AU Economy

boodek · 11-09-2005, 09:45 PM

I've just bought my 2002 AU3 Futura, and am wondering what sort of mods can be made (reasonably cheaply!) to make it a more economical car. I'm not interested in making it go harder or faster, look better and so on but just use less petrol doing what it does so well! Any ideas, please?

LG · 11-09-2005, 09:58 PM

You can look at getting a Tickford Snorkal ~$40 (from Ford). This will let your engine breathe a bit better. Then a filter ~$120.

A cat-back exhaust is also a little better in improving economy. ~$350
Making sure your plugs and leads are decent, helps to. ~$200

Then you can look at getting a chip & a decent tune, will improve economy. ~$800-1200

At the moment my AU3 Falcon has some intake work and cat-back exhaust mods. Running on premium i can hit up about 550-600+ kms, with about 60 city, 40 country driving. Works out to be about 11-12L/100km.

Also removing any useless weight in your car. Keeping your car fairly empty will go a fair way. Try not using the A/C much, and try looking ahead at the traffic and predicting whats happening. No point in gunning it up to the lights to brake, and then accelerate again. You want to avoid accelerating as thats what uses the juice. If you let the car roll before, your still moving and the cars at the lights move ahead, and you dont have to accelerate much before getting to the speed limit again. Have an easy right foot ;)

I'm going to be getting a chip soon, and some more ignition upgrades to gain some more power and economy. Keeping your car in A1 condition will also help, and cleaning your injectors after a while would be worth while. I may look into the Repco Vaporite as well.

Cheers

JC · 11-09-2005, 10:00 PM

Apart from disconnecting 2 plug leads, using a gentle right foot is probably the only way to make it more economical. Extractors etc are supposed to as well, but most people end up enjoying the additional power available and foregoing economy.

xr8 007 · 11-09-2005, 10:09 PM

buy a vaporate system. costs 289 plus fitting and saves an average of 20percent each tank full and does not rob ur car of power and it really works. feel free to ask me futher questions..

boodek · 12-09-2005, 06:34 PM

I've seen Vaporate advertised, and have wondered how well it works. I had a look at their website and it seems to be a reasonable theory. I thought the advertising was a bit vague though - $289; is this for one, four, six etc. collars? If it's $289 for six it's probably bad value. I am interested to hear your experiences.

Bucknaked · 12-09-2005, 07:07 PM

I did a muffler only and found my economy was worst off. Its improved since getting the extractors and high flow cat. Tickford Snorkel added as well.

Never heard of this vaporate. Sounds interesting

xr8 007 · 12-09-2005, 07:58 PM

the vaporate system works really well, it really works wonders when having to drive to work every single day and ur drive is more the 30min. Vaporate will only work when ur car has heated up. All the parts include are carbon based collars that fit on the end of ur injectors and once they heat up, u dont lose any petrol through vaporisng! but if u drive ur car from the milk bar and back forget it, u will not see any savings. if driven long distances and to work everyday, u will save. On average for every 100 you spend on petrol ur saving is roughly ten to twenty dollars. Best part is you dont lose power!

Bucknaked · 12-09-2005, 08:15 PM

Wow. Any saving made these days has got to be worth the looking into. Might look into this. Do you have a web address of a retailer? Thanks for the info.

phildee · 12-09-2005, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

Wow. Any saving made these days has got to be worth the looking into. Might look into this. Do you have a web address of a retailer? Thanks for the info.

http://www.vaporate.com/

think Repco is the retailer

Cheers, Phil

Bucknaked · 12-09-2005, 08:56 PM

Thanks.

**Stav** · 12-09-2005, 08:59 PM

The best fuel economy I ever gained was from advancing my cam timing .the car gained 50-70 km per tank.Now that I think of it ,I might lock that spec back in.All you need is an adjustable cam sprocket installed and common sense.

LG · 12-09-2005, 11:52 PM

So far with this tank i should hit 620kms.

I'm gonna check with my mate at Repco and look into the Vaporate System. That + ignition and a bit of tuning, should bring down the costs a bit more. Then later down the track, a chip. Should see some nice gains and economy.

Casper · 13-09-2005, 07:15 AM

economy? whats that?

(I really should stop redlining my car all the time but you're a long time dead so I'm enjoying it now.)

xr8 007 · 13-09-2005, 11:07 AM

lg, look at it in the long run. all the mods u wanna do to improve economy will end up costing much more than the saving u make. it will take years to pay itself off. why not go for a gas system??

xr8ute · 13-09-2005, 11:58 AM

I find my fuel economy is much better when I stick to the speed limit...

LG · 14-09-2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xr6007

lg, look at it in the long run. all the mods u wanna do to improve economy will end up costing much more than the saving u make. it will take years to pay itself off. why not go for a gas system??

The mods i wanna do to improve economy slightly, will probably come to $1000, but at the same time it will/should improve the power and reliability of the car.

If i were to go gas, it would be a straight gas setup, which would be around $3k. I dont want to lose my boot space really, I'd want the gas tank to go where the fuel tank is, but i dont think you can do that. And plus gas is well gas. I'd rather stick to the real stuff.

At the moment i do about 20,000kms each year. And even though im a student, I'm still managing to pay for my fuel, whilst still saving a bit, and still being able to go out, and buy new clothes and everything else.

I think soon enough i'll spend the $3k on a motorbike instead.

Sourbastard · 14-09-2005, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casper

economy? whats that?

(I really should stop redlining my car all the time but you're a long time dead so I'm enjoying it now.)

Im considering replacing two spark plugs with wooden pegs and replacing the two corresponding injectors with jelly beans.

xr8 007 · 14-09-2005, 03:22 PM

yeah a bike wouldnt be a bad idea,,and leave the car for outings..

boodek · 14-09-2005, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by useless

The best fuel economy I ever gained was from advancing my cam timing .the car gained 50-70 km per tank.Now that I think of it ,I might lock that spec back in.All you need is an adjustable cam sprocket installed and common sense.

Can you please explain what you did, how you did it, why you did it and what the results were, please? This is certainly something I'm capable of doing to my car. So far, after two weeks' driving, my wife seems to be getting about 12l/100km around town...as I write this she's on her way to Melbourne and apparently (I've just spoken to her) that the DTE reckons 550 to go after 190km - that sounds pretty good to me.

Casper · 14-09-2005, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sourbastard

Im considering replacing two spark plugs with wooden pegs and replacing the two corresponding injectors with jelly beans.

Why? Putting it on LPG can have the same effect!

justa6 · 14-09-2005, 07:32 PM

Has anyone suggested HYCLONE. There are huge savings to be made and about 4hp at the wheels extra power, that's like putting 10mm on your old fella it all helps. And it has to work, the idiot on the add says so. ha ha.

Casper · 14-09-2005, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverxr

Has anyone suggested HYCLONE. There are huge savings to be made and about 4hp at the wheels extra power, that's like putting 10mm on your old fella it all helps. And it has to work, the idiot on the add says so. ha ha.

Yeah, nothing like putting something in your intake to block the air that, one day, will break up and feed your pistons loverly bits of crap.
Just stuff a cat in there, same effect but with the cool "supercharger" scream.

mik · 14-09-2005, 11:41 PM

what about the fuel catalyst still see it advertised in magazines but dont know anyone that has this device

Sleeperau · 15-09-2005, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casper

economy? whats that?

(I really should stop redlining my car all the time but you're a long time dead so I'm enjoying it now.)

yes so true! at 800km I travel a week the rising fuel prices has caused my boss to tell me to stop using 98 octane on the fuel card! although he hasn't questioned my poor fuel economy compared to the others! Can't afford to change jobs as couldn't afford the fuel! but for the time being who cares!