Fuel economy and improving it, among other things.

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

I don't remember the exact year of your car, but know it's a MK I.
So, I assume 1.6L, regular mechanical/vacuum advance distributor, CIS w/O2 
sensor, and wide ratio 5 speed tranny (FF, FN, FO type stuff).
My nephew gets 33 mpg with 1.8, and .71 5th on the highway and he has a 
habit of using his turbo some so it does seem to me that your numbers are 
low.
I'd check ignition timing and make sure it's to spec or perhaps a little 
advanced. Make sure to disconnect the vacuum advance tube when you do this. 
There should be no vacuum advance at idle, if there is then your throttle 
plate needs to be closed down (and the idle adjustment screw opened out) 
until the vacuum is not present at the distributor. Check and make sure both 
the vacuum advance and mechanical advance work correctly.
Second make sure your O2 sensor circuit is working and that the fuel system 
is in closed loop except at WOT.
Third, wouldn't hurt to check your cam timing.
Last, get some lowering springs so the nose of your car isn't up in the air 
causing all the air to go under the car and cause a lot of extra drag ;^)
Dan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GGehrke" <ggehrke@gmail.com>
To: "Scirocco list" <Scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 9:36 AM
Subject: Fuel economy and improving it, among other things.


So in the 43-whatever-mpg thread a couple people were saying they got
over 30mpg on their sciroccos (w/o diesel motors).  I've been keeping
a close eye on my mileage and such since I fixed my speedometer (day
before cincy) and have not been able to get those sort of numbers and
it's been essentially 100% highway miles.

Since then I've gone 1174 miles on 41.731 gallons of 89 octane.  That
comes to 28.1mpg.  Between individual fills I'm usually around 27.5.
The other day on my drive home I drove for a while with nothing but
fuel economy in mind for one stint across KY and went 150 miles at
30.08mpg, but that required driving strictly 65 +/-5 mph, being
extremely conscious of hills, very slow smooth throttle changes, and
even drafting behind trucks.

Is this as low as I feel like it is for the engine?  What can I do to
improve it.  I have one more 600 mile pull left at the end of this
summer, and I'd really like to get the best mileage I can.

Yesterday I changed my air filter (still just a paper filter), cleaned
my fuel return line (someone wrote about it as the "tip of the year"
or something on vortex), and fixed my alignment.  I might pick up a
bottle of fuel system cleaner today at autozone cause they're cheap
and I haven't done it yet.  What else is there to do?

And a spinoff question: What else can I do to my car now thats
cheap/free.  I am going to replace my exhaust gaskets and do some body
work, but other than that I'm basically out of stuff to work on!  I
have a ton of free time and need ideas :)

-Grant-

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