ajg193's 1983 KP61 Sprint - Let the graphing begin

[ajg193 3,458]

I did some fuel consumption calculations today.

 

The MicroSquirt/TunerStudioMS seems to over estimate fuel consumption by about 10% - My belief is that this is due to my injector dead times being larger than estimated in the software. Then again, this could also be due to my data being collected from an ill-conditioned system as I only based these results off of about 35 km of driving.

 

For the fuel consumption tests, I had the headlights on and held the car at a steady(ish) speed on a flat road to take the readings. For the fuel figures obtained for anything other than 5th gear, there was a fair bit of noise in the consumption signal as I had difficulty writing down the numbers while driving (a passenger would be useful next time). Also the samples were taken over a very short time period, with slight undulations in the road etc.

 

For the 35 km trip, the computer estimated a fuel consumption of 2.26 L. The actual fuel consumption was 2.04 L. This gives a fuel consumption of about 5.9 L/100 km, which is very good considering I wasn't being nice to the car during this time. It's actually on par with the best result I ever had with the carburetor driving like a granny.

 

Fuel consumption at 80 km/h in 5th gear is about 4.2 L/100 km. I think the 4th gear value is unreasonably high and I will have to take the reading again at some point. The same goes for the 100 km/h 4th gear result as earlier indications today suggested it was about 10% worse than in 5th gear.

 

The values in the graph have been corrected by 10% to allow for computer error.

 

Judging by these numbers, if I drive 70 km/h constantly (at sea level, without wind, in the dry) I should be able to make it to Auckland on a single tank of fuel.

 

 

Conclusion:

Car is great on fuel now, more testing is needed.

 

 

[ajg193 3,458]

With the help of Jane we managed to add some more data points to the graph. Roads were kind of all over the place though so the data is still noisy. One day we should have enough data to make smooth graphs.

[ajg193 3,458]

I finally decided to tackle the rust hiding under the hatch glass seal.

 

I was hoping for surface rust but found a few holes.

 

My brother cut it out and welded in some new steel for me and we then repainted the whole door using epoxy primer and 2 pot paint.

The colour is pretty much spot on and the surface is pretty good, there is a little orange peel but not much different to factory paint.

 

I still need to put the sprint badge back on (I'll do this when I get back to Christchurch as I have a better one down there) and I need to repaint the TOYOTASTARLET badge on the boot. I'll probably do a white outline around the letters or something. Factory is silver in the STARLET part and surrounding the TOYOTA part, with the rest of the badge black.

Also as a bonus:

I've now well and truly more than doubled the km on the car.

 

Oh and I put a brand new radiator in the other day as the old one was getting to a point where the fins were crumbling at the slightest touch / every time a bug hit it the engine would warm up a bit more.

 

[ajg193 3,458]

Anyone know where I can track down some brand new rear springs for the Starlet?

One side is sitting about 20 mm lower than the other, I think it may be a result of hauling reasonably heavy loads in the car for long distances a couple of times.

 

Looking for factory height and preferably factory stiffness or slightly stiffer.

 

/justcompresstheothersideby20mmandyoullbefinemayte

[ajg193 3,458]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Tried oldscool but they reckoned they'd come from Chch anyway so I just bought a pair from Chamberlains down here. New springs are in. Look at that lush height!

 

Before:

After:

 

New springs (bit of a bugger they don't come in black though):

Old springs:

Next to eachother:

Now sitting nice and level again:

 

The car seems more flat around the corners now, but I have only driven it like 1 km since I put the springs in.

It was an easier job than I expected it to be, just undo the top nut on the shocks, jack the car up and pull the old springs out and put the new ones in. I marked the old ones left/right and top/bottom so I can get them back into their original spots if I ever need to.

I can now crawl under my car without having to jack it up so that's a bonus.