I cant remember who told me but Ive heard that you get better mileage only filling up halfway instead of full since your carrying around less gas (less weight). It makes sense but does it make that much of a difference? your thoughts are appreciated

 

If your tank is 20 gallons it would only save you about 50-60 pounds of weight. Going on a diet could do you almost as much good.

 

At about 6 pounds per gallon I'd say not much savings to be had.

 

In theory, it would help, but not by much. It would not make a noticable difference with a powerful engine.
The numerous fuel stops would be more hassle than it is worth.
Also more weight at the back helps traction!

 

Lol this is a funny way to look at saving gas X2 at what Jamesbo said...

 

You can get better mileage just by driving sensibly. I don't like driving on the bottom half of my tank because it's not really 1/2 at all. More like 1/3. So I go on the belief that keeping the tank fuller is better insurance that I'll end up where I need to get without a lot of stopping for gas. I don't see any noticeable difference in fuel mileage either.

There are lots of gimmicks out there to improve fuel mileage, but the biggest and most effective is driver education and enforcement. If you're one of the guys who likes to cruise at 70 or 80 miles per hour, you'll probably spend more time watching the gas needle go down than it's worth. Then you'll be thinking: "Why didn't I just fill the tank?" Anyway that's my 2¢ worth.

 

I doubt you'd get enough improvement in fuel mileage to offset the more frequent stops for fuel. And an Oldsmobile would require plenty of them.

Buddy has a 64 Pontiac that has an O-ring seal between the fuel tank and the filler tube. Before that O-ring became available repop (it's large diameter and thick so a regular O-ring wouldn't work), he could not fill the tank more than halfway because gas would leak out around the filler tube. One cruise night we liked to go to, he'd have to stop twice, sometimes three times to fuel that car on a 150 mile round trip. It was aggravating.

 

guess ill finally put a full tank in my cutlass...

probably made more sense to whoever told me since they dont drive a presmog guzzler

 

A full tank also reduces the amount of air that could possible condense its moisture on the sides of your tank on a cold night...

 

Yes, but why stop there? Filling up only one-quarter of the way would save even more, and one-eighth of the way more than that. If you keep going with this, you could go forever on no gas at all!

 

now that's funny.

 

Unless you are incredibly **** retentive, like me, you fill it up every time, divide the mileage since the last fill up by the gallons it took to fill up, calculate your MPG, and use that as a tool to help monitor drivetrain health. That is as long as you drive pretty much the same all the time, allow for weather conditions.... etc...etc...etc

The variables are what makes the math fun.....or maybe that's just me.

 

Tough to calculate mileage when I am flooring it all the time!

 

There wouldn't be any mileage to speak of, anyway.

 

Would that be a full tank vs. a half full or a half empty tank?

I never check mileage and never add up receipts.

 

That's an old drag racing line. Only take half a tank to the dragstrip.

 

Was it a tow truck driver?

 

That half a tank stuff only works on the down hill

 

With a good tail wind.

 

I'm always watching the gas prices at the 3 stations I use. I top off when the prices are lower. I never go under a quarter tank. I drive sensibly and don't worry about gas milage. These oil companies really have us over a barrel!

 

I do this too, just to see what I get. Lady gets about 16 on a mostly highway pleasure cruise, all the other cars get around 19 in the city.
The bike seems to get 60, no matter what!

However, I do not care about mpg - it is the fun and reliability that counts. Plus, they are all paid for and they do only what I tell them to do...

 

I can figure MPG but its gallons per burnout I'm working on or is it burnouts per tire