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Well, my fiancee and I just "inherited" a '99 Volvo V70 wagon, front-drive. It has the 2,4l DOHC 20v "light pressure" turbo five and a 4-speed automatic with 114k miles. With a baby on the way, it was free to us and we figured this would be good stout trasportation :D I haven't put a full tank through her yet, but I was wondering if anybody here had any experience with Volvos specifically or turbocharged motors in general as far as FE was concerned?

I'm almost sad we got this car because I no longer have an excuse to pick up that '54 Ford Tudor with 223 straight six and three on the tree/overdrive when I sell my bike :( ...

Welcome to CleanMPG

Yep, I've owned turbo Volvo's since my first in 1981 a 242 GLT Turbo.
I got rid of my 87 745 Turbo with 370K miles last year for my Prius.

With the white blocks (Aluminum) do not mess around with getting cheap on maintenance.
Don't even think about holding off on changing the timing belt as recommended.
These motors are interference motors and if that belt breaks kiss the head good bye and say hello to a $2,000 plus bill.

Use a good synthetic oil and follow the oil change intervals. Although I'm not up on the 70series but don't ever believe Volvo on the the life time fill on the trans-axle. Check when and if the the transmission was serviced and fluid exchanged. You can do a Google search on the V70 transmission for more information.

Now for fuel economy with a turbo. You go into the boost range and the computer dumps more fuel into the engine. Volvo's and I mean all Volvo's have a range for fuel economy.

Two numbers to remember 2,500 rpms and 65 mph. Go above either and fuel economy drops rather quickly. Best fuel economy with this car is probably in the 50-55 mph range.

18-21 around town and 27-29 on the highway if kept under 65 mph. Drop down to 55-60 and 30 plus mpg might be do able. My 960 2.9L 24V will break 30 mpg if driven at 60 mph or less.

This is a good start, The Quick Start Guide to How to Hypermile (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510)

Should it be mentioned that you can't FAS with a turbo?

I've never had one, but heard it's critical the turbo spins down which AFAIK rules out FASing.

Not a problem if the turbo hasn't been run hard. Just putting around and not running into boost there shouldn't be a problem. Pulling up to a light and shut her off will not harm the turbo.

The old oil cooled turbos were a problem with shutting off with out at least a 30-60 second cool down The newer water cooled units don't have this problem. That doesn't mean you can floor it to the next light and then FAS it. The old cool down period isn't as necessary with modern water cooled turbos. It is only suggested that you let the car idle for a minute or so if the engine has been run hard just prior to being turned off.

200K-250k miles from a turbo today is pretty much normal as long as you didn't abuse it with extended oil changes. Turbo's do not like dirty or worn out oil at all.

I'm just crazy enough to consider putting a turbo on my Insight, but not if FASing kills it.

Yeah, I got the fresh oil for turbos down pat. I'll have to do some routine maintenance on the car since I know the person who owned it before...and she wasn't a good steward of auto maintenance.

Sounds like my normal driving style will be all I need/can do as far as FE goes in the Volvo...

All this talk about turbos.

The 2011 Ford F150 will have an all new engine line up. There will be the base 3.7 NA v6, and the 3.5 turbo v6. Any thoughts on which would do the best in hypermiling?

Also, what are ya'lls thoughts on the 2011 Explorer's new 2.0L turbo I4?

are those f-150 diesel or gas? turbo-diesels tend to be more easier to hypermile cause the OEM fuel map is usually a happy medium between rich and lean. gas on the other hand usually are on the rich side to prevent turbo and engine damage in case of leaning. my car (4 cyl turbo 2.4L) usually idles on .52 gph and i've seen some NA v6 (3.6L) and v8 (over 4.0L) idling at .40-.45.

I'm just crazy enough to consider putting a turbo on my Insight, but not if FASing kills it.

Well there is that one guy with a turbo insight. I'm just not sure how putting a turbo on it would make it more fuel efficient though. I guess typically if you turbo a non-turbo motor, you can't run much boost in it at all.

Hmm, 20mpg for the first tank. Not impressed yet.

For several years I drove a '95 Volvo 860 Turbo. Big boxy body, 2.3L 5 cylinder turbo engine, auto. In my usual around town driving I usually averaged about 19 MPG. On a highway trip to the beach I got 29 MPG driving speed limits on the Interstates, crossing the Appalachian Mountains on the way. I LOVED watching the instantaneous mileage figures on the dash computer readout. I miss that in my current Yaris, but not enough to buy a Scangauge and hang it up.

I found it's capable of some good mileage when you try. I think I posted elsewhere on here that I recorded 30,98mpg on a trip to Dallas, and that was with the a/c running most of the way. Sans a/c I bet 33mpg is a shoe-in for that same trip. Even coming from my parents' house to my house (about 15 miles) I managed about 28mpg split between rural 50mph roads and some light in-town driving...according to my as-yet un-calibrated SGII.

Also found one more trick - turn the headlight switch to the parking light notch and it kills the DRL's, which should help a little too. It's also a really good on glides, seems to maintain its speed pretty well, and it corners well enough to maintain some momentum on corners.

I had a '98 non-turbo S70. I was never really impressed with the gas mileage, but I did pull mid-20s on average long before CleanMPG even existed. My best tank was 30.x mpg on a long summer highway drive IIRC, but I was probably speeding. So your 33mpg estimate for the turbo is probably about right if you can stay off the boost.

Also, I really don't advise turning off DRLs for the sake of a hundredth of a MPG. With a little one on the way safety should be priority #1. (That's really all the time, obviously, but kids seem like good incentive to try harder.) If you don't want to run the main headlights then you could look into the universal turn signal DRL kit from this company:

http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm

Amber is arguably a better color for DRLs anyway so I don't consider this a compromise when it comes to safety. But the dim corner lights won't cut it in daylight. Turn signals are much brighter.

Yeah, it leaves the amber parking lights on so it's not completely without lights. This is my first car with DRL's though, so I can't say I'm used to having lights come on when I didn't turn them on.

Like I said, those amber parking lights are useless in daylight. As far as oncoming drivers are concerned you are completely without lights. In contrast the kit works by using the turn signal lamps as DRLs which are much, much brighter and still low wattage compared to the headlights. Best of both worlds for about $40 (IIRC).

Now I be confused...those are the turn signal lamps...:confused:

Now I be confused...those are the turn signal lamps...:confused:

They will still blink but the normal state of the front lamps will be on after such a mod.

I am still confused about this. The ambers are already on!

In any case, I'm not much of a DRL fan anyway. When I want the lights on, I'll turn them on!