It's hot.

[bitflipper]

Duh. Have you never been to a Dunkin' Donuts? They re-sell the holes.

How they retrieve them after the initial sale remains a mystery.

[craigb]

48 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Duh. Have you never been to a Dunkin' Donuts? They re-sell the holes.

How they retrieve them after the initial sale remains a mystery.

Wait, there's an "l" in that word?  ?

Nevermind. ?

[paulo]

23 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

More importantly, where does the hole go when you've finished the doughnut?

I guess the people who think that buying an expensive electric car is saving the planet gather them up and add them to their arguments. Those are always full of holes.

[Shane_B.]

23 minutes ago, paulo said:

I guess the people who think that buying an expensive electric car is saving the planet gather them up and add them to their arguments. Those are always full of holes.

I broke my MPG record of 29.9mpg in my giant 6.2L V8 GMC Sierra this weekend. No holes in this story. It's all true.

[PhonoBrainer]

8 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I broke my MPG record of 29.9mpg in my giant 6.2L V8 GMC Sierra this weekend. No holes in this story. It's all true.

I assume that was a 50mi trip down a mountaintop? ? I get a whopping 19mpg in my v8 F150. ?

Edited July 12 by PhonoBrainer

[Grem]

2 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

I assume that was a 50mi trip down a mountaintop? ? I get a whopping 19mpg in my v8 F150. ?

Yeah I was gonna ask how fast was the wind behind him blowing when he was going downhill!!

 

LOL!!??

[mettelus]

LOL, yeah... I have milked my 5.3L LS4 to 40mpg when the tank is low commuting on the freeway, but it also drops into 4-cylinder mode for that trick to work. I mentioned that at a shop once and the guy behind the counter just looked up over his glasses and said, "Only if you keep your foot out of it." I had to chuckle and say, "Valid point... if I put my foot into it, I have gotten it to drop to 3."

That engine drops into 8-banger mode at lights (where it consumes the most gas - 2 gallons per hour at idle), but I am not a fan of the new "engine shutoff" feature in new cars... the first rental I had with that I thought died at the first red light and my initial reaction was, "You have got to be kidding me!!"

[Shane_B.]

11 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

I assume that was a 50mi trip down a mountaintop? ? I get a whopping 19mpg in my v8 F150. ?

A few years ago I got it to 29.9 driving on the highway (Rt.80) across Indiana. That was a more accurate reading because I drove well over 100 miles that time. I always set my cruise control to the speed limit which was 65 there iirc.

It's been idling rough lately so every 4th tank of gas I put in mid grade gas, not regular. I had just filled up. I drove an hour to pick up some concrete critter statues and it got up to 29. On the way back with about 300lbs extra weight it peaked at 32.4. Some spots were 50 but it was mostly 65.

I don't know if it was the better gas or what. The truck seems to be "tuned" to get the best mileage at 65mph.

It does kick in to 4 cylinder mode but I've forced it to stay in 8 and I haven't seen any difference.

To force it in to 8 cylinder mode you put it in manual shift and set the gear to 7th. It will still automatically shift, but it locks out 8th gear and 4 cylinder mode.

A few things I've learned over the years driving big trucks is not to take off slow and get up to speed. I always get better gas mileage getting up to the speed limit faster and letting momentum help. I get about 8 - 12mpg on takeoff. If I baby it and go slow to get up to speed, it stays at that until I get up to speed. 

I also learned that the bigger the engine the better the mileage. I had a 5.3 v8 in my old truck. Best I ever got was 24mpg. Same make, model, and year truck, just a smaller engine than my current one.

A schoolbus ran a stop sign and totalled my 5.3l Sierra. It only had 15K miles. Almost killed me and I was down for a year. I had to get the same make, model, and year replacement for their insurance to cover it 100%. The one I have now was the last one in a 150 mile radius of where I lived at the time. I was kind of forced to get it. I didn't want this truck because of the bigger engine, plus it has all the Denali features except it says Sierra. I think someone special ordered it and backed out and that's why it was left sitting on the lot so long. I truly didn't want it because it's a really nice truck and I use my trucks a lot and I'm rough on them.

I was thinking it would get worse gas mileage because of the bigger engine. I was completely wrong.

That said, this is probably my last vehicle anyway so it's all good. I had my first Sierra 15 years. I doubt I got that long left.

I had a Honda Fit for work years ago. I was getting 47mpg in it. Nobody believed me so I started keeping an excel spreadsheet. I still have it backed up somewhere. I'd log my mileage and gallons every fillup. I peaked at 47mpg, took it in to get the valves adjusted which is part of routine maintenance on those after the first 20K or so and it never got over 35mpg again after that. I put almost 200K miles on that car and never did a thing other than suggested maintenance, tires, and oil. Never even touched the brakes. Never needed them.

I've logged over 750K miles for work and used to watch my mpg very closely. Especially when gas was $4 dollars a gallon back when I had the Fit.

Edited July 12 by Shane_B.
Fixed typo.

[mettelus]

Tire OD and gearing can help a LOT with mpg, for sure. I do not have the luxury of altering either (wheels won't turn in the wells if larger, and the transmission is the size of a basketball). I think Ford did a study in the 80s and said an Escort (those box-like ones from the early 80s) took 12 hp to maintain at 60mph on the level. Most gas is consumed at idle and accelerating, and my car is similar that it gets better gas mileage getting to speed quickly then coasting. Locking torque converters help as well (more common these days), since they remove the power loss from that fluid coupling when operating steady state. The impala is the only vehicle I have that is not "historic," and those are lucky to get 16mpg if you drove them off a cliff (the mustang in my profile pic gets 12.5, so when I restore that one (saving that for last), I am also going to severely aftermarket it as well). Anything with 13-15" rims just tends to drink gas anyway.

Oddly enough, since this is the "It's hot" thread, I replaced the radiator in the impala last summer (there is an inch or less of clearance for every part that goes into the front frame of that vehicle), and even though I was looking RIGHT AT the AC condenser, I chose not to just do an AC overhaul as well even though it was at 250K and the AC was deteriorating. Of course the AC gave up the ghost this year, so that car sits with the entire front end off awaiting a new condenser to arrive. I told a friend, "That is the only vehicle I refuse to drive without AC because it is black... plus that is my fault anyway... I chose the lazy route last year when I rebuilt the rest of the car, so is probably God's way of saying, 'Stop being lazy!'"

[paulo]

23 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

What does the 99mpg refer to ?

[mettelus]

Most likely the "instantaneous" mpg... it pegs at 99 and will hit when at idle and going over 45mph or so (i.e., pull your foot off the gas at 60 and the instantaneous mpg spikes, but the car slows down too).

[Shane_B.]

5 hours ago, paulo said:

What does the 99mpg refer to ?

Mettelus is correct. It gives you the exact current miles per gallon you are getting while pressing the gas pedal or if you are moving and take you foot off the gas. The 32.4 I was getting was an average over the last 50 miles.

The 99 number is how I know what my mpg is when I take off from a dead stop. No matter how hard or easy I take off from a dead stop I get around 8mpg. Going uphill from a dead stop is 4 - 6mpg.

[kitekrazy1]

On 7/11/2024 at 11:39 AM, paulo said:

I guess the people who think that buying an expensive electric car is saving the planet gather them up and add them to their arguments. Those are always full of holes.

Driving one thru New Mexico to Tuscon, AZ would be an expensive suicide.

[kitekrazy1]

Living in the desert where it's always at least 110+.  People say it's a dry heat.  Like oh that's much more tolerable.  I'd say after 13 years of it - no it's not. 

Then there are the out of staters who think it's macho hoping to post a selfie of them hiking in 110+ where it's elevated and very close to burning up in the atmosphere either die or have to get rescued by copter.  There is something called the stupid fine which is costly for being stupid.

Still amazed the amount of road construction this time of year and a house in the neighborhood is having a new roof put on.  

 

[bjornpdx]

The temp in our attic a couple of days ago.  Google says attic temps can be  150F or so in the summer heat.  Sort of like Death Valley up there.

[craigb]

Yeah...  My business partner almost had heat stroke while having to run some network cable through an attic for one of the IT consulting clients a while back (Portland area).

[mettelus]

1 hour ago, bjornpdx said:

The temp in our attic a couple of days ago.  Google says attic temps can be  150F or so in the summer heat.  Sort of like Death Valley up there.

My shingles are getting to end-of-life. Not only do asphalt shingles have (a lot of) weight which I don't care for, but they also retain and absorb heat, especially when the aggregate starts wearing off. I started calling around about sheet metal last week... my only concern with that is painted metal can be slicker than snot when wet, whereas asphalt shingles are like sandpaper. One guy I talked too started talking pitch (not traction), and I just told him, "Without traction, all pitch is going to do for you is determine how far from the house you hit."

[Shane_B.]

I had to go back today to get the rest of my concrete statue order. I got my mpg up to 35.2 mpg. I couldn't believe it.

Last time I went I got held up in a slow moving traffic jam. Some idiots were waving "Free Pal..." flags from an overpass on the highway and it caused a slow moving 3 mile traffic backup.

Soooo ... so much for my higher octane gas theory. I just filled up with the cheap stuff yesterday.

I went up in my attic in MO one time to run wiring for ceiling lights. I lost 8lbs in 2 days. I had a one of those white zip up suits on and when I took it off the footies were filled with sweat. It was brutal. The first day I used a rake to push aside the blown in insulation and put down walkways to the areas I needed to run the wiring. Second day I did the wiring and raked the insulation back.

The #1 most important thing about roofing is ventilation. If you don't have enough soffit, ridge, or stack vents, it will cut the life in half. And don't let them shoot you bathroom and kitchen vents in the attic. Make them vent them properly through a stack out of the attic. Black mold will form. I had to replace a 30 year roof in about 15 years because it overheated from improper ventilation because the previous owners cheaped out. I put a 50 year on it and they added a bunch of stack vents and ran insulated runs from all the inside vents to them. It's especially important, and code, in warmer climates. 

[57Gregy]

Drove from NC to Cali in 1978 on I 10 in early Sept. I had to run my heater to keep the engine temp below 220 degrees across most of New Mexico and Arizona.

[paulo]

On 7/13/2024 at 1:22 AM, Shane_B. said:

Mettelus is correct. It gives you the exact current miles per gallon you are getting while pressing the gas pedal or if you are moving and take you foot off the gas. The 32.4 I was getting was an average over the last 50 miles.

The 99 number is how I know what my mpg is when I take off from a dead stop. No matter how hard or easy I take off from a dead stop I get around 8mpg. Going uphill from a dead stop is 4 - 6mpg.

So 99mpg is car shorthand for pointless bollocks then ? ?