Driving on four cylinders!
I just completed a cool mod on my newly aquired Range Rover Classic. I was a little bugged by the crappy gas milage on the truck, especially around town. I have read up on the so-called 'displacement on demand' that some of the auto manufacturer have been implementing recently on cars. The basic idea is that the car turns off some of the cylinders in the engine when it doesnt need the extra power in order to increase fuel economy.
What I did was simply switch off four of the fuel injectors on my 3.9lv8, essentially making the engine an inline 4 cylinder (although not quite since the other four cylinders still have to move up and down and act as an air pump). Anyway, the engine runs well with only four cylinders firing, and I got an extra 2mpg around town! The truck has absolutely no power whatsoever, so I certainly can't be in a rush to get anywhere, but it does make the fuel economy a little better!
The next step is to install some level sensors, tap into the RPM and throttle position, and run the system with a micro-controller so it automatically switches to 4 cylinders when I don't need the extra power...
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