Still running lean

Reply #60 – February 09, 2009, 11:19:46 PM

Quote from: CougarSE;256166

While I would drive down the road and the car would start to stumble if I started to give it gas it would go back into open loop and run fine again.. and repeat for the entire drive.

I think once it fails to go into closed, it stays that way - it doesn't try again until you cut the ignition and restart the vehicle. I had similar economy to that when it was stuck in open loop (best of around 28mpg). My gt40 headed motor (block ended up being cracked) got me a best of 30.5mpg I believe, when I was using the stock exhaust and aod when using speed density. I'm really thinking I may actually gain highway economy, or be about equal if my rearend had 3.08's.

I'll be looking to put an electric fan back in there soon to get the boost I saw on the SO engine. I need to get a new temperature sensor though as mine went missing in the garage. It would be nice to lose the load of the mechanical fan once again. I got around 33mpg at 75/35mpg at 65 with the stock motor with the electric fan which gave me ~1.5mpg boost (some of that may have been different gas blends, it was so many years ago now) on the highway. If I'm lucky and have similar results, I should be able to see a best of 34mpg after some tuning although I'd love to be able to se 35 out of the car again on a 150+ mile trip.

Honestly, I think I need to focus on suspension soon though as my front end is making some interesting noises. Sounds/feels like my springs are shot, along with the struts. The control arms/ball joints are the newest things and they're probably 5 years old now. I'm hoping to do this with the 8.8" rearend install with TC brakes on the front/rear at the same time as I'll already be working in the vicinity.