ok... most of you no doubt know by now where mivec kicks in (3500)... most of you are probably like me and set your cruise control around 73-74 right before it kicks in to get better fuel economy... but i decided to do a little expariment...

here goes:
week1:after a gas fill up.. do normal driving... and never enter mivec... set cruise at or around 73, just before the timing change

week2:after a gas fill up... do normal driving except on the highway... set cruise control just above 3500 rpms... or about 76 mph

well i just filled up today here are the results

staying out of mivec:27.2mpg
cruising with mivec:24.7mpg

i drove the same route to and from work each day and tried to warm up for about 1 minute each morning... so going 2mph slower saves you about 2.5mpg... or about 33 miles a tank

god i have way too much time

Wow, good work! I don't have the decipline for such experimentation!!!

Props on the experiment. This is good to know why i have such bad fuel economy compared to other RA drivers.. lol (17 year old highschool student... do that math)

I did something similar.

EVo without clutch not boosting (or can't) - 43 MPG

Evo cruising with some boost - 19 MPG

Evo Full Throttle with a lot of boost - 13 MPG

lol im not far off... i just graduated last june... every thursday when leaving the office (i have fridays off... so thursday is the last work day of the week for me) i usually floor it from 0-100 onto the highway... its a nice long straight entrance ramp... and i can usually brake down to about 70 to merge in with the rush our traffic... lol

hey, ya'll have your beloved mitsus for a reason...go use them to their fullest

I beat you to it.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=101884

dude how the hell do you get 34 mpg and then 28 IN mivec??? i have never ever gotten over 28 before and thats driving like a grandma

All highway mileage on the highway.

Dude, that's like 500+ miles a tank.....how?

i know what the hell all my miles are on the highway

No AC, radio off, daytime driving with no lights on. Mild traffic, NO LIGHTS. Manual transmission, 5w30 synthetic motor oil, 75w90 synthetic gear lube.

Basically, you want to do everything you can do to keep the AC compressor off and the alternator disengaged. I use synthetic to minimize the internal friction of the engine.

so the radio on... takes gas??? man i should stop pumpin teh bass... LOL

Erm, unless there's something I don't know, the alternator never "disengages". The voltage regulator varies the output, but the alternator never increases or decreases its load on the engine. It wouldn't make sense, anyways, because the alternator is what gives you spark so your engine can run. The battery is just there to get things started up.

Anything that uses electricity will make the alternator work harder, drawing more power from the engine. Just having the regular radio on won't affect it much, but if you've got 26,000,000 watts of amps it sure will.

I drive with the radio on (volume usually up around 20-23), fan on 1 or 2, headlights on (all the time) and driving lights on (night). I typically get 28-30mpg. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a LOT less