I'm driving my auto-trans '89 245 for maximum mpg. Currently getting about 30 so that's pretty decent.

I loosened my kickdown cable a few nut-turns to activate the kickdown less often. For better mpg I want to stay in higher gears longer and not downshift as much.

Am I inviting more slippage in the torque converter by doing this?
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Sven: '89 245 NA, 951 ECU, open-front airbox, E-fan, 205/65-15's, IPD sways, E-Codes, amber front corner reflectors, quad horns, tach, small clock. Wifemobile '89 245 NA stock. 90 244 NA spare, runs.

Maybe? Sorry - I don't have a good answer for you on this one. Art may have a better feel.

On the MPG topic, I crunched the numbers from my recent trip from Anchorage, AK to Haines, AK and back - ~1600 miles total. High mpg was about 29 mpg and change, low was a day of driving around Haines - mostly in town - at 19 mpg. I'll blame the 19 on lots of hills. The overall average for the trip was about 26 mpg, taking the per-tank MPG average. I was trying to come up with a better means to arrive at a weighted average... but didn't spend too much time playing with the numbers. Any suggestions?

I haven't done nearly the same set of modifications that you have - '90 245, 933 ecu, no belly pan, standard fan and airbox, dino oil, 195/75R14's, E-Codes (big MPG gain there!)... maybe there was just a good tailwind. Or the two-lane highway nature of the road kept the speeds more reasonable - 55-65 mph most of the way.

Zach
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachz/tags/volvo

Good to "see" you again!

26 mpg is decent.

Best way to calc mpg for a long-term view is to add up all miles, add up all gallons, and divide miles by gallons.

The other way is to divide miles by gallons each time you fill. Which is perfectly valid per fillup, assuming it always clicks off at the same point (not always the case with different pumps). BUT if you take all those mpg numbers and try to average them later they lose their meaning. Because a short tank, say just 100 miles and about 4 gallons, will have just as much "weight" as a long tank of 300 miles and 12 gallons. So an unusually good or bad short tank will skew the results disproportionally.
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Sven: '89 245 NA, 951 ECU, open-front airbox, E-fan, 205/65-15's, IPD sways, E-Codes, amber front corner reflectors, quad horns, tach, small clock. Wifemobile '89 245 NA stock. 90 244 NA spare, runs.