800 mile attempt on one tank

It's around 850 now and going to die any minute, I think. The pip has been flashing for a little over 100 miles, and if Bob is right (I'm sure he is) it should die right at 120 to 130 miles after it first started flashing. That would be in about 10 miles or so. I started to just drive it this afternoon till it quit, but didn't. I expect it in the morning. No way anything near 900 is possible now, but the goal was 800, so I'm happy.

 

Well, I set out a little early this morning to "get er done", but I think it's the energizer bunny or something. It's at 877.1 and still running. I had to get to work. Surely it will run out on the way home for lunch. 4.2 mile trip
Bob, I have been wanting to go up there to here Moontown Airport 3M5 for some time. I hear it is a cool place for tail draggers to hang out. Apparently last weekend was the time to go.

 

OK,
First running out of fuel is in my opinion a complete non event. Nothing to fear. Your driving along and if your paying close attention you can feel a little surge as it runs out, but it's so slight it would be real easy to miss. Anyway the car continues on as if nothing has happened, the real clue the ICE is "dead" is that you can accelerate well past the center part of the HSI and your MPG read out remains pegged at 100. I just maintained speed in the 40's, drove the .6 miles to the station and refueled. Didn't bother with the fuel tank I had in the back.
Once you re-fuel it, you simply push the ready button and when you drive away and the HSI passes the middle, the ICE lights off just as if you hadn't run it out of fuel, I expected a slight delay at least before the ICE "caught", but it was completely normal.
Unlike a "normal" car, the Prius didn't lose power steering, power brakes or even the AC, but I didn't run the traction battery down enough for that. No MIL (malfunction indicator lamp), no DTC (diagnostic trouble shooting code), nothing.

Car ran out at 892.2 miles, it was an additional .6 miles to the filling station, so the pic I have says 892.8, I think. It took 11.8 gls. to the auto shut off with the hose set on the first click. It took 13.5 gl. to top it off though, so 892.2 div by 13.5 = 66.08 actual with 68.0 computed. This is confirmed pure gas, no ETH as I use it in airplanes and your not allowed to have any ETH in fuel used in airplanes.
I'll post the pic tonight at home, I'm at work now.

I should have "milked" it 900 was within reach, but that's for somebody else.

 

I just slowly top it off until I see fuel in the neck with the level slowly going down. I'm a decent mechanic, if you saturate a cannister it will trip the MIL, you download the DTC that tells you the cannister is bad, you replace it, but I have never, ever had that happen, but it's no big deal if it does. All fuel tanks are manufactured with an air space for expansion, it's a bubble in the top of the tank. Where topping off a tank could theoretically get you in trouble is you top off your tank with cool fuel from the underground tank and let the car sit in the sun, and the fuel expands into the expansion bubble and ruins the cannister. But if you drive quite a bit before putting the car up, you eliminate this potential problem. It's merely a matter of understanding the potential problem and putting controls in place to mitigate the problem. Simple risk assesment / risk management.

 

I think there is a pancake breakfast or something similar monthly, wanna meet and do a little flying in the Maule?

 

Would you believe I don't know how, but I do know how to answer one:doh:

 

Promised picture of the dash

One of the Maule

And one of the "flea" we went to fly last weekend, My son is in the flea

 

Yes, in Germany on the Autobahn for example you can. But this isn't Germany and I wasn't on any kind of divided highway. Actually one of the biggest fines you could get was by being rude. And then there is the "drive right law". Too bad we don't have German laws. And if you bothered to read the post, I didn't even slow down, much less impede any traffic, I continued on the the service station just below 46 MPH because I didn't want to overspeed anything. Speed limit is 45 MPH there. If the car had quit, I would have simply put on the right turn signal and pulled into one of the many parking lots on that section of road. I knew what I was doing, there was a "plan".
Pure gasoline as opposed to E10 may result in as much as a 3% increase in fuel mileage, 1 to 3% in re-formulated or oxygenated fuels most of us burn if not E10. So if you mean a 1 to 3% increase in mileage, your correct. I think the pure fuel is the reason my computed and calculated mileage are closer than usual.
Running E10 my mileage should have been about 64 or so instead of 66. Not a whole lot of difference.
You should know that E10 MAY contain up to as much as 10% ETH, it may be 0%, but it will not be more than 10%. Since the drop in oil prices, actual E10 is unusual, at least down here. Pure gas is pretty common, even when the label say's E10. Now that will vary from state to state, I believe many states have mandated E10

 

Yes, but they weren't relevant were they?

The sun sure is bright if you stare at it isn't it?