[Vwdiesel] the wanderer has returned......mpg report on long (3400 mile) trip

[dieseltdi at earthlink.net]

Well just got back in this afternoon after my tour of New Mexico, Colorado,
Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma.  Car did great and the mileage was great too.  I
got one tank of 52 mpg.  Low was 44 most of the tanks were in the 46-48 mpg
range.  This is great for me because the old 98 Jetta has NEVER gotten
better than 42 mpg at 75 mph until I put it on propane (more on that
latter).  I really believe that the new injectors made a big difference.
Major change in MPG however when I stopped in Denver to pick up EJ Gilbert's
turbo diesel A1 Jetta.  First tank, from Denver to Russel, Ks. was OK, 36
mpg, but then I turned south and straight into a 45 mph head wind (someone
do the math there, if the wind is blowing north at 45 mph and I am
maintaining a speed of 65 mph, how fast would I really be going with out the
wind?)  Anyway dropped to 30 and 32 mpg respectively for those tanks.
Probably the most fun part of the trip was going up and over Loveland and
Vail Passes. (10000'+).  Car was a dream up those long steep climbs and I
passed almost everyone on the way up, cars, pickups, Stupid Useless Vehicles
and all.  Maintained 65-70 all the way up depending on traffic and number of
curves,  Watched the EGT closely, got up to a max of 950 degrees F briefly
when I gunned it to go around a big rig but generally maintained a high of
850 degrees.  During the tow, I never exceeded 800 and generally the car ran
at about 650-700 degrees.  All in all it was a good trip and I am very
pleased with the way it turned out.  BTW, I refilled the Propane system in
Provo, Utah after driving about 1900 miles.  It took only 1.6 gallons of
propane to fill the tank (worked out to about 1200 miles per gallon).
Anybody know the expansion factor for propane?  I mean how many cubic feet
of propane is produced from 1 liquid gallon of propane at normal bottle
pressure?  Well thats about it.  Need to go spend some time with the wife.
Hayden
-- Visit my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~dieseltdi
    2002 Jetta Wagon GLS TDI, Upsolute Powerbox
    98 Jetta TDI Wetterauer chipset, Dual Fuel Propane system
    98 Jetta TDI, Speed Tuning Chipset (daughter's car)
    87 Scirocco 16v (son's car, gas :^P)
    81 VW Rabbit Pickup (Caddy, Diesel of course, awaiting
    a TD engine transplant)
    And many, many water cooled and aircooled
    VW cars now departed or sold.