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Grumpy Bear

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Everything posted by Grumpy Bear

  1. Grumpy Bear
    Warm day, over 35 F, washed Pepper. Still a pretty girl.
  2. Grumpy Bear
    My head is full of junk I've learned both the easy and the hard way. I'm not afraid to experiment either. Now if I could just remember the right piece at the right time!
  3. Grumpy Bear
    Few will be interested in this tidbit but take off in M5, when you reach 55 mph (highway only) tap in tow mode. Then select M6. The transmission stays in 5th gear as you are below the upshift point for 6th gear but as M6 is selected the AFM works. This will also work in 4th gear if you haven't reached the 5th gear upshift. I find it useful on rural highways in hilly terrain against light wind. Just stays in 5th 95% of the time and yet allows AFM on the rare flat. Downhill the fuel map shuts of the injectors anyway. When approaching a town tap back to M5 and delete tow mode. My truck is geared 3.23. Exact points will vary with gear and equipment.
  4. Grumpy Bear
    Continuing the transmission temperature vs air temperature chart, (upper) and fuel mileage (lower). Obviously the MPG chart for winter conditions is improving. Why? In part, I'm cherry picking my days driving. (weather mainly wind) The increasing the distance per drive (commitment). I was on a 29 + mpg run today returning from dad's when I ran up on a wreck that spoiled the pass. Cost me nearly 2.5 mpg all said and done. Removed from top chart points that fell outside the stated conditions. 55 mph and temperature. Added now data collect inside bounds. Will continue and report as acquired. 12/09/2018 late note: Just logged 2,000.2 hours. 83,641miles. 12/13/2018 Trans temp chart update next post
  5. Grumpy Bear
    Kind of the point...isn't it?
  6. Grumpy Bear
    November numbers are in and Fall 2018 finished, (September to November). At year three of Peppers records we have a 13% increase this year over year one for this season. Up 3.3 mpg. 25.28 mpg is the three year November monthly average. 25.2 mpg for November 2018 alone. Now we start Winter of 2019 for this record.
  7. Grumpy Bear
    Think that was me. Wrote a post on True Ownership cost.
  8. Grumpy Bear
    Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my bad. Yes Gordon. Bob Jennings was my middle school principal. Yikes!! Talk about a brain fart. Anyway I remember Cameron's writing. Yep, out there. I like Gordon. Man knew what he was talking about. Wrote a great post on reading plugs that became my gold standard.
  9. Grumpy Bear
    I think the guy your trying to recall was named 'Gordon Jennings'. Think I still have some of his work hidden away somewhere.
  10. Grumpy Bear
    I'd be one of those guys he knows.
  11. Grumpy Bear
    NO!
  12. Grumpy Bear
    Winter is here! Blue by tank, Yellow lifetime and Red 36 tank moving average. Entering her third winter and now two summers in the rearview mirror I'm just starting to understand her. Pretty cool. Wife took much longer Winter is not just cold in northern Illinois it is the windy season which will continue in earnest until early June. The fuel change cost little. Under 2%. Cold cost more. Allot more. Especially if trip length is shorter and it is on average. It's just less pleasant. But once up to heat and given a windless day the averages over my favorite routes are only about 1 mpg lower than the average summer day. Peak to peak difference, that is coldest to hottest days are about 3 mpg different or say 10%. A 20 to 40 mph wind will take a half dozen units out of her. Pretty much anything over 10 mph has a significant impact but once over 15 it drops like a stone in a well. Changes to Pepper have centered on heat management and viscosity selection second season and driving style first season. Wind is wind and outside passive attempts like the bed cover and keeping the air dam not much else can be done. You can see by the red peaks the gains from vis and heat have been significant not just in height but in duration. Eventually this will push the life time line higher. Seasonal note. Temperature swings have a huge impact on tire pressures. Tire pressures have a notable impact on fuel economy. Just not paying close attention will cost you big on a tank now and again. AAA suggestion has always been to check pressures once a month. I look every day.
  13. Grumpy Bear
    He's just a Dawg. A Oklahoma Res dog rescue. 28 lbs. of mischief and cuddle. 2 years old. But I did look up the Dutch Breed having never heard of it and he does look like a half pint version, right? He did eat my Roku remote tonight..grrrrr.
  14. Grumpy Bear
    Going through this thread and picking out some data and adding data as I collect it got this graph constructed. Best fit for the trend line was an exponential line defined in the equation shown. Learned a bit about the data collection during the process. 5F difference or more sometimes between wind direction for example. so two way averages on (newer data). Temp is affected by hot soak so numbers shown are after warm up, then hot soak which raised the temperature and then the cool back number is the one shown (new data). Recovery number if you will. It's a work in progress, a live document. Line shifts with speed FYI thus a constant for this study. Wind was a hint, yes? 6L80E. Trans stat modified. 180 F radiator stat. Factory Cold Side Cooling Only. Red Line D6 Fluid 90% dilution. (Updated chart in later post) I love doing this stuff.
  15. Grumpy Bear
    This 'I hate AFM' is getting old. Really-REALLY old. First hundred threads didn't get it said? Horse is dead already. Let it up!
  16. Grumpy Bear
    Just an interesting little graphic of the number of miles per month I drive Pepper since I bought her. My pattern is driving the most miles in the third most efficient month. Hum.... Spend some time having these a look and the conclusion I draw is that mpg is less a function of fuel and more one of climate. In October for instance this year 7 of 9 tanks were as high as her lifetime average, a full 2 mpg above the combine October average. Roughly 10% higher. Winter fuel in an unusually warm and windless October produced September like results. Good to know.
  17. Grumpy Bear
  18. Grumpy Bear
    75,000 Mile Service Routine oil change. 5W20 Quaker State UD and WIX filter. No usage observed for this 5,000 mile period. Rotate only. 75K and counting. Had TPMS calibration done and pressures reset. Bottle of Chevron Techron to the tank. Wipers on order. GM. Why change, they last three years a set. Seems boring but I like being bored in this fashion.
  19. Grumpy Bear
    PSM flashed. Recall list checked. Axles are NOT an issue with Pepper. Air bag/seat belt recall ancient history. All up to date. Comparison of UOA with another member who uses Blackstone and results in from Phillips on UOA. Make is so #1. Seems all is good. Phillips did note that the residual additive package reported by Dyson seemed across the board to be about 30% low. A calibration of reference standard their best guess. Will remember to collect the batch number on next few changes to compare with production labs and run a blind with Dyson to confirm.
  20. Grumpy Bear
    Value without Worth. Maybe to someone whose rich enough to not ask, "what kind of mileage does that thing get?" I've never been that guy even when I was. If a thing hasn't any worth to me it hasn't any value. Wouldn't take it if it were free. A Kelly Book or NADA book is a reflection of the broad sense of worth people place on a thing. Most often by private auction at the dealer level. It's fetch value the image of it's perceived worth. Big word "perception". Local Chevy dealer just took on Buick and is flooded with NEW 2017 Lacrosse models from other dealers all marked down about 20K from MSRP. Even now auction prices are sagging as newer year models arrive devaluing the car without putting a dent in it's worth to the right buyer. Sales guy and I talk while Pepper is getting her power steering flashed. Tell him I have a nice 2009 Lacrosse with VERY low miles on her in VERY nice shape. He takes that to mean I'm interested in a trade for his reduced 17's. So I ask him what will a 17 give me my 09 already does not except becoming 25K more in debit? Latest tech he responds. You mean like connectivity? Yep he nods. That is one high $$$$ touch screen and his eye pops. Is it more comfortable? No. Is it more economical? Hardly. Will the extra 100 hp make my 70 mph speed any faster? No. Will I get the girl in the add? Nope. Make me rich? Nada...feed me? WT* $25,000 adds absolutely nothing to my worth but adds a bunch to my cost. Bad trade Dumb Bear.
  21. Grumpy Bear
    27.1 mpg us gallons life time average over 82,000 miles. I don't know how this could be dishonest. I drive. I fill. Use my Odometer and pump numbers and divide. Calibrated speedo and O'meter. Unless all these gas stations in Illinois/Iowa/Wisconsin are all double pumping! I drive 55 mph as a rule. It's one thing to get 27 for 25 miles or a tank. Quite another to average that for 82K and counting.
  22. Grumpy Bear
    74,000 miles and she gets new brakes in all four corners. Rotors and pads. Maybe I live a sheltered life but I've never seen warped rear rotors on a street car. These were toast. I let her pay the $700 tab. Old cars with full pad thickness I gauge normal at about three fronts to one rear set. New stuff like this about two to one. This girl...…. She drives it.
  23. Grumpy Bear
    October reflected an 8% increase in mpg over the preceding two years combine average. 27.9 mpg for the month. Got a recall notice in the mail yesterday for the electronic power steering. A simple ECM re-flash. On the to do list for Friday. Still one in the drawer for the seatbelt IF it ever fails and it looks like it will not. I see a possible axle recall as well for improper heat treat. Need a VIN check on that one.
  24. Grumpy Bear
    I like this idea allot. Thanks for sharing it.
  25. Grumpy Bear
    I would love to ask the question, “What is more important to consumers, Technology or quality?” The question cannot be asked. How about asking, “What is more important at the time of sale to the customer, a things value or a things worth?” Can’t pull the trigger on that one either. You would have to have an audience that can differentiate between value and worth; between tech and quality. For today’s crowd asking questions like these is like asking the color blind to choose between blue and green. When I was in school we were taught to design a thing to last and be ergonomically friendly. Today’s bunch have been taught to design to last ‘just long enough’ and be visually pleasing. We were taught to refine a device over its product cycle as ever cleaver users uncovered its flaws. Today there is no need as the thinking is tech advances so fast that product cycles are no longer long enough to warrant such refinement. If the current consumers understood this they would understand the difference between value and worth, tech and quality. They would use the advancement in tech to refine instead of replace, to advance instead of obsolete. To conserve instead of gluttonously consume. To build rather than destroy. Worrying about air quality of your car’s emissions while processing billions of tons of raw materials in toilet paper fashion to ever shorter product cycles is laughable; or any consumer product for that matter. Sounds like another popular thought dad would have beat me for. “We can spend ourselves out of debit”! Sounds like a tail looking for a dog to wag. That's one Paradigm. And the other would be........
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