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Date:         Fri, 29 Oct 1999 11:55:12 -0400
Reply-To:     William Dummitt <williamd@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         William Dummitt <williamd@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject:      Re: mileage at altitude
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I keep mileage records on all my long trips, and I've always been amazed at how my best mileage always seems to be in high mountains, esp. in Colorado where the passes are highest. This is not a one-time observation, but one I've seen again and again. Performance other than mileage is always terrible- I struggle in third and sometimes second up one pass after another, often running the heater to keep the van from overheating. Then, exhausted from nursing the van up and down mountains all day I fill up and discover that my gas mileage is 20% higher than normal.

This seems counter to what one would expect. As others have written, with thin air one would expect to run rich and therefore get worse performance

(which I see) and worse mileage (which I don't see). Here is the only explanation I can come up with:

Perhaps the vanagon AFM responds to more mass of air more than volume, and so keeps a reasonable mixture? I've never seen plug fouling, black smoke, or evidence of rich mixture other than poor performance. Because the available quantity of air is limited, horsepower and top speed are low.

But the low speed also helps mileage via less wind resistance, always an issue with vanagons. The thin air also gives less wind resistance. So perhaps the lack of wind resistance via thin air and low speeds makes up for any problems with the mixture.

Comments, flames, etc. are welcome.

Bill St. Louis, MO www.geocities.com/yosemite/gorge/1706


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