Fuel Milage discussion

[lord flashheart]

Im not sure if there is already a thread dedicated to this, but why not have a gas milage MPG discussion thread.
Im toying with the idea of getting another older Subaru for a DD. I am attending school and working full time, starting next semester, I will be driving like 80 miles a day.. I love my 4Runner to death but 18mpgs isn't going to cut it.
so what do you think would be the optimal MPG setup? what mods do you have and what are you getting? what would you consider to be max for my 95 or my 05 legos?

[mike-tracy]

My RSTI gets ~24 mpg
My Baja gets ~22 mpg
My SS gets ~22 mpg
All premium fuel.

My 2010 Prius gets 45 mixed/ 50 highway mpg. My last one got KYB shocks and H&R springs and fatter sways. No it doesn't handle as good as my RSTI or SS. But it handles way better than it did.

You can probably guess which one I drive 90% of the time.

I do like to drive a Subaru to work on Fridays. And during the summer, I'm on a motorcycle 90% of the time. Gotta mix it up and have some fun. But with a 58 mile round trip commute, I gotta go with something that gets great MPG's.

[lord flashheart]

quit hoarding all the cars mike! save some for the rest of us!

Hypothetically, What do you think it would take to get my 95 BD over 30mpgs?
obviously, within reason, don't suggest an EV swap

[mike-tracy]

You'll need a smaller displacement shortblock. I believe the 06/07 WRX has the tallest gearing.

My buddy has that trans in his 05 Saabaru (a 2.0L) and he was getting 28mpg highway. He was getting that doing 80+ mph, so I suspect if you kept it under 70 you could kiss 30mpg.

Lastly, if you have a dinky turbo, get a bigger one in its place. Mostly so you aren't in boost all the time.

Going from a TD04 to TD05 netted me 2mpg.

[lord flashheart]

Yeah thats what i figured. I could probably scrounge a EJ22D longblock for my car. Didnt the SVX have crazy tall gears? like 3.60 or something? i got RWD so i could make that work easy, and gas milage is an excellent rational for going to a Ar.70.

Edit: I looked it up SVX had 3.54 final drive

[mike-tracy]

Not sure about SVX, but the 5mt 02-05 WRX had 3.54 rear diffs.

[xrayspecs]

I averaged about 25 mpg in my 02, Legacy L (3.90fd) in the time I was driving it, dont have any data on the 01 yet I dont think it will be as good considering it has 4.11's and i cant get the roof rack off since the PO didnt give me the keys.

I had a couple of 29~30 MPG trips, those were usually on road trips with a good tail wind, a semi to draft and lots of downhill. see below for the milage graph from my fill up log.

[lord flashheart]

WOAH! this guy is serious about gas milage tracking
Just curious, Is this every fill up? or just random sampling? There were only two fill ups in 2017?
Did you get a new job in April of 2019 that significantly altered the composition of driving (Highway/city)?

[xrayspecs]

Yeah should see the spreadsheet i keep for parts and maintenace! Its on the cloud so i just update it from my phone after every single fill up. I started a new one for my new 01 so well see once i start filling it up what the mpg looks like.

I got a job way closer to home and a second car cause the trans on the car blew up in '17, so it was down for maintaince that whole year pretty much.

In 2019, i went from 80% city / 20% highway driving to 90% highway (75-80) / 10% city driving. I bought a house and had a commute. in 2020 the car went into the garage for maintence and well the rest is in the build thread.