See thats the problem. Its not only about not going past 3k rpms, but I believe the magic number is dont go above 2.3 or 2.4k rpms. And when cruising keep it in the highest gear as possible with out going below 1.5k rpms. I chose 1.5k to be absolute lowest rpm to cruise because after that the engine seems like it has too much load to react smoothly for keeping constant speed or accelerating with little throttle. So basically at cruising speed keep the throttle around 1.6-1.9k rpms area, unless your obviously travelling too fast. In that case keep it in the highest gear . (in my case 5th)

Just give it a try. Its not like your going to mess up anything.

Also when cruising try to keep the throttle at a position where the mitsu boost gauge reads 30 cm/gh in vacuum or more. (more as in more vacuum/away from boost)

But if you think about it, this makes sense. More rpms = more revolutions per minute to burn fuel. Lower the revolutions down to the bare minimum where the car can still operate smoothly and keep the throttle low as well.

Oh, and I'm in Chicago.

 

I drive in Chicago everyday and the best i've seen on my IX RS that weighs 3140 w/o me in it (i'm 195lbs) with BABYING the car (shifting under 3k) is 23mpg, 98% city driving.

 

i drive in 5th all day to give me optimal mileage. . .this is retarded really. . .

 

This is another reason our cars are great if you think about it. You can get 15mpg one day and 28mpg the next! Oh man, plus all the space, 4 doors, and a TURBO?!

WOAH SO COOL!

 

i shift at 3500 to keep the car smooth, i get around 220-230 filling up 10 galloons at the 1/4 line.. thats like 20-22mpg city... not shabby...

when i shift so early im giving the car more gas to pick up speed faster, so sure the rpms arent high but ur giving alot mroe gas than u normally would

 

For good fuel economy (26-27 on the highway with minimal town driving) I shift at about 3K with modest acceleration. The key is to stay out of boost, which is tremendously difficult sometimes. I also keep my tires a little overinflated (32 rear, 35 front). I would also keep the spark plugs new and clean (replace them every so often). And, believe it or not, a custom tune should help. I should talk, though. It's too fun to put your foot into it. I average about 23-24 mpg on a tank with several WOT pulls though the gears and about 90% highway cruising at 62 mph.

 

Oh, and another thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being concerned about fuel economy. A lot of us bought this car when gas was significantly cheaper than it is now. At $3.70/gal, it can cost hundreds of extra dollars per year in gas (depending on how much you drive) if you drive the car really hard as opposed to sensibly. I know that the Evo was made to be pushed, but some people use this as a daily driver (and their only car) and, consequently, may legitimately choose to trade fleeting turbo experiences for a lower gas bill.

 

I'm sorry but I have to disagree.

I've had a wideband on my previous car and I've noticed the same a/f ratios no matter what rpm or amount of throttle I pushed. As long as the car doesnt go into open loop mode (when you go WOT).

Now we have an narrow band o2 sensor that reads the a/f ratios to keep them close to 14.7 as possible. Given that the car is in stock tune, it will always be around or near the factory set a/f ratio of 14.7, sometimes a bit richer or leaner but it will keep trying to adjust it to that level.

Now the more rpms the more fuel required to keep the a/f ratio at 14.6 because you have the engine speed working faster requiring more air and fuel to continue. What I'm telling you guys to do besides keeping the rpms low, is to keep the throttle low as well. So you dont push more air in which will require more fuel to keep the 14.7 a/f level. (which is called stoich if I'm not mistake?)

If you give the car 3/4 throttle at 2k rpms off course it will require more gasoline (up to a certain point) because your also pushing more air in which requires more fuel to keep the mixture at stoich levels. This is why i mentioned when accelerating, keep the throttle low so that the boost gauge wont be less vacuum than 15 cm/hg (using the stock mitsu gauge). And when cruising try to keep the vacuum at 30 cm/Hg or higher.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Some years ago I was out in the Denver area driving my 1G DSM (same engine, smaller turbo, and AWD) and I decided to try to come home (400 miles) on one tank of fuel. Well, I didn't make it, I chickened out and headed for the pumps when the fuel light came on. Well, the tank only accepted 11.6 gallons and it held 16 - stupid light! To get to where I stopped on that amount of gas meant my mileage was a little better than 30 mpg.

Driving my Evo over the same route and at the same speed I ordinarily stop for fuel twice. A DSM has a little less frontal area but still, driving at the same speed it seems the two cars would require about the same horse power to push them along. So, it suggest an Evo is set to run much richer than a DSM. That makes sense since the Evo is a copy of their race car and the factory expects it to maybe get harder use than a DSM. So, for those people wanting better gas mileage the computer is probably the place to look for it.

 

i tried this today, felt like i was killing my car. i have to shift at 3000rpm at the least...

 

it only gets rough when the rpm's are below 1.5 ish and the engine is under load

 

under load and trying too keep a constant speed

 

This is just my 2 cents....

Here in so cal...we have to drive 75-80 mph...TO STAY ALIVE! Now what is weired, is that at 65-70 mph (highway), I get 20-22 MPG. At 80 MPH....I get 17-18 MPG. Now, this is cruising on a long road trip on the freeway. The extreme variance between these two speed ranges I have mentioned is too extreme. I have done a lot of research (Q&A) with reputable tuners. These tuners have mapped the cars and increased the MPG by almost 5 MPG!!!! The way to achieve this is by adjusting your TPS values (through a flash). Basically the TPS controls your transistion from closed, to open loop (aka...cruising, and acceleration). The most understandable definiton given to me was from Jestr tuning. I inquired due to the fact that even with AWD, and a turbo....our stock MPG still flat out sucks!!! Just FYI...

 

maybe he actually has a lancer, not a evo. lol

 

So when does this open loop to closed loop transition happen with a stock evo?

On my previous car (dodge srt-4) the transition would happen only when you go WOT (accel pedal pressed all the way down). During closed loop the computer would adjust the boost through the boost solonoid (sort of like a electric boost controller) to control the part throttle boost to safe levels.