Fuel Economy and the 20020vtq and cam setup

[Phil Rose]

At 2:57 PM -0500 1/27/03, ben swann wrote:
>Speaking of Fuel economy.  When I was fooling around with the
>adjustable cam sprocket on the now out of commission 5ktq avant, I got
>some incredible fuel mileage when I retarded the CAM 4 degrees on the
>first cam I installed a 270i/260e ELGIN grind.
>
>I was getting close to 40 MPG cruising at highway speeds.  I mean that
>was a highway average, not instantaneous which can be over 100MPG(off
>the digital readout).
>
>Of course the setting was not that great for low speed operation(not
>too bad either).  Too bad these engines don't have the variable cam
>timing some of the newer ones do.
>

Speaking of retarded timing:
Ever since I got my Lago car--over 4 yrs ago--I've felt it had distinctly
less low-end power compared to the '91 200q it replaced. Later, when we
acquired #3 (Tornado Red) that car also had better low-end performance than
ol' Lago. So when it comes time to replace the TB (sometime this Spring) my
expectation is that I'll probably find the cam sprocket has been "off" by
one tooth all this time. This also might help explain the car's somewhat
better-than-expected highway fuel economy.

Phil


Phil Rose
'91 200q lago blue				Rochester, NY USA
'91 200q tornado red				mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net