Trick to filling gas?

[JohnCh]

He has a problematic Zetec that is getting horrid mileage. Someone with a 420 should be able to chime in with their typical street mpg. As proxies, my Westfield, with a taller (3.62 vs. 3.92) final drive returned ~25 mpg when it had 420 cams with ITBs, and about 1-2mpg worse after changing to more aggressive cams. Highway consumption when touring was much better. The 2.4L Duratec in my Caterham is pretty thirsty, barely breaking 20 mpg in normal (back roads/around town) street use. Something would need to be wrong for you to go through 5 gallons in just 40 miles of street use in a stock 420. 

[KnifeySpoony]

My 420R with roller barrels (and Caterham tune) gets crap mileage. 70mph cruise doesn't even get 20mpg. I think around 15-18. Always been that way. That's with aeroscreen, no doors, sticky tires. 

[hahuang65]

43 minutes ago, JohnCh said:

Something would need to be wrong for you to go through 5 gallons in just 40 miles of street use in a stock 420. 

That's the only real thing I'm worried about.

5 gallon tank, no real problems there if somehow that were true. 

 

I'm used to getting 15mpg in my STI so no issues there either lol. 

 

That being said, pretty sure my friend was plowing at 100+ mph for a good portion of that 40 mile drive, maybe even half of it lol

[wdb]

8 MPG?  You may want to pull the dipstick and sniff for gas smell. 

[KnifeySpoony]

These cars have terrible aero. At over 100mph, mpg could drop pretty far... 

[CBuff]

I average just shy of 20mpg with regular cruising at 80 which puts my tach at 4100 rpm.  More spirited drops from there a bit. 

[empti]

I’d just fill the tank slowly and only add about 5 gallons whenever the fuel level gets near 1/4 tank.

I overfilled the car once at Costco, and fuel ended up spilling from the back of the car. Definitely not a good sight.

[KnifeySpoony]

Just for another data point, I calculated mileage after a fillup - got 23mpg on a highway cruise back from the track with some intermittent light traffic that kept speeds down a bit.

[hahuang65]

2 hours ago, empti said:

fuel ended up spilling from the back of the car

Exact same thing happened to me at Costco too

[KnifeySpoony]

12 minutes ago, hahuang65 said:

Exact same thing happened to me at Costco too

I just assumed they all did that. I would say i get spillage/overflow on at least half of all fill-ups. 

[hahuang65]

I find that at Shell it auto stops (way too early but it stops).

At Costco it doesn't do that and just keeps going so it overflows a lot if you're not paying attention even for a few seconds

[Slonie]

I have never been able to use the auto-shutoff at the pump, but I do carry one of these which lets me fill up gas way faster than I could without it.

 

This will probably be totally unnecessary for those of you in states that don't have evaporative fuel nozzles, to people who've modified the internal flap on their filler necks, and to those of you who have figured out the secret to getting fuel in. But for me? Lifesaver!

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MEPIU4M

 

Lisle 17232, made for filling annoyingly-placed reservoirs but snaps right into place on a Caterham fuel filler...

 

 

 

That being said, I just found this when looking for a reference image for our non-California friends...

 

https://www.aerostich.com/products/gascard

 

 

 

 

 

As for overflow, I've been there too. My way to avoid it has been to only fill up 5 or 6 gallons when I've traveled more than 100 or so miles. I'm definitely leaving some range on the table with this policy but I haven't overflowed since the one time I got cocky and went for 7...

[Slonie]

I think if I combined both of these products with a keen eye on the bottom of the funnel, I might be able to manually fill the entire tank without overflowing. We'll see?

[CBuff]

I catch some flack for being a polishing queen.  But I keep some waterless wash and wax in the boot. Hit any fuel spill over with a generous dose and wipe it down with micro fiber.  I also have mini spray bottles so not to take up much space. 
 

https://a.co/d/02yciLTE

 

https://a.co/d/00TTX4JD

 

 

[Origin7]

I leave my ignition ON and watch the gauge as I fill. When I hit full, I stop. I probably don't quite get it as full as I can, but no mishaps yet. 

[hahuang65]

3 minutes ago, Origin7 said:

watch the gauge as I fill

That's quite a brilliant and practical idea. 

[Slonie]

This is an interesting idea! I've noticed my gauge doesn't track up to F after a fillup unless it's been running for a while though, so I'm not sure I can trust this.