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mods for mpg's

U

uti grand prix

New member
i just got my GP and love it but want to do some mods but don't want to the mpg's if anything i want to get better if at all possible. i have an 2004 GT2 thanks!
 


HPTuner. I get around 28 in the city and around 31 on the highway with the mods in my sig.The highway mpg could be better but im running 3.29 gears wich brings my cruise rpms up a little in fourth when on the highway.
 
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TDCRacing said:
HPTuner. I get around 28 in the city and around 31 on the highway with the mods in my sig.The highway mpg could be better but im running 3.29 gears wich brings my cruise rpms up a little in fourth when on the highway.
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Not saying you aren't getting improvements, but compared to the amount of money you paid for them, it'll be more than 5 years, if that early, before you'll get savings. Anyone making mods shouldn't be doing them to save gas. I didn't make any of my mods to save money - they were performance mods. If I get a MPG increase, it's a bonus.
 
Deezul_AwT said:
Not saying you aren't getting improvements, but compared to the amount of money you paid for them, it'll be more than 5 years, if that early, before you'll get savings. Anyone making mods shouldn't be doing them to save gas. I didn't make any of my mods to save money - they were performance mods. If I get a MPG increase, it's a bonus.
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You know your absolutly right. would not be a good gas saving mod if you DID not mod you car to the extent where you would need a tuner. But in performance mods a tuner would be the first thing i would suggest. the reason i said this is because there are not many people that dont get carried away with modding lol...always want something faster.So i guess i was assuming that he was going to eventually mod his car. wich may not be correct. but...if he was and he wanted to get good mpg then i would suggest a tuner to be the first mod.While the mpg that i am getting now may not be excellent...i consider it excellent for running mid to high 12's
 


Fair enough. With gas prices above $4 now, anyone coming on here looking to mod their car for MPGs is barking up the wrong tree. I've even had a friend try just driving the speed limit and sticking with low accelerations. He was surprised how much a difference just doing that can make. I think people are looking for a quick fix. And hate me for saying it, but cars come from the factory are pretty well configured for fuel efficiency with a factory set up IF you drive slow and don't accelerate hard. That's why the government adjusted all the fuel economy ratings a few years ago - they were based on 55 MPH speeds and slow accelerations.
 
Deezul_AwT said:
Fair enough. With gas prices above $4 now, anyone coming on here looking to mod their car for MPGs is barking up the wrong tree. I've even had a friend try just driving the speed limit and sticking with low accelerations. He was surprised how much a difference just doing that can make. I think people are looking for a quick fix. And hate me for saying it, but cars come from the factory are pretty well configured for fuel efficiency with a factory set up IF you drive slow and don't accelerate hard. That's why the government adjusted all the fuel economy ratings a few years ago - they were based on 55 MPH speeds and slow accelerations.
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Flame me if you must but Im going to disagree with you here. Modifications for fuel economy is not barking up the wrong tree. There are things you can do for fuel economy. Power and fuel economy are not mutually exclusive nor inversely proportional.

Cars come from the factory hardly tuned well. When I bought my GP it just did get 28 mpg all highway and it was in excellent shape. Before the transmission had went out I would touching on 34 but consistently ran 32 - 33 all highway. But they are hardly set up for fuel economy from the factory, indeed, more so for emissions than anything.

My Isuzu Rodeo when I bought it barely and I mean barely got 17mpg. It is now consistently running 22 - 23 mpg combined driving. I havent yet taken it on a long run to see what it could do on an all highway drive, but my guess is that it will be at least a couple mpg's higher on an all highway run.

My plan is to fully demonstrate that there is much more mileage to be had out of the GP once I get it all back together. We dont really come even close to utilizing all of the energy of the fuel that is put into the motor. True, we will never use 100% of it due to frictional losses, but until we start using a lot more of it there will always be room for more power AND fuel economy. The two would go hand in hand because if you extract more energy from the same amout of fuel, both fuel economy and power go up.

It is true driving style has a large effect on fuel economy but it is hardly the whole picture.
 
SyntheticShield said:
Flame me if you must but Im going to disagree with you here. Modifications for fuel economy is not barking up the wrong tree. There are things you can do for fuel economy. Power and fuel economy are not mutually exclusive nor inversely proportional.

Cars come from the factory hardly tuned well. When I bought my GP it just did get 28 mpg all highway and it was in excellent shape. Before the transmission had went out I would touching on 34 but consistently ran 32 - 33 all highway. But they are hardly set up for fuel economy from the factory, indeed, more so for emissions than anything.

My Isuzu Rodeo when I bought it barely and I mean barely got 17mpg. It is now consistently running 22 - 23 mpg combined driving. I havent yet taken it on a long run to see what it could do on an all highway drive, but my guess is that it will be at least a couple mpg's higher on an all highway run.

My plan is to fully demonstrate that there is much more mileage to be had out of the GP once I get it all back together. We dont really come even close to utilizing all of the energy of the fuel that is put into the motor. True, we will never use 100% of it due to frictional losses, but until we start using a lot more of it there will always be room for more power AND fuel economy. The two would go hand in hand because if you extract more energy from the same amout of fuel, both fuel economy and power go up.

It is true driving style has a large effect on fuel economy but it is hardly the whole picture.
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I can get much of the improvements in MPG by changing driving style. What I'm saying, AGAIN, is if you want a car that gets good gas mileage, don't buy a car that STARTs in the 20s for MPG. People who buy Hybrids don't do the math to realized that buying a used car for $4000-$5000 is MUCH more fuel efficient than dropping $25000-$30000 on a Hybrid that gvies them a 10-15 MPG improvement. Don't make mods to you car and expect dramatic MPG improvements. I made my mods strictly for performance; any MPG increase is just a bonus. Spending $2000-$3000 up front for jsut 2-3 MPG improvement is silly. If you buy a used GP because you want a fuel efficient car, you bought the wrong car.
 


ok i can see how you can take this the wrong way but i also want to do the mods for performance aswell but was just wondering if any mod had a greater affect on mpg'g. i do know that by driving easy verses beating on the car can make about an 8mpg difference. so i do ndrive it easy now that i learned my lesson and had my fun but i still don't mind pulling up to a stop light with some friends and going for a little run. so the mods are first off performance based then MPG. i do know that when i did an exhaust on my dakota it made a 2 mpg difference while the cold air intake brought me back to square one. but they sounded good and did what they were made to do make HP. and that is what i wanted. the mpg's is a bonus.
 
Numerous threads on the best intake, or whether to go Fenderwell Intake or Cold Air box Intake. I have K&N CAIs. Higher priced than the others, but they are rock solid, the PCM screws into the box, not budgiecorded or ziptied, and you get everything you need in the box. I got mine from Autoanything when they have had 10% or 20% off sales, and its often free shipping as well.
 
Start off with a fenderwall intake or a cold air intake. You can make your own FWI for about 40 bucks, or you can buy something like the Wizaired from zzp which will be around 200.

Next is the exhaust. The major hangups for are exhaust is the manifolds and the downpipe. Look at either getting a 2.5" or 3" downpipe along with a set of ported manifolds, or a power log from zzp to replace the front manifold all together. (Its a tubular manifold.)

For some other minor mods, swap in 180* thermostat and you could run some NGK-TR55 gapped at .55-.60. They are 1 degree colder than stock spark plugs.

All those mods will increase gas mileage while giving you some significant gains with an l36.

These sites will be good.

ZZPerformance
INTENSE-Racing.com - Grand Prix, Bonneville, Regal, L67 3800 Supercharged Performance Products.
W Body Store - Don't Take SLOW for an answer!
Milzy Motorsports - American Muscle, Reborn
www.getoverkilled.ca
 


thanks for all your help i think im going to order a K&N later this week i just trust the NAME and they have been proven over and over. also ill do something with the exhaust soon.
 
Dont waste your money on the KN cold air intake kits. Just get a CAI from one of the vendors and run a KN filter.
 
uti grand prix said:
thanks for all your help i think im going to order a K&N later this week i just trust the NAME and they have been proven over and over. also ill do something with the exhaust soon.
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The K&N sucks at what its supposed to do, provide cold air. The material its made of absorbs heat both radiated and through convection. At least something like the WizAired reflects radiated heat (aluminum has a much better emissivity rating) and the insulation protects the air charge from convection.

I see much cooler IATs with the WizAired than I've seen from other intakes.
 
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