Horrible Mileage...STILL...after alot of work/troubleshooting

[Runt]

Doakster, did you try the rolling decel test?  If not, when you try it, perhaps try it with the tranny in gear, and clutch disengaged, and also in neutral, just to see how much difference there is?  Also, perhaps some others from here could try the same thing, and see how similar their times are to mine.  Steady 50mph, push clutch, roll until 25mph, on flat ground.  My car took 40 seconds, within a couple tenths.
There are more variables involved, but the same test could be performed by shutting the engine off, and rolling out in gear.  My high miles motor doesn't seem to have the compression braking that my last one had, and I've got the 3.94 instead of the 3.67, but if it helps, I could time this test as well.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

Does your mileage vary according to town/fast interstate/slow interstate? If you're missing the noticable benefits of the last one, then that could be a pump advance issue. However you are pretty sure that your pump is good.

Have you checked the resistance of the air filter? A combined boost/vac gauge from a carb/gasser fuel pump tester inserted in the boost signal line to the pump, will show a vacuum until boost starts.

You say that you can push the car freely at rest, suggesting nothing binding, yet you have this strange phenonemon of the 'rather high' boost when cruising. This boost is the only 'evidence' agreeing with the poor fuel economy. Did the ECO pump give you boost of more than a few psi when cruising?

I would suggest running the car with the boost line disconnected for a few gallons of fuel, to see if things improve.

Haven't checked the resistance of the air filter, but I got poor mileage on my past older filter (that wasn't really dirty), changed to a new filter for the heck of it and still poor mileage.

I can't speak to the ECO pump showing high boost, since I got my gauges in after the ECO pump got pulled out

Which boost line are you referring to disconnecting the boost advance on the pump?
[/quote]

It's the 1/4" line from inlet manifold to injection pump aneroid, which is the signal from the turbo pressure to call for extra fuel from the pump.

[arb]

My point about BTU and L / 100 km is that is a LOT of energy going some place... either it is going out the tail pipe for a variety of reasons, or something or things is getting rather warm. So, have you felt your trans case after a long drive at speed ? Your tires ? wheel bearings ? Brakes (using the engine to stop, not your brakes) There is no way around this - either the energy is out the tail pipe / radiator, or is heat in some components. Your hand should find the heat :-)

Is its coming out of the engine, have you tried various injection timings ? + / - 0.05" at a time until it either will not start or runs rough ?

[burn_your_money]

To check rolling resistance you can put a bathroom scale against the trunk and push the car at a steady speed and see what it reads.

[Doakster]

To check rolling resistance you can put a bathroom scale against the trunk and push the car at a steady speed and see what it reads.

Now that right there is redneck...but i like it.

[Doakster]

Finally got around to doing some troubleshooting today....found an issue.

Went over the front end looking at everything for any sort of rolling resistance. Initially both front wheel sprung very very freely with both wheels off the ground.

But I noticed some slop in the driver side wheel bearing when check with the "hands a 12 & 6 method" and rocking the wheel back and forth, there was about 1/8 of an inch if not more of movement.

So I thought the wheel bearing was bad and started to pull everything about, and I found that the axle nut was very loose, like as in couldn't have been more than 50ftlbs loose.

The spec is 195ftlbs, so I re-tightened to the spec and there was no more slop in the bearing.

Then just to make sure, I decided to strip the brakes off both sides so everything was down to just the hubs, when spinning the hubs by hand they were both VERY VERY easy to spin, very little if any resistance.

I put everything back together and I can push the car very easily on flat ground, I haven't had time to do a mileage run yet to see if that was the issue.

If this was not the problem, the only other thing is the cooling system, I need to tear into it, flush everything, new pump, new T-Stat, etc.

[burn_your_money]

Updates?

[JGVWDiesel]

any updates? im curious as well.

[ShoulderMan]

Bump for an update

[Doakster]

Sorry guys...have been real busy lately, seems I don't have a spare moment in the day, and the car hasn't gotten any attention since my last update.

The last found issue was the loose wheel bearing on the driver side. Haven't done a mileage run yet.

I actually don't see myself driving the car much anymore, I have a new dog and with all the gear I primarily use my truck, the dog and all the training/hunting gear don't fit too well in a little car. I haven't yet renewed the registration or inspection for this year, so the car is sitting in the garage. 

The thought has crossed my mind to sell the car.

Anyone want a heck of a deal on a low mileage car, with a pile of new parts, that WELL surpass the value of the car?

[Ryan31783]

how much?

[Doakster]

If anybody is serious about the car, just send me a PM and I'll try and get back to you with more details about the car and price.

[Quantum TD]

I can't afford the whole car right now, but I'd definitely be interested in that Votex console   

[Doakster]

I can't afford the whole car right now, but I'd definitely be interested in that Votex console   

  Gauges go with the console.....which goes with the car. Seriously PM me a  $ number....you might be surprised what I'll take for the car...you never know.