I think it's fairly well known that the MSC's get less mpg than MC's, and to my understanding it's because of the supercharger.

But would making the supercharger 'more powerful' by adding the 15% pulley increase or decrease average mpg?

 

What little semi-controlled testing I did right after I got my pulley (over the couple weeks proceeding), I found a slight increase, although barely noteable. I believe it was simply due to the torque band shifitng downward slightly, and thus the less need to give as much thottle for the same type of aceelleration in conditions.


HOWEVER, the increased potential power lead me to use more throttle more often, and my overall milage decreased - simply because of increased WOT use.

If given identiacl driving conditions, you will most likely see a very small increase of ~1 mpg.

 

Having not experienced it myself, I would have thought you'd use more fuel as there is increased oxygen going into the engine, therefore, the computer will want to add more fuel to maintain the ratio....

 

acturally its not that well know .. its all in how you drive it. Being one of the KINGS of the miles per tank in a MCS. The MPT (miles per Tank) Doesn't have to Decrease when putting on the smaller pulley. Now add larger injectors thats a different story. I've done a couple runs to the Dragon which is a 520 mile trip from my door to the Hotel. Granted this is all hwy no town driving.

In stock trim (except getting rid of those heavy rims and tires) i was able to squeeze out 543 MPT. This is to the point of the Red Low fuel light starting to Flash.

Adding 15% pulley i got 547 MPT (had a small Tail wind)
Adding MTH and removing rear seats i got 562 MPT
Adding 19% pulley i got 551 MPT
Adding JCW injectors 501 MPT
Adding SAFCII and tuning very lean for trips 535

Each time took 13.5-14.1 (US)gallons to fill up. Oh and yes i have run it dry before 14.5 to fill. Also running NOS octane booster Racing formula made a difference of around 60 miles or more. Without the booster i could never break the 500 mark. Some of the ones mark were going to the dragon some coming back.

 

Good question! I'm thinking of getting a 15% pulley. The answer to this question could push me one way or the other.

 

Wow - I have only got mine down to put 13.9 gal in it - I didn't even know it would flash! LOL

Seriously though be very careful doing that. The fuel pump is a wet sump cooling design - when it runs that low and runs dry, it can easily overheat and burn out.

 

Yes that's true - HOWEVER as I said - you then don't need as much throttle because of the increased power. It's almost a complete wash, there is certainly no major change either way simply from a 15% pulley on a stock car.

 

I do not think I gave mpg a single bit of consideration when I added the pulley, CAI, ECU, etc. I was more pumped about the hp and torque improvements. I find that I spend much more time on the throttle than I did before and according to my OBC I am getting fewer mpgs with my mods than a stock MCS. Does it bother me? Not really. I love driving my car and I don't mind burning through a tank of petrol a little quicker...even with exorbitant gas prices. To be honest I am not sure how many of us actually pay much attention to what is happening to our fuel economy when we make these changes. That would be an interesting question...


:smile:

 

The pulley and air intake help your gas mileage, thats a fact.

I know this because on a long trip, a stock MCS and a modded MCS started out with full tanks of gas, and the light came on on the stock MCS, when the modded one still had just below quater tank left. (Much more than the stock).

They had covered the same distance, and drove together the whole time.


On a sidenote - the pulley and intake doesnt help your mileage when you first get it because you're always stomping on it to a) hear the sound and b) feel the power.

 

Well, there was this marked drop in economy when I first installed the pulley, but that was due to me having too much fun with the new power.

Now that I have had many months to average things out, I cant say that I took much of a hit. In fact, around-town driving seems to be a bit better, since the extra torque lets me keep the engine in a higher gear when accelerating. So overall, any hit I may have taken in strict highway mileage (at most 1 mpg) seems to have been transferred to the city cycle.

 

After initial break in of your FOOT to accelerator, after installing pulley and/or intake, gas mileage seems to be a tad better in most cases....

 

This is exactly what my experience has been. It takes less effort to drive faster, therefore you'll probably see an increased MPG. If you were pushing your post-pulley MCS as hard as you did prior to the pulley install, you'd be going a hell of a lot faster, but you'd be eating gas closer to the old rate.

 

But that's what breaking the $3/gallon mark will do. I honestly didn't start getting uncomfortable at the gas pump until gas hit $2.40, now that we're pushing $3.20+ I'm really noticing it, especially when a surprising number of stations by me have been forced to close due to dry tanks...

 

How in the hell are you getting that much? I see nowhere near that much, usaly i see 300. And thats takin it easy. Ive been driving around for the past 2 days not even takin the car above 4k to see what kind of mpg i get now but ive never seen even close to 320.

 

Dark.. remember this is FULL hwy driving. Using Drafting and many other Techniques. ive learned from driving other non-aerodynamic very low power 4 cyc. Auto's. Again this is all in one shot no stopping. For city driving, Back and forth to work and showing off for the Ricers. I'll get anywhere around 230-320 MPT. I believe i did a full write up on what i do to achieve the MPT but I think it was on MINI2. where the question was asked alot.



As for what Camelpilot said. Same thing applies. When a group of us from Rivercity Minis did a Mountain twisties run. Myself and a Stock PW MCS driven by Rcoopers were the last two in a line of what i think was 8 other Minis (6 MCS and 2 MC). All of us topped off our tank then started the run. RC follow my lead pretty much using same techniques as me (both of us old racers). At the end of the days trip Both of us had over 1/4 tanks where everyone else was in the red and looking for a gas station. Yes that included the MC's.

oh and kaelaria yeah i know what your saying about the pump and all. Only when i do the Dragon run is when i let it go that far. Any other time i really dont let it go below 1/4 tank. Also another bad habit is when i get a car for the first time. I do run it until the tank runs dry. This way i know how big the tank is and approx how far i can run. Keeping these numbers around help me to know when i need to do tune ups, If i can trust the gas gauge (several cars ive had were bone dry when the gauge read 1/8 tank) and other factors.

If interested Most of the Techniques were learned driving a 1987 Toyota 4-runner with a 22rte (turbo) motor. This was my work truck i drove for 8+ years. Where when i bought it. It had 115,000 miles on it. Then when it finially died it had 1,386,000 on the clock. So i know a thing or two on how to keep a car running for a long long long long time

 

After HAI, and a 16% my avg. MPG went from 24.5 (1-6500 miles) and after the last 1500 miles it's at 25.1. The car is my daily driver, and I have not changed how I drive.

 

my obc says 30.5mpg all the time since pulley install. use to say 29.5mpg with factory pulley.

 

By 15% pully do you mean increasing the supercharger pully by 15% increases MPG?