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MG MGA - Miles Per Gallon

Very sad I know, but I have been monitoring my fuel spend and MPG (UK Imperial Gallon) since mid March this year. I use the car as a daily dive - 4 miles each way to work, plus other journeys as and when, but usually no longer than about 10 miles. Only done a 1000 miles in the last 4 months.

The engine is the 1800 plus 5-speed box and I am averaging 21.64 mpg. The last tank load was 22.97. Is this about normal? I certainly don't potter around and enjoy getting the tyres to squeal on the occasional corner. The car goes like a bomb, with plugs and exhaust showing the right sort of colours.

By the way, I am now paying 1.049 litre for my Super Unleaded 98 Octane. That's 4.76($8.56) gallon in old UK volumes or 3.93 ($7.14) in US Gallons.

Steve

Steve Gyles

I use 9.5-10 litres per 100km (I can't be bothered to work out the MPG from that) depending on whether the boot is almost flat to the floor, or just flat to the floor.

Benzin is 1.76 CHF per litre (98 octane). As US and UK gallons are also different (a UK gallon is 10% more than a US one) and all civilised people now work in litres (wink to the Canadians here!) I can't be bothered working that out either, and currency exchange rates for the curious are at www.oanda.com

It's reached the "glass of red wine in hand" time on a simmers evening with ALL the windows in the house open to cool down (no A/C here) so apologies in advance to RJ as I wind happily down to a good piece of music......................................................
dominic clancy

Ok, probably quite good for underwater. I should have said 'daily drive'!

Steve
Steve Gyles

Dominic

That's about 27 MPG. My foot must be through the floorboards and out the other side!

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve,
What needles are you using? I'd have thought you'd be closer to Dominic's usage. Aren't you also running 3.9:1 in the rear end?
Doug
D Sjostrom

With a 5-main 1800, HS6 carbs, standard MGA tranny, and 4.3 rear end, I was averaging as good as 29 mpg last summer. That was highway driving at around 4000+ rpms. I also drive the car hard and am heavy on the accelerator.
Mark

Hi,

Mine burns 9,5 to 12 litres per 100 km (standard 1600) depending on the driving circumstances.

Koen
Koen Ackermans

Mmmm. Mine does seem a tadge on the low side. I did get 28-30 out of it down to Le Mans last year, but my 22 figure does seem a bit on the low side even for local running around. A bit of investigation needed I think.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Hi Steve, I seem to be getting in the high 20s to the gallon using standard unleaded and Valvemaster plus additive in a standard 1600 engine and transmission - although I haven't done an accurate check yet as I am running with a speedo measuring in kilometres.
By the way - thanks for calling in at our club meeting last week -nice to meet up with you - sorry I didn't have time to chat to you for longer but I was a bit tied up with organising the event - hope you enjoyed looking at David's twincam with twin webers - just got my computer back on line or I would have thanked you earlier. cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Cam

It was enjoyable evening. I don't think my 25 mile run down did my consumption any good, foot flat on the floor down the A59 dual carriageways!

By the way, I use the higher octane unleaded based on comments in this BBS last year. Although more expensive, it is a very noticable on performance. I do not use any other additives - unleaded head.

I have been suspicious of a possible fuel leak for a while now. Smell of petrol quite noticable at times, but have been unable to spot any leakages in the tank, sender unit, pump, fuel lines or carbs so bit of a mystery. Car runs absolutely great, no hint of any problems.

Steve
Steve Gyles

No sooner said that I could not find any leaks than I have found one! And it seems quite significant. The front carburettor banjo is very wet with the pump running but dries out very quickly after switch off. Fuel is not actually dripping from it but is running down the carb body and evaporating before it drips. Not easy to see on my car as I have an MGB radiator expansion tank very close to it. Possibly the close proximity of the 'hot' tank is aiding the evaporation.

Let's see what difference that now makes. I will report back in a month.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve mine is a 1600 and I get about 30 MPG with a 45 dcoe fitted. The original carbs were always leaking!!!
Each year we go touring mainly in France and do about 2 thousand miles. The longer stints we always cruise at 80MPH. Like to get there promptly. I have a 3.9 diff and on these excurssions we return about 30 to 35 MPG. Not bad I think.
Bob (robert) I am turning? yes I once owned an MGWasp!!

Cured the leak. Just done a back of the fag packet calculation of the leakage rate if that union was the reason for 22.8mpg instead of 28mpg.

Assuming an average speed in local area of 20mph (includes stationary idling time), I was losing about 0.8litre (about 1pint) an hour, or approx 8litres a tankload. Seems a bit excessive to me. I could probably accept about half that, equating to about 26-27mpg on local driving.

Got all the gaskets now for the diff swap. So will soon be 3.9:1

Steve
Steve Gyles

Good God!!!!! $8.56 and $7.14 per US Gallon..... we would be rioting in the streets over here.

People are complaining (me included until now) about 2.90 per gallon for regular level octane 87 rated gas.

Our Premium (91 octane is around $3.19 - $3.29)

Jeff
J Delk

I just did some conversion calculations. My 1500 and I get somewhere around 25mpg (UK). That is pretty much std setup H-4 carbs; std needles; 4.3 diff. etc.

On highway driving between 70 and 75MPH, I get the equivalent of 30 mpg (UK) with the top down, two people and both boot and luggage rack full. Under these conditions, it is neither very aerodynamic or very light! For those who are conversion-challenged, this converts to 9.4 liters per 100km liter

Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

Our 1600 with a mild cam and stock gearing gets 30 mpg (US gallon) on the highway at 65 to 70 mph
John H

Jeff

That is one of the ways our Government gets its taxes. If I remember it right they put a basic tax of 50p (90cents) on each litre of fuel and also get an extra 17.5% on the the total price. Therefore, on a UK gallon the government takes about £3 ($5.4) and everyone else who got it to the pump shares £1.76 ($3.12).

I guess it all equalises out in other ways and you pay heavier taxes elsewhere, where we don't.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Picking up on the issue of leaking petrol my pump 'ticks' about every 6 seconds whilst stationary. I have never found any leaks other than the occasional drip from the carbs that I don't think contributes to much. I disconnected the feed to the carbs and with my finger over the pipe it still 'ticked'. I think I have heard of other Mga's with this problem and I put it down to the pump but perhaps I'm wrong - could there be any other source? What 'ticking' rate do other members have?
J H Cole

My Workshop Manual for the mga twin cam says that the pump should hold for 12 seconds between ticks when no fuel is being pumped. More frequent ticks indicate a leakage back through the suction valve.
I do not know what the Manual says for the different type of pump with the pushrod engine.
I would not be worried by a 6 second interval, such leakage back into the tank would have little effect on pump performance. If you are a perfectionist you might try and reduce it by reseating the suction valve.

Mick
Mick Anderson

I am using a Facet pump. It ticks away to itself every second or two but, as I understand it, that is part of its design. It has a recirculating loop so it never stops ticking but is always pressurised to deliver fuel on demand. It is used a lot by the racing community I believe.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Hi Steve - strangely enough my front carb banjo nut was also loose when I checked it on Monday - I was replacing a leaking water hose just below it when I inadvertently pushed it and noticed that it was loose- slightly damp float chamber so must have been leaking a while - previously I have had to repair leaks on the rubber link between the float chamber and the carb body. Cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

On the round trip to MG 2006 in Gatlinburg (about 2000 miles total)my best tank was just over 29 mpg, and my worst was around 25. I had a GPS along, and although my speedo was about 10% "optimistic", the odometer was spot on against the GPS. Most of the highway driving was at 3750 rpm (71 mph indicated but a true 65 mph according to the GPS) with an occasional run up to 4200 to pass. Around town I see about 22 - 23 mpg. Also note that I'm using the original SU's and they (currently) aren't leaking at all plus an original distributor (points and all:)
- Ken
Ken Doris

Last August some 50 MGAs celebrated 50 years of the model with an eleven day, 4000km (2500 mile) trip through S Africa. I kept detailed fuel consumption records. I travel fast, so whilst an average speed is speculative I cruised over most (?80%+ of the route - we have lots of space and tremendous national and regional roads for this sort of venture) at +120kph (+75mph). A '57 Coupe fitted with standard tyres (Cooper GLT 165/15) but 1800 Marina engine with gas-flowed head, 5-speed Nissan gearbox (5th ratio is +-0.855:1), straight through exhaust and mild racing cam, I averaged 8.5 litres/100km which translates to 7.3 km/liter, 27.7 mpg (US) and 33.3 mpg (Imp).

Hope this info helps the quest for "Mile per gallon" information, even if the mechanics are not quite bog standard!
Joe Gates

It's worth commenting again here that a US gallon is 10% smaller than a UK gallon, so these MPG figures have to be adjusted to be comparable.

Also tyre size makes a difference (I run Michelin 155R15, where others seem to run 165R15- and one car I know runs on 185R15!)
dominic clancy

My standard 1500 Roadster needs about 9.3 litres per 100 km.
This is 30,32 mpg (UK) or 25,27 mpg (US).

The price in Germany for Super Plus (98 octane) is 1.42 Euro (1.78 US$) per litre. This is 6.75 US$ per gallon (US) or 8.00 US$ per gallon (UK)!

Lucky America!

Robert
Robert Mueller

This thread was discussed between 25/07/2006 and 30/07/2006

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