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Old Apr 8, 2010 | 11:43 PM
  #1  
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mpg tuning

i was wondering what would be the best thing to do to get more miles to the gallon (mpg) on my 8. Preferably without having to sacrafice hp.



if i created this in the wrong thread i didnt know and a nice finger pointing in the right direction would be appreciated, thanks.
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Old Apr 8, 2010 | 11:55 PM
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Cobb accessport with economy tune ....
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Old Apr 8, 2010 | 11:59 PM
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Right section, wrong car.

Brettman, you forgot to mention how little he will enjoy that crappy, gutless, miserable, pokey, and anemic tune.

Sell your car, buy a nice Civic.

S


.
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 12:19 AM
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Originally Posted by StealthTL

Brettman, you forgot to mention how little he will enjoy that crappy, gutless, miserable, pokey, and anemic tune.
S


.
is it really that bad ? Any idea what is done to make it that way ?
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 03:15 AM
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best thread ever!!!!!! killer.

beers
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 07:52 AM
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the best MPG tune is your foot....
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 08:20 AM
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you bought an rx8 thinking you could save gas lmao .... this car give 16-20 mpg if you didn't search that well before buying .....forget it man even with the Cobb you'll get just a few extras but not a big diference
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 10:55 AM
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stay on the free way crusie in nuetral......stay away from the canyons
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 02:02 PM
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Drive behind the trucks, you can save 30% of your fuel.
Be aware if they breaks suddendly, you may loose 3000% of it for repairing.

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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 02:07 PM
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tuning for mpg is worthless.
if that truly is what you want to do, save yourself the trouble and buy a different car.
you will not improve mpg without sacrificing hp and all that is great about the RX8
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Old Apr 9, 2010 | 02:07 PM
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Originally Posted by ARCTiC
Drive behind the trucks, you can save 30% of your fuel.
Be aware if they breaks suddendly, you may loose 3000% of it for repairing.

what if you attach an electromagnet to the front of the car and attach yourself to the truck and then just turn it off when you need to get off an exit etc.
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Old Apr 10, 2010 | 09:16 PM
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Originally Posted by david_kim5
i was wondering what would be the best thing to do to get more miles to the gallon (mpg) on my 8. Preferably without having to sacrafice hp.



if i created this in the wrong thread i didnt know and a nice finger pointing in the right direction would be appreciated, thanks.
Yes, you can tune the 8 to get better mileage. The most straightforward change would be to lean out the AFRs. The downside is that this will decrease your catalytic converter life. You may also damage the engine itself, especially if you choose to drive aggressively. You could try to counter that by having richer AFRs for higher loads, which is also done in the stock map.

Is it worth it? Only if you really, really do your homework. It definitely involves risk and, at the end of the day, you need to ask yourself if you're comfortable reducing catalyst life and possibly causing serious damage to the motor. I would say that no, it isn't worth it.

Now, having said all that, if you look at the stock maps from Mazda, they are doing exactly that. You that Mazda seems to have done what they could to best balance
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 02:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Bigbacon
what if you attach an electromagnet to the front of the car and attach yourself to the truck and then just turn it off when you need to get off an exit etc.
It wouldn't work, because the energy used to have the elettromagnet working would be bigger than the one produced by the traction, so you must use a big natural magnet, but in this case the truck must draw you, so it will uses more fuel (approx the same fuel you going to save), that's not efficient; while using the air trail, you're going to exploit the vacuum produced by the mass of the truck, that is a portion of energy that should be wasted anyway (since a truck doesn't have a positive CI to make it usefull and being pushed by the returning air column), so less density > less air impact > less fuel used to run.
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 03:28 PM
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Originally Posted by StealthTL
Right section, wrong car.

Brettman, you forgot to mention how little he will enjoy that crappy, gutless, miserable, pokey, and anemic tune.

Sell your car, buy a nice Civic.

S


.
Why settle for a civic when he can get a TDI and make 45+ mpg along with 230 lbs of torque?
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 04:02 PM
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you can save gas by taking roads only downhill
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 04:10 PM
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just buy a second car for cheap. i got sick of throwing money down the drain i use the focus for short town trips while the 8 for anything over 30km
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 04:20 PM
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Originally Posted by StealthTL
Right section, wrong car.


Sell your car, buy a nice Civic.
ditto, I've tried everything, if you love the car just live with it! Or buy a SmartCar, a Yaris,
etc,etc.etc

Last edited by RXeckless; Apr 11, 2010 at 04:22 PM.
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Old Apr 11, 2010 | 04:42 PM
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Keep in mind that using real gasoline, rather than gasohol, will give an approximate 10% improvement. Eat food, burn gas, save the planet (BTW-Global Warming is a crock).

And don't forget to shift up a gear when not accelerating. The cheapest "fix" is control of the throttle and gearbox.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 01:42 PM
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i love my 8 and no other car would replace it.
i'll get more money for the much needed gas.
haha you guys are funny, i read everything from gibberish to a picture of a flipped 8 =[.
i'll be less heavy on the foot haha
thanks for your opinions ill definitely keep them in mind.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 01:45 PM
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so many threads like this, and everyone still amazes me. i dont know exactly why i dont get the **** milage everyone else does. mines not great, but better than most.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 01:49 PM
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Right there with you.


That being said......see sig.



Oh, and I save gas by only driving with the wind.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 01:51 PM
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Or driving 2 ft behind a semi on the highway for a couple of hours to your destination.

I wouldn't recommend it though.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 01:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Marc_GS
Yes, you can tune the 8 to get better mileage.
Though it is counter-intuitive, this is often actually wrong.
The proper AFR target for cruise on the RX-8 for maximum economy is actually slightly richer than stoich.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 05:15 PM
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Originally Posted by Vlaze
Or driving 2 ft behind a semi on the highway for a couple of hours to your destination.

I wouldn't recommend it though.
Grrrr.. stealer! :D ...there's a debate 6 posts above.
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Old Apr 13, 2010 | 09:03 PM
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Cool

Originally Posted by MazdaManiac
Though it is counter-intuitive, this is often actually wrong.
The proper AFR target for cruise on the RX-8 for maximum economy is actually slightly richer than stoich.
That's peak Torque you're talking about at Lamda 0.85 right? The only way running rich will improve your MPG would be unless you stay out of lower gears more. The Peak BSFC is usually 15% lean or Lambda 1.15 as a general rule individual engines can and will vary. I'm not an expert on the specifics but I do know what you're hinting at. I would appreciate if you'd elaborate.

Coming from an armchair engineer you could lean the AFR for MPG but only under less than Moderate loads and it should improve MPG depending on how you drive. It won't make you go any faster. If you lean out AFR past 20:1 the EGT start to drop but the peak will be about Lamda 1.15
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