At 10:06 AM 7/14/2008, Mike wrote:
>shut off A/C while around town, prevent long idling (I shut off while at the

Over a longish history of frig\\\\fiddling with small-to-medium
engines on sailboats and Vanagons and such, I've been perennially
astounded by how much fuel they consume while idling.  I tend to
think of idling as essentially zero-output, but of course it isn't --
it's only zero (ish) *useful* output.  It still has to overcome
pumping losses and compression and friction losses, and also spin the
motor fast enough that it won't stall when external loads are
applied.  And on modern engines it has to supply some noticeable
chunk of a horsepower for the electronic control systems.

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"