May do cross country fuel test

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
47
Location
Erie, PA
So I'll be driving from San Diego back to Pennsylvania. I'll be leaving from San Diego to Pennsylvania. I'll be driving my 2013 Civic Si. I already have a quite nice running log of fill ups this year since I bought the car. Fuelly Link

I have a OBDII Bluetooth adapter, and I got Torque Pro on my phone. I can do live recording of my speed and a bunch of other values recorded from the ECU. Before I leave Cali, I will fill up with Chevon 91, and it's got the good ole' 10% Ethanol.

Leading to Pure Gas, I checked the Pure Gas map, and I have no ethanol stations all across my route back home. I will have logged what station, what octane the fuel is, and all my fills up logged on fuelly. I will see how much a difference it will be in my MPG. I also gotta get my car weighed at a weight station to get reimbursed from the military since I'm getting out of the military.

Is anyone interested in the results of what the total outcome will be? Not like I'll be doing much work, just gonna upload the logfiles from Torque Pro and have you guys read through them if ya like.

Should I use any fuel additives at all? I'm using B12 Chemtool right now since my K24 hates any kind of Ethanol I've noticed the past 7 months. I was curious if I should get some Pennzoil TC-W3 and use a 500:1 mixture

13 gallon tank, I won't be running it fully empty for each fill up because I don't wanna risk of running out of fuel on the highway.

tl;dr Do you think this so called 'test' be worth it, for at least this forum? Thanks
 
Okay awesome, I'll take in as much feedback, or recommendations I should do before I leave. I should be leaving in the next 48-72 hours. I know I'm missing more to this test, but too tired to think of other variables.
 
While it's not scientific and people will therefore argue it, I'd still be interested in seeing your results. Don't stress yourself out about doing it and keeping track of everything, moving is hard enough as it is. But if you got a decent amount of data at the end of it, post it on here for us to see.
 
Decibel meter test would have been usefull.and yes this is an awsome test since of ethanol are not percieved mutch before or after a run.ty
 
If you are going home via I40 route, peg the needle or should I say the video speedometer, would like to know what the top speed is, but that may be an unsafe move. I could look it up, but you know..........I was younger once.
 
Hello, It's so cool that you were able to string together a pathway of "no ethanol" gas stations.

Since all you're doing is recording fuel consumption, it will be easy.
As was stated, there's little scientific method available to you.
You could record relative humidity but that will change throughout your driving day.
You could record prevailing winds on straight runs (like crossing Kansas' 480 mile long Interstate) if your fill-ups break right.

I remember a 650 mile "tailwind run" yielded me a clear 30% improvement in mileage.

I went to the "100% gas station" website, strung together a pathway of stations from home to the Carolinas and every stinking one of them was closed.
Each was an older gas station from the '60's. They had to have had condemned, plain steel tanks from yesteryear.
I thought the "no ethanol" gas station was a target marketing ploy which only could get a toehold in the marketplace by leasing a decrepit gas station months before it was closed.
That thought made me conclude that the likelihood of a "no ethanol" station being a sham was great.

On the subject of shams, scams and rip-offs, skip the fuel additives.
The only one I've ever heard of which does anything is Chevron's Techron; and that's to be used during local driving.

You'll be going uphill and down and responding to traffic flow. There is no experiment here.
Enjoy the drive and plot your data. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Don't crash your car by staring at your cell phone either. Kira
 
Interesting. However difficult since your tankfulls will be used all highway driving which should yield better mpg to start with. Still be interesting to see!
 
Originally Posted By: sicko
While it's not scientific and people will therefore argue it, I'd still be interested in seeing your results. Don't stress yourself out about doing it and keeping track of everything, moving is hard enough as it is. But if you got a decent amount of data at the end of it, post it on here for us to see.


I figured it wasn't going to be 100% proof of anything to be exact, I just know how much this forum just loves actual data, instead of doing math calculations all day.

[censored] I'm already stressed out by the move atm, I'm just bringing up this information to get my mind off of moving a bit to relax lol.

Originally Posted By: yvon_la
Decibel meter test would have been useful.and yes this is an awesome test since of ethanol are not perceived mutch before or after a run.ty


Wouldn't a Decibel meter test be for sound? I just woke up not even 5 minutes ago so maybe I'm thinking of the wrong thing. Also, Torque Pro has a PID reading for Ethanol from the ECU, when I go out today and log real quick, this will be awesome if I have that sensor to read Ethanol %

Originally Posted By: CourierDriver
If you are going home via I40 route, peg the needle or should I say the video speedometer, would like to know what the top speed is, but that may be an unsafe move. I could look it up, but you know..........I was younger once.


Yup, I'll be going I-40 route. I've done 136 mph with 4 fully grown men in my Civic on the 15 N in California lol. Funny thing is, When I'm doing 72 MPH according to the digital speedo that we have in the Civic Si, my OBDII readings on TorquePro says I was doing 70.4 MPH. Not sure which one is correct now.

Originally Posted By: Kira
Hello, It's so cool that you were able to string together a pathway of "no ethanol" gas stations.

Since all you're doing is recording fuel consumption, it will be easy.
As was stated, there's little scientific method available to you.
You could record relative humidity but that will change throughout your driving day.
You could record prevailing winds on straight runs (like crossing Kansas' 480 mile long Interstate) if your fill-ups break right.

I remember a 650 mile "tailwind run" yielded me a clear 30% improvement in mileage.

I went to the "100% gas station" website, strung together a pathway of stations from home to the Carolinas and every stinking one of them was closed.
Each was an older gas station from the '60's. They had to have had condemned, plain steel tanks from yesteryear.
I thought the "no ethanol" gas station was a target marketing ploy which only could get a toehold in the marketplace by leasing a decrepit gas station months before it was closed.
That thought made me conclude that the likelihood of a "no ethanol" station being a sham was great.

On the subject of shams, scams and rip-offs, skip the fuel additives.
The only one I've ever heard of which does anything is Chevron's Techron; and that's to be used during local driving.

You'll be going uphill and down and responding to traffic flow. There is no experiment here.
Enjoy the drive and plot your data. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Don't crash your car by staring at your cell phone either. Kira


Fair enough, I figured as much to construction, accidents, slowing down, getting fuel etc. It's hard to get a 100% fool proof test done, but oh well. I will be hand's free as I got a mount for me cell phone, so I can keep track for Google Maps and see some data. I'll be 100% hands free due to HFL in our car so it's awesome.

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Interesting. However difficult since your tankfulls will be used all highway driving which should yield better mpg to start with. Still be interesting to see!


Well from Fuelly, the best I've got was I think 29 something mpg, and that was straight highway, EPA rating is 31. I'm curious to see if it will go up any higher once I 'technically' remove the ethanol from the fuel via fuel up at the gas stations
 
Originally Posted By: SavageWS6
.... Funny thing is, When I'm doing 72 MPH according to the digital speedo that we have in the Civic Si, my OBDII readings on TorquePro says I was doing 70.4 MPH. Not sure which one is correct now.

...

I reckon that the 70.4 is correct. Many speedometers read higher than reality, I have seen some (Honda and Hyundai) as bad as 75 (speedo) vs 71 (both GPS and the law enforcement speed readers on the road) as the reality check. Thankfully my car is much closer, at 75 (speedo) vs 74, so if I really want to drive 71 MPH I only have to shoot for 72 on the speedo.
wink.gif
 
Hello, Over 4 months ago a guy said he'd track mileage. Huge post too.

Then nothing.

I'll bet his app conked out and simply writing down 3 columns of numbers (odo reading-gallons-dollars) was too much for him. No derision intended. He's likely just a "modern wired person". They can't jot things down.

I'll also bet he found all of his 'pure gas stations' closed, as I had. Kira
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top