By Colin Wood
Jan 30, 2020
This 1983 Ford F-250 runs on biodiesel and features maximized aero. It returns fuel mileage in the mid-20s–real world mileage for this truck should be closer to 15 mpg. Truck owner Bakari Kafele also uses smart driving techniques in order to minimize engine load when driving.
So, what’s the most extreme measure you have taken in order to maximize fuel economy?
1/30/20 10:13 p.m.
Just today I knew I would be driving much more than usual so I left the heat off in my Volt. Then I took surface streets home. Made almost 40 miles on all electric versus the usual winter range of about 25 miles. I'm not sure it was worth it, it was pretty cold.
1/30/20 10:31 p.m.
Trying my hardest to hypermile my e36 with gentle acelleration, not using brakes, coasting in gear to cut injectors etc. I've managed 28.5mpg. Driving my BMW like a proper BMW owner, passing people and weaving in traffic, I managed 29.2mpg.
Respect to this guy. I am all about the small mods, maybe not going that far, but I get it. I've done a few things to the XJ and I'd like to do a few more for better fuel efficiency.
1/30/20 10:57 p.m.
If I drive 65 in my 97 F250 powerstroke i can get 22.5. Pretty sure that it's less efficient to turn the motor off and on, especially on a diesel.
1/30/20 11:00 p.m.
04 Duramax; 30-over injectors, 5-position chip with pretty aggressive timing curves, intake, exhaust. It took highway MPG from 19 to 23... if I can keep my foot out of it. 938 lb-ft to the wheels is waaaay too tempting. Nothing says "my hootus is tiny" like getting sideways in a 7000-lb dually 4x4 at 70 mph.
1/30/20 11:53 p.m.
In reply to Curtis73 :
That sounds like a E36 M3 ton of fun
1/31/20 8:29 a.m.
My Boxster throws up numbers depressingly close to these... fuel economy blows my mind sometimes
1/31/20 8:33 a.m.
I owned an E39 M5 some 7 years ago (still to this day one of my favorite cars ever) and I started experimenting with hypermiling on that car. Sometimes I would turn it off at stoplights (if it had just turned red and I knew it would be a while), and I coasted downhill all the time. I was usually able to average around 20mpg overall, sometimes almost 30mpg in the right situations. When I drive my Mustang I still have the same habits. It's like a fun challenge to me. I still haven't been able to average 30mpg in my Mustang yet, but I'll get there one day.
In our plugin Prius one morning we left for work (wife and I carpool) about 20 minutes early so there was no traffic. That way I wouldn't have people laying on their horns behind me when I practically idled up gentle hills at 18 mph. That morning I averaged just over 100mpg on our commute to work of about 12 miles - and that included a 5 mile stint on the highway.
1/31/20 8:57 a.m.
Depends on how the engine is set up. Most engines I've dealt with have the best BSFC at pretty high loads, so if you accelerate at that output then cost with the engine off, in theory, you would be using the least amount of total energy to do that action.
1/31/20 9:00 a.m.
My FJC is getting 15.7 mpg . Even with hyper milling
my GSR sedan, I do 85mph and 60% 7500 rpm shifts a day. I get 21 mpg. When I act like a grown up, shift at 4500 rpm, keep it 80mph, tank average goes up to 26 mpg sometimes
you will live once
1/31/20 9:20 a.m.
Watching the video- for sure he's using less fuel- the engine is off 3/4 of the time he's doing that.
In terms of start-stop- that I know works really well- I was shocked to see how much fuel that saved on a very simple cycle. If he could dig into the controls of the fuel system, he could tweak the starting fuel to better optimize it- but given he had a start issue at a light, it's not a simple thing. Old diesels like that have no MS kind of option to better set it up- which is a shame, as he could play with the injection timing to possibly gain some efficiency (since biodiesel does combust a little different than typical diesel).
I wonder if he's done some A-B comparisons for the electrical system- interesting to have it do what it does- but if he could control the actual charging system, you could easily use the alternator as an additional brake when the engine is off.
It would be interesting to see a truck driver who has converted to E85 or even E100 that is bio sourced (which is possible), and how much they could gain in terms of FE when they do the full conversion (MUCH higher CR, more aggressive spark, maybe lean burn, and then all of the hyper miling actions).
Displaying 1-10 of 23 commentsView all comments on the CMS forums
You'll need to Log in to post comments.