Posts Tagged ‘octane’
Fuel Injection Cleaner with the Mazdaspeed 3
So being the driving enthusiast I am, In 1.5 years I have put 35,000 miles on my car. During my driving I noticed my gas mileage started to decrease. I cleaned the air filter religiously so that wasn’t the case, I change the oil every 5,000 miles with the recommended synthetic blend and only have a few bolt on mods at this point which increase airflow and should help with gas mileage, in theory.
With all this considered, when I went in for my latest oil change it was recommended that I get the fuel injection cleaning service for $75 dollars… Took me all of 1 second to respond NO! But this triggered a thought… clean the fuel injectors, dummy! So I went to Advance Autoparts and purchased a bottle of STP fuel injection cleaner. I asked the man behind the counter if this stuff really works or should I get the service done. He responded, “It works just fine and that service that is offered has the potential to make things worse because the blow air through the injectors and it could damage the pin”. Good enough reason to try it out for me!
When my tank was very low on fuel (1 to 2 bars) I added the fuel injection cleaner before filling up with 93 octane. Then I crossed my fingers. I drove it for 3/4th a tank of gas with the fuel injection cleaning additive. I did notice that the car ran a little funny. Nothing severe but it felt chunky and a little hesitant. I also did not beat up the car. I drove it like a granny. I didn’t accelerate to hard and didn’t go much over the speed limit during this time.
With this tank I did not notice any real improvements in my gas mileage. So after I got down to a 1/4th of a tank I filled up again with 93 octane. During the second tank of gas the car felt much smoother and had no hesitation. I also started to notice an increase in gas mileage. However, being that my driving is not the same every week I chalked it up to the increase in highway miles that week. So I tracked my gas mileage again on the third tank and the fourth and the fifth.
At about 8 tanks later and I had been averaging a steady 26.5 miles per gallon or greater for my routine driving. The best was 28 miles per gallon and the worst was 25 miles per gallon. But most of the time my computer read right around 26.3-8 miles per gallon now.
I am now at 38,000 miles and I am still pulling the same averages which leads me to believe that fuel injector cleaner is worth every penny! Just don’t go and add it to the fuel before you hit the track!
Maryland International Raceway Quarter mile – April 2011
On April 3rd 2011 I went to Maryland International Raceway (MIR) in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. This is a nice and well run quarter mile drag strip. On April 3rd of 2011 I went for the Test and Tune event they have periodically throughout the year. I wanted to go early in the season to get a baseline for my car. As of this day the only power mods I have on the car are the SURE Motorsports Aeros Short-ram intake, Sidewinder turbo inlet pipe and a prototype test pipe. I was also running on 93 octane with no octane boost.
I decided to call this my baseline instead of stock because these are very basic and inexpensive bolt-on mods that most entry level tuners will have on their cars almost immediately. With this said, I showed up at 10am and headed over to Tech Inspection. Passed with flying colors, of course, and was assigned number 902. Be sure to look at the times under the column with Car #… 902 in the pictures below. I ran a total of 9 runs that day but I will only show the 3 important ones!
My First Run was at 10:30am and is not pictured here because it is not very good. I had to use this to feel out the power band, when to shift and, of course, shack off the first run jitters! I ran a 14.876 with a top speed of 100.61.
Second run at 10:36am. It wasn’t very busy in the morning! Other than the horrific reaction time of .387 the run was my best run of the day. Found the shift points and sped through to the finish with a 14.151 and a top speed of 101.55. Not too bad, but I felt I could do better with the reaction time.
Well, needless to say, That wasn’t the case. I did 2 more runs between 10:36 and 11:07 and they were horrible. I guess I got too anxious or the fact that I was next to a 9 second dragster and couldn’t hear my engine may have had something to do with it. Although I did beat a old Civic hatch, which was fun. However, I only ran a 14.384 and he ran a 14.892. That would have potentially have been my best run but my reaction time was .628 and his was .266. I am amazed I even won that one.
So after that, I broke for a bite to eat and let my car cool down for an hour. At 12:05pm I decide to get back on the track. My nerves are calm, I am feeling good and… Dear god I am next to another dragster pictured to right. The tree lights up and I nail the reaction time! but the wheels spin a tad. That’s okay, feeling good… I go into third gear and EEERRRRR, miss shifted… Worst run of the day as you can see.
I raced three more times after that but I couldn’t break 14.7 seconds, no matter how well I launched or went through the gears. The car just got too heat soaked to get any more power out of it. So I shut her down for a few hours and watch others race for a bit.
I decide to go for one last run for the day at 3:51 pm. The car had plenty of time to cool down and I was as ready as I would ever be at the point. It wasn’t a bad run after all, I just have to work on my reaction time a bit.
So as you can see from these slips, with the Mods I have on my car and a little more practice, at this stage it is a 14 second car. Three basic, inexpensive bolt-on modification and we are .151 seconds from needing a helmet when racing! Not too shabby if I may say so myself!
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 v4-FI vs. Hyundia Genesis coupe v6-NA
Normally I would have some big explanation on why the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 is a much better car than the 2010 Hyundia Genesis coupe but this article below says it better than I ever could. When reading this article, remember, it is a v4 versus a v6, normal disc brakes versus Brembo brakes and most importantly it is a difference of 6 thousand dollars. Hope you all enjoy this article as much as I did! I can’t wait to find one of these at the track!!!
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 Miles per Gallon – Bethany Beach Trip!
This weekend I decided to go to Bethany Beach in Delaware for the weekend. Life has been hectic and I needed a little reprieve. So I grabbed my Girlfriend packed up the MS3 and hit the road Friday after traffic. We left at 7pm and arrived just before 10pm Friday night. There was a little traffic on 495 leaving Bethesda but it was pretty much smooth sailing after that. Traffic was next to none all the way up 50 East and over the Bay Bridge. It was a great night to put the Mazdaspeed 3 through the grind again.
This trip was not different from the road trip to Savannah. Loaded up the computers, ipods, phones and jacked in like Neo from the Matrix. Once again all the features of the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 made for an amazing ride. For the trip up, I refilled the tank without octane boost. I did this in continuation from my previous post as extended testing of the octane boost product and the affects on the car. (2010 Mazdaspeed 3 w/ Octane boost – worth it?) I noticed the car was a little sluggish on acceleration when trying to take over cars. When the dashed lines allowed me to on the one lane highways, you know I couldn’t resist! The car still handled well and accelerated better than most but it just felt heavier. I thought to myself, maybe it is the 100lbs in luggage and the 110lbs of Girlfriend (shhhh, don’t tell her I told you her weight) but when I did the math, 200lbs on a butt dyno… won’t feel it.
But I digress… With every fill up I reset Trip A and the Miles per Gallon averages. Due to traffic conditions, weather variants, etc. this is not an exact science but it is a good real-world example of the gas efficiencies of the MS3. The trip up had about 20 minutes of traffic around the beltway and took just under 3 hours. It was about 85 F and road conditions were clear. As I ended my trip with just under a half of tank of gas, my average miles per gallon were 26.7. Not too shabby if you ask me, especially since that is .7 over what the average is said to be for highways. So with the remainder I was able to drive around Bethany, Rehoboth and Ocean City for the weekend and still have a quarter tank of gas left for our trip back Sunday.
The trip back I decided to add a bottle of octane boost and refilled the tank before we left. We left under roughly the same conditions, 85 F, clear and about 20 minutes of traffic when we got to the Bay Bridge and all within about 3 hours. The trip back required the same amount of passing on one-lane highways if not more. We even had more luggage for the trip back because of our little Tanger Outlets excursion in Rehobeth earlier that day! Even with that the car felt lighter and faster with the octane boost and the biggest surprise was the gas mileage results at the end of the trip.
When we returned to Bethesda I looked down at my miles per gallon average and the in dash computer said 28.2. I was amazed. How can this 265 hp Mazdaspeed 3 get 2 more miles to the gallon than suggested? Who needs a hybrid when you have forced induction!!! The amazing thing is I am not the only one to see these results with their Mazdaspeed 3. A friend of mine in the Mazda Community forums at www.streetunitforum.com mentioned that he got 28 mpg during his trip from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando with cruise control set at an average of about 75 mph throughout a 250 mile trip this weekend, as well.
So with all that I can honestly say that the Mazdaspeed 3 is not just a fast, sporty, fun, economic racer… it is very “green” as well. I bet with a few breathing modifications such as a cold air intake, opening up the exhaust from the turbo back, a more efficient top mounted inter-cooling system enhanced with a nice piggyback system I could easily get this car into the 32 miles per gallon range and still cost lest than all Hybrids in this Horsepower range. I will be putting that to the test since those few modifications listed are first on my list!
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 w/ Octane boost – worth it?
So I decided to try out some octane boost and see if I noticed a difference in performance. In my previous Mazdaspeed Protégé it made a great deal of difference due to all the mods, however my current 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 is bone stock currently. So while I was looking for electrical tape at the CVS I came across the bottle of octane boost by Gummout. For $2.67, less than a tank of gas, I decided to pick up a bottle and see what I could notice if anything.
Last night I had to fill up (The instructions say to wait until the tank is low and use when you fill up) and I dumped in a bottle and added 11 gallons of 93 octane and drove off. I had a 45 mile drive home at this point which is good for testing this out!
So I drive normal and got the good old Butt Dyno ready for about 10-15 minutes to get all the gas to cycle through and make sure I am getting the “good stuff”. I hit the entrance ramp from 665 to 97 north heading back to Baltimore and floor it to merge in.
The Butt Dyno then tells me the following:
- Acceleration is smooth and powerful.
- Instant response from the gas pedal to the wheels
- RMPs creep up quicker and much smoother
- Getting to higher speeds quicker
All-in-all I can say that the octane Boost is actually noticeable. Just to make sure though, I plan on not adding any to the next tank and then adding it again to the tank after that. The major inaccuracy of the Butt Dyno is mind over matter so I want to be sure and by rotating octane boost a few times I should be able to tell if my mind is playing tricks on me for sure.
Summation:
So is octane boost worth it with the 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. For less than a tank of gas and keeping that RPM curve steady I say YES. Maybe not something I would use every fill up but definitely will use it for nice days with some “spirited driving” or at the track.
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 + octane Boost = smooth operator!