Quote:
ORIGINAL: Adionik
Pretty much everything you mentioned with hurt your mpg
You're adding more air which will cause the car to add more fuel on a PCM not designed to do such a thing...
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Not necessarily... this is a tricky subject to argue, but if I explain this right, both of our comments will make sense.
Just adding a K&N will not hurt your MPG. I've personally used K&N in6 different vehicles, and had good luck with every one.Never heard of it dropping MPG by switching from paper to cloth.
Now, Adionik your comment is true, but usually only under situations where forced induction comes into play. For NA (naturally aspirated) engines, many times a little bit more air actually = a little bit less fuel. Sounds screwy, I know. But the rule of thumb is, if you have a properly tuned engine and can
unrestrict airflow moving into it, you will fit more air into the combustion chamber. Combining this with the fuel mixture will lead to a more efficient burn of the fuel due to the slightly higher
real air pressure in the engine when the piston is at TDC and the plug hasjust sparked. This added efficiency generally will cause you to press the accelerator a little less to get the same amount of "power" as before... because the same amount of air is traveling into your engine with less throttle body opening needed.Thus you will actually use less gas, theoretically anyway. Granted, swapping a K&N in there compared to a new paper filter will probably only yield 1 mpg or so, but with gas prices nowadays it might as well be worth it IMO. In engines where airflow is restricted, the ECU will try to compensate by injecting more fuel than usual to get the same power result, simply because the driver has to open the throttle-body more to get up and going, etc.
As far as plugs and wires, Champions do just fine, Neons seem to love them. NGK's are at least just as good of a plug. Stay away from platinums unless you like spending more money to change them (DIS ignition systems wear them out quicker than they claim to last, also platinum does not have nearly the conductivity of electricity that copper does).
As far as exhaust, there is a recent thread in the 2nd-Gen forum discussing the same thing right now. The conversation is leaning towards glass-packs if you're on a budget and want cheap performance.
Make sure your tire pressure is up, 30-35 psi is decent, especially if you do a lot of driving on the highway. Higher tire pressure (but not too high) = less rolling resistance and can really help your gas mileage considerably.
Oh and as far as oil, there is also a good oil thread in this forum too as of today. Full Synthetics like Mobil1, Pennzoil Platinum, Quaker-State "Q", and Royal Purple are all decent choices by the general community. 5W-30 is a good place to start for your engine. I personally prefer 0W-30 Mobil1, but that's only my personal preferrence. All of the oils I mentioned will provide good protection and the least amount of friction vs. protection and performance, and also will net you 1 mpg or so over conventional oils of the same rated 5W-30 ratings. Just don't use any higher winter-weight of 5W-30 (in other words, don't use 10W- weights, the 2.0 generally doesn't like them). Also, only use them if your car does not have a s***load of miles on it and has never seen synthetic oil... If you run a motor for 100,000 miles on conventional oil, and then one day decide to switch to full synthetic, there is a good chance that it will start leaking oil on you... that being said, stick with conventional if that's the case. If that's not the case, then synthetic all the way.
Hope this helps.
I need MORE MPG
happy modding!!!!
