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Old 09-17-2012, 01:49 PM   #1
KW521
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Default Cost effective tuning for fuel economy?

First off I did search and found nothing that answered my question so I figured I'd ask the forum. All I've owned is turbo subarus until about a year ago when I decided to get a simple,mountain car, get me through college 2011 OBS. My experience with N/A Subaru are not very vast. I was curious if an intake, header, and a tune on the N/A would be a cost effective thing(in the long run) to help improve fuel economy. I know stock Subarus are pretty restrictive and the tunes stock are not the greatest either. Anyone have any input on this? Thanks.
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Old 09-17-2012, 01:52 PM   #2
ballitch
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Check out the ECU forum on here. Your car should be supported for opensource tunning, just need a laptop with the free tuning software, and the openport -> obd-II port adapter.



~Josh~
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Old 09-17-2012, 02:17 PM   #3
KW521
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Thanks for the info Josh. Do you know off the top of your head if tuning em NA car can improve it that much for fuel?
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Old 09-17-2012, 02:19 PM   #4
cmiovino
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Best thing you can do is lighten the crap out of it, pump up your tires, and don't drive spiritedly.

But since you're asking about mechanical changes... a full exhaust, intake, and tune would be in order. Cost effective?... eh, probably not, even in the long run. Probably won't net you more than 2-3 MPG even if you drove the exact same way. It would take many many many miles before you caught up to what you paid for it.
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Old 09-17-2012, 02:33 PM   #5
GrundleJuice
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After good EL headers, hfc, hybrid intake and a tune for max tq I found an improvement of about 4 mpg in city. Highway mileage improved less. I netted about 30 hp/tq and a bunch of area under the curve, though. The down side is that headers to allow timing as advanced as I run are close to $1k . On the up side, a tune for max tq is usually your best bet for max efficiency, too.
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Old 09-24-2012, 11:35 AM   #6
thrawn2600
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Easiest way to get better fuel economy is to drive boring. I know it is hard... very hard. Try not to break 2 and a half if you are truly worried about gas mileage.

Honestly i can not do this. If you spend money tuning your car for better gas mileage you have to weigh the price of the modifications vs how many gallons of gas that is.

200 is a lot of gas.
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Old 01-24-2013, 08:28 PM   #7
POC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RaceFaceXC View Post
After good EL headers, hfc, hybrid intake and a tune for max tq I found an improvement of about 4 mpg in city. Highway mileage improved less. I netted about 30 hp/tq and a bunch of area under the curve, though. The down side is that headers to allow timing as advanced as I run are close to $1k . On the up side, a tune for max tq is usually your best bet for max efficiency, too.
I find this interesting. Most of my driving is in the "country", I'm not sure exactly where that falls, closer to city would be my guess. Not much idling at lights but lots of slowing down for hills and curves and getting in the gas after the curves and hills.
Could you tell a little more about what you did?
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Old 01-24-2013, 11:01 PM   #8
GrundleJuice
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Originally Posted by POC View Post

I find this interesting. Most of my driving is in the "country", I'm not sure exactly where that falls, closer to city would be my guess. Not much idling at lights but lots of slowing down for hills and curves and getting in the gas after the curves and hills.
Could you tell a little more about what you did?
What are you asking about specifically? The changes made to the tune or the hardware that was changed on the engine?
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Old 01-24-2013, 11:13 PM   #9
POC
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"Tuning" in general is foreign to me.

And some of the lingo used in the hardware part is too.
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Old 01-24-2013, 11:18 PM   #10
rhino6303
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In no way is it cost effective. Keep it stock and be happy. Want fuel economy? Buy a honda. I have all of your mods on my obs and I get maybe 30 on all highway. 24 mixed. I got tired of trying to make power and fuel economy and bought my lgt. My wife drives the impreza cor our "economy" car. Save the cash for gas. The stock tune is for fuel economy already.
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