I pulled into the gas station my odo-b read 511.7 miles.
My Average MPG read 34.5
My average speed for that distance was 37 mph.
My low fuel light came on once about one mile from the gas station. Fuel life read 60miles
My trips averaged 11.5 miles or about 45 starts-to-park
Nearly all trips (90%+) were "cold starts".
Tire pressure ranged between 33 and 38 depending on ambient temperatures.
The fuel cut auto cutof said 14.394 gallons.
So my actual MPG was 35.55

I estimated that 6 driven miles were not recorded by the odo because of the wormholes located on I90, I thought I had solved this problem, however they stopped eating my odo-miles but continued to eat my avg mpg. This is why the difference between the DIC and my hand calculation is so far off.

That brings my mileage for this endeavor to 36mpg.

So had i run all 16.2 gallons in my tank down to E, I would have reached 582 miles before I had to walk. 18 short of my goal.

The cool thing is that I did go through a major storm, did 20 over the limit for 10 miles keepin in front of a late 90's eclispe turbo, 3 drive through fast food restaurants, two short house searching trips, a half dozen trips into and out of my 3 stories deep parking garage, and a 20 mile round trip through stop sign riddled suburbia hell.

I never pushed tire pressure to 44 or whatever peopel are doin
I didnt use anything but the clutch, vacuum gague and the inst mpg to help me.
I never pissed anyone off or slowed traffic just to reach my goal, I either moved right, or sped up to normal flow speed.
I never took a trip longer than 30 miles.
No cruise control ever!
No a/c ever!

I have to check the data but I believe I averaged about 67% highway and 33% city.

I would guess that my HHR SS 5 speed, was getting 39/30Highway-city

Was it worth is.

YES!!!! It's tough at first, and becomes as easy as driving manual after a tank.

Cost savings?
Not that this was my motive, however I will save about $1.36 a gallon on the highway and $1.68 in the city by hypermiling if gas cost $4.00 a gallon.

Extra benifits are that my brakes will last a really long time, and my oil life will extend wel past 10,000 miles...lol.

I am currently anti-hypermiling a tank of 94 octane. So I am not watching my vacuum gauge or inst mpg ever! I never use any hypermile trick except the occasional coast to avoid using brakes. I get on the highway at 5 above the posted limit the second I leave the entrance ramp. I drive at 5 over to 10 over the limit wherever possible.

I drive like the rest of the world now...Like every car on the road is an obstacle to be passed asap.

I am doing the same routes and trip lengths, just have a little more lead in the foot.

It will be interesting to see the difference in avg speed an mpg.

man thats not worth all that trouble. when i took a trip from houston to dallas i was getting about 28 mpg, i drive mine to have fun. sometimes too fast and always with the a/c on. so pretty much on average you saved 30 bucks more than me, i figured 4 per gallon, i use 93 oct. in my car. just doesnt seem worth the trouble imo...

I respect your opinion, however i feel that it is very worth it.

First it is not much trouble at all. It is much more difficult for me to talk on the cell than hypermile. Hypermiling is nothing more than driving. All I use is the same tools that everyine else uses to drive. Gas, brake, clutch, and an occasional glance at the dic or vacuum gauge.

As one re-learns how to drive, all these things become just background requiring little to no attention. Just as driving a stick vs auto.

As with driving a stick vs manual, one will usually feel more like a "driver" rather then a "passenger', because driving an auto with cruise on is akin to being on a bus vs hypermiling with a manual is much like ACTUAL DRIVING.

It's a shame that you feel that hypermiling isn't fun. Race cars don't have all this traction control, and cruise control, and automatic shifting etc. Real fun is had by tuning into your car and experiencing its limits. Speed, acceleration, braking, turning, shifting, reading the terrain and objects around you. Hypermiling my HHR turn monotanous repetitive drives to my parents/work/parks into mini efficiency races.

There are true benefits,
Less oil changes, and less wear on your brakes.
Fuel saving--- I could probably drive from Houston to Dallas at a minimum of 38 mpg. That like filling up with $2.20 gas (87 octane i used)vs $4.00 (93 octane you used). That is a savings of $700 per year. $1000 before tax income.

It was 91 yesterday in Cleveland 90 today. I like the air in my hair. Not A/C, however you'll probably only lose 1-2mpg running it on high 24/7. Add a few pounds of psi to your tires to make up for that.

To each there own, but i will never understand why people think 10-20 horsepower is worth hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, and driving fast is SOOO COOL, while driving for efficiency is SOOO BAD. Moreover some say i should have bought an lt or ls...lol

People PLEASE...I'd hypermile a ZR1 vette If I drove one. I like horsepower, but other than punking a few civics with 5 inch muffler tips I don't need to use 260hp commuting 12.2 miles to work each morning.

ANY REAL RACE CAR WILL SMASH MY HHR SS so what is the big deal anyway.

BTW......I can't wait to hypermile a stage 3 hahn kit.

"I estimated that 6 driven miles were not recorded by the odo because of the wormholes located on I90, I thought I had solved this problem, however they stopped eating my odo-miles but continued to eat my avg mpg. This is why the difference between the DIC and my hand calculation is so far off."

I suspect that the cause of difference has more to do with the inaccuracy of the fillup amount. When filling a car even slight grades in the parking area can make a big difference in the amount the tank can hold. Also shutoff varies between fill delivery systems. All of this is based on trial and error over the years to figure why mileage sometime varies.

I found that averaging over approximately three tanks gives a much cleaner figure. Moreover, the DIC is probably very accurate, trust it. I have used this methodology over 1,000,000 miles of driving and trust in my results.

Seems that someone was paying attention. 2000 views and no one really questioned what i was getting at :)
I learned that if i coasted with the engine off, i needed to advance the key forward again or the computer would not record miles driven. This is why my distance was dropping from 12.2 down to 11.6 or even less driving the exact same route to work. I was coasting up to a mile everyday, but i didnt notice the miles were not being recorded until i tossed them into the spreadsheet and wondered how it was only 11.6 miles to work...lol.

What i also realized on the first few days of my anti hypermile tank is that the avg mpg doesnt change when i ice-off coast. So that is why for the first 8000 miles of driving the dic was nearly perfect, and it was almost 1.5 mpg off this time.

One thing to note is that although the Fuel Range readout varied wildly during this experiment, it was nearly dead on (+-5 miles) by time I got down to under 2 gallons left in the tank.

No need to check over 3 tanks, it's so perfect i am astounded how its done.