Data from Day 1 uploaded!

[MASSIVE TYPE IV]

Bill has been working his ass off in the back seat! He got all the days data compiled and saved to the website as I drove...

Go here and click on the red icons to view the data from that leg of the trip. http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/crosscountry

Here is a sample of what you can view there


We are doing 200 mile data logs to make things easier on Bill to keep up with and to provide the best data points as we are averaging about 20 MPG and have a range of about 200 miles.

The car is VERY HEAVY, all the computer equipment, our bags and etc have the car looking like a low rider!

Perhaps the biggest shocker of the day was seeing just how badly a roof rack makes the car perform! We lost almost 3 MPG with the rack in place and had the highest hjead and oil temperatures the engine has ever seen! We did a back to back run with the rack off and everything was much better...

Today its time to stop by Volksbashradio, hit LN Engineering to pick up our products for the oil test and then press on the Lincoln Nebraska... Today will be very interesting as I'm going to turn up the speed a little and see if we can't average in the mid 80s for MPH, so far we have been in the mid 70s for average with blasts to 85 or so...

The car is running like glass... All the changesin altitude are making for some intersting AFR, but otherwise I couldn't be more happy!

[Rescue912]

Cool! I didn't realize what route you were taking. In the Indy -> Momence run you are going to be about 3 miles from my house (second Lafayette exit).

If you need anything, holler ...

[Bill K.]

Thanks Rescue. We took Ray of VolkBash Radio to a truck stop he knew of to weigh the car for hp/tq calcs and the extra passenger on the drivers side caused the LR tire to rub the body mount worse than it has been when we hit bumps. We were smelling rubber the whole way to the scales. When Jake checked it he found a big groove worn in the sidewall. There was tire grinds all over the fender well and rim. We got a new tire installed and ground down the mount using Jakes portable grinder. The car weighs 2480 lbs with a full tank, both of us, and all the gear. We'll be adding another 50 lbs with the oil we pick up from Charles at LN Engr'g.

Good thing the elves Jake dreamed about don't weigh anything:). I woke up last nite with Jake cusing in his sleep. In the morning I found out there had been elves helping me datalog. They were the ones in Bad Santa. One had an attitude. Jake had the handle from the cart he used to make my "desk" where the passenger seat is welded to the roof and he ordered the Bad Elf onto the roof when he got fed up with his shiit. For the rest of the trip the Bad Elf was dangling from the roof by the handle as he hauled ass in the Plague.

I can't stop laughing.

We're getting a late start, but it was fun meeting Ray and doing the radio show. He's planning on introducing the show he has planned for next Tues on tomorrows show.

Later,
Bill

[Wally]

Man, this is so neat!!

Great to look at the data for comparing things later on when the conditions will change.

Jake,
I noticed you run a kinda low AFR of avaragely 12:1 or so (last leg I looked at). That could explain the relative high-ish MPG maybe?
Would changing the mains from 140 to 135 be worth trying?

Also very cool that you have managed to keep head temps so even!
Funny thing is you may have 'over engineered' the set up a little as 3-4 is even slightly lower than 1-2

Gods speed!

[dstar5000]

---------
Funny thing is you may have 'over engineered' the set up a little as 3-4 is even slightly lower than 1-2

Gods speed!

Bill is sitting on the 1-2 side and blocking airflow!


Don

[huw'sspeedster]

Jake,did you change the gears for the taller box?I thought you were expecting 30ish mpg not 20?I know the Plague is full and heavy but thats a big difference,you said she was averaging 25mpg with the short gears! Very interested finance in place just need wifes OK now!That will be the hardest bit!!!!

[MASSIVE TYPE IV]

The lower MPG is definately attributed to the fact that we weighed the car today and it came in at 2480 pounds with Bill and I and a full tank of fuel onboard...

On the legs of day one the elevation changed all the way to Indy. I wanted to take I 65 because it has long slow inclines mixed with rolling terrain and a multitude of temperatures to mix into things. When I changed the gearing last week before I left it actually changed the tuning a bit due to the different throttle positions and load placed on the engine by the extremely tall gearing.

At this point we are only gathering data and running tests, sometimes within other tests. Bill and I have vowed not to analyze any data until we are all done, doing so now would fragment the other tests without a doubt.

Tomorrow we will begin the oil testing portion of the drive... I plan on sustaining higher speeds at higher AFR and try my best not to tune the engine in any other way until we get to Colorado where the terrain will change again. We are staying in Momence IL tonight at LN Engineering's HQ, getting up at 0400 and doing our best to make up for some lost time today by stuffing 1K miles into tomorrows legs!

Remember- no observations until we are finished and have had ample time to compare data.

[Bill K.]

The 135 mains were run back to back with the 140's and we didn't see a significant differance in mpg -- 20 mpg with both. Jake plans to run the car unloaded in Sac if he has time to see what happens. Also, he wants to vary the throttle to see what happens at 65 mph and 80 mph to determine the effects of the aerodynamics on mpg.

From my perspective, I'm pretty happy with paying $0.15/mile to cruise at 70 mph in carbbed bug with a bullet-proof kit engine that puts out 170 hp. It's $30 to go 200 miles with a BIG smile or $30 to go 250 miles with a grin. I like big smiles when I drive my bug because that's what I built it for. My T4 squareback is for daily grins, so I may be interested in the Super 2L or a lower tune engine for better mileage.

Bill

[Vielzidub 3]

Sounds like quite a trip! Roof racks wreck mpg, I can see it without a datalogger .

Today will be very interesting as I'm going to turn up the speed a little and see if we can't average in the mid 80s for MPH, so far we have been in the mid 70s for average with blasts to 85 or so...

What speed limits are you driving in?

Also please could someone calrify to us Brits how many metric litres are in your gallons? (I think it is 4.54 l to our gallons, but beleive yours to be different )

[MASSIVE TYPE IV]

Most of the western part of our trip had a 75 MPH speed limit...

I didn't watch the signs very often, just listened for the radar and kept an eye in the sky for patrol aircraft!

[bhowden]

Also please could someone calrify to us Brits how many metric litres are in your gallons? (I think it is 4.54 l to our gallons, but beleive yours to be different )

The US gallon is 80% of the imperial gallon so multiply by 5/4 ths to convert. 20 mpg US is 25 mpg imperial.

Brian

[farmer]

One thing I find, should we say mysterius, is that you did not measure much difference on engine temperature, exept EGT with the decklid propped open in the bottom (2").

I´ve done back to back tests about that trick, on T1 engines though. On those I immediately experienced an approx. 5 degree C. drop in oil temps from about 65 mph & up. No measures on head temps, sad to say.
Without going into details, could that perhaps have something to do with the lesser cooling surface on the T1 compared to the T4 ?
T

[dstar5000]

Think about WHERE the T1 exh ports are, compared to a T4....


Don

[MASSIVE TYPE IV]

I was also suprised that propping the decklid open did not have more of an effect on engine temperatures..

I still have not even begun to do back to back analysis of the tests so I won't speculate...

I'm not planning on sharing very much of the analysis, we will only provide the raw data and let everyone do their own observations from the screen shots. The software and logs we have allow us to overlay data over particular portions of a run and that is VERY helpful!

[Steve Arndt]

I noticed that your decklid is louvered. That might explain why the decklid prop test didn't show more delta.