From my threads I've been posting up over the last few months, obviously I've been doing a bunch of work on my 62 in hopes of having it in much better shape for my kids' and my road trip this last weekend. All that work paid off in spades, in the form of the trip itself being awesome and full of tons of great memories and "firsts" for the kids (like ooohhhhh my 10 year-old son's first time fishing being out in the Pacific Ocean and his first catch being a 25lb chinook, along with my 13 y/o daughter's first being an 18lb coho), and the drive across both directions being very encouraging in how my 62 performed and its efficiency. Before the trip I swapped in freshly cleaned and "rebuilt" OEM injectors, a 2.5mm overbored throttle body (along with enlarging the inlet of the intake plenum to match), new manifold and exhaust gaskets, and flushed the cooling system (refilling with AMSOIL Heavy Duty ethylene glycol coolant), which resulted in several days of messing with my gauges as the new engine temp sender proved to be faulty and was ultimately swapped out in favor of the verified-serviceable old unit. I also have my base ignition timing set to 10º BTDC and have for the last couple years.
One more thing I did just a few weeks ago after learning MUCH more about how Toyota's fuel injection of this era operates and this particular part's involvement in it was to adjust my air flow meter (AFM) two notches clockwise to slightly lean out the air/fuel mixture. This resulted in the engine bogging MUCH less when under the heaviest loads (I experimented by shifting too early and gunning it on purpose to see how it was affected) and responding noticeably more aggressive (in a good way) to the throttle, especially when climbing steep grades.
Cruising at highway speeds felt much smoother overall, grades I'm very familiar with were held far longer with the limited throttle that the cruise control puts in before I had to hit the gas pedal, and downshifting for a grade was now a rare occurrence; only on the steepest grades.
My fuel economy overall is what's really got my interest piqued. Here are the numbers I got for each leg of the trip:
Airway Heights, WA (91 octane ethanol free) to Pasco, WA; 151.3 miles, filled up with 9.537 gallons; 15.8 MPG
Pasco, WA (91 octane 10% ethanol) to Troutdale, OR; 208.3 miles, 16.168 gallons; 12.8 MPG (I had a pretty strong headwind most of the way along the river plus had my AC on the entire time)
Troutdale, OR (92 octane 10% ethanol) to Long Beach, WA, putting in one Jerry can and tooling around a bunch on the beach in the 62, then back to Troutdale, OR via the same route; 265.6 miles, 17.39 gallons (including Jerry can); 15.2 MPG
Troutdale, OR (92 octane 10% ethanol again) to Umatilla, OR; 170.56 miles, 10.317 gallons, 16.5 MPG!! Caveat here is that I did have that strong wind along the river, only this time as a tailwind. As a consequence of that, I had to regularly switch off the AC to keep the engine from getting too warm as I didn't have nearly as much airflow through my radiator with the tailwind.
I haven't filled up again yet since Umatilla, so I'll do that after some normal driving as I burn through the two Jerry cans I have filled, to last me until next payday.
Regardless, this economy with the performance I got have me very happy, and I'm very curious to track my economy through the next few tanks of my typical driving patterns through the next few months and see what my "normal" economy will be.
One more thing I did just a few weeks ago after learning MUCH more about how Toyota's fuel injection of this era operates and this particular part's involvement in it was to adjust my air flow meter (AFM) two notches clockwise to slightly lean out the air/fuel mixture. This resulted in the engine bogging MUCH less when under the heaviest loads (I experimented by shifting too early and gunning it on purpose to see how it was affected) and responding noticeably more aggressive (in a good way) to the throttle, especially when climbing steep grades.
Cruising at highway speeds felt much smoother overall, grades I'm very familiar with were held far longer with the limited throttle that the cruise control puts in before I had to hit the gas pedal, and downshifting for a grade was now a rare occurrence; only on the steepest grades.
My fuel economy overall is what's really got my interest piqued. Here are the numbers I got for each leg of the trip:
Airway Heights, WA (91 octane ethanol free) to Pasco, WA; 151.3 miles, filled up with 9.537 gallons; 15.8 MPG
Pasco, WA (91 octane 10% ethanol) to Troutdale, OR; 208.3 miles, 16.168 gallons; 12.8 MPG (I had a pretty strong headwind most of the way along the river plus had my AC on the entire time)
Troutdale, OR (92 octane 10% ethanol) to Long Beach, WA, putting in one Jerry can and tooling around a bunch on the beach in the 62, then back to Troutdale, OR via the same route; 265.6 miles, 17.39 gallons (including Jerry can); 15.2 MPG
Troutdale, OR (92 octane 10% ethanol again) to Umatilla, OR; 170.56 miles, 10.317 gallons, 16.5 MPG!! Caveat here is that I did have that strong wind along the river, only this time as a tailwind. As a consequence of that, I had to regularly switch off the AC to keep the engine from getting too warm as I didn't have nearly as much airflow through my radiator with the tailwind.
I haven't filled up again yet since Umatilla, so I'll do that after some normal driving as I burn through the two Jerry cans I have filled, to last me until next payday.
Regardless, this economy with the performance I got have me very happy, and I'm very curious to track my economy through the next few tanks of my typical driving patterns through the next few months and see what my "normal" economy will be.
