Forum:
as fuel prices rocket I am trying to get the best out of my Wifes Rocky (jap import sportrak efi with auto gearbox)
A service of oil, fuel & air filters + new oil, also I have been using redex all this raised it from 18mpg to 23mpg.
I read about using a K&N air filter in another thread and as it seams to work I now have one on order
I'm usure about loosing the catylitic converter as it was regestered post august 1992 but for testing purposes my mate is making me a replacement pipe. 
Now I am curious/sceptical about some gadgets I have seen on ebay.
personaly I think putting a block of wood under the accllerator pedal whan my wife is driving would work best 
. but I am willing to try anything to get better MPG's.
If anyone can report good results I'll give them a try.
The ECU Chip things on ebay
The ECU Chip things on ebay are generally resisters (lot of sellers are now putting them inside fancy boxes, so people not realise its just 1 single resistor) you connect up to fool the ECU into thinking the air is cooler than it is so it injects more fuel, so would do the opposite to what you are looking for. Also are reports of them eventually causing damage.
Air Vortexers after looking about for info on them, appear to also do nothing at all. Found one article which actually mentioned that as a result of them blocking the air flow slightly, they also reduce the MPG. Potentially down to single figures.
Magnets, I personally fitted to the fuel line of my Sportrak when I had it and not notice any difference, however there are plenty of people who claim that has worked on their vehicle.
The K&N did improve the mpg from my Sportrak and have had plenty of other reports of it doing so on the Sportrak. Magnets might be worth a try, they not cost much and out the 3 things you've stumbled across on ebay, it won't make the mpg worse, and may potentially improve it.
____________
03 Reg Yellow YRV Turbo!
____________
mpg
I agree with Lurch and have two Sportraks one with a K&N and the other without. To be honest there is a slight improvement but it will take ages to recover the filter cost.
We used to fit Vacuum Guages to Mini's in the old days, not to necessarily improve MPG but to indicate how heavy footed we were. Some of these were shown in fuel usage eg Good to Poor. In Mini's they just flipped from good to poor all the time but it was a way of measuring how heavy footed you were. My Audi has a computer that tells you the same and it is surprising that if I drive to that then I can achieve an average over a 100 miles 37MPG, ignore it and boot it a bit and that goes down to an average of 29MPG over the same distance. To get the 39MPG I am not going slow just not accelerating hard and then braking hard.
My conclusion is that there are not many items better than yer right foot at saving fuel and if you can visually see what you are doing it may help, on the other hand watching the needle on a vacuum guage flip from good to bad very rapidly is a bit of a pain.
OLDMINIMAN
M J Young
Vacuum
You're showing your age with these, not seen one for years, but saying that they were a good device for driving efficiently.
My BMW's used to have a fuel consumption meter, these are no doubt a vacuum guage with a different name.
Vacuum Guage
Hi Assasi,
You can still get them through some of the Mini specialists and they are not difficult to fit as long as you can get the vacuum from the inlet manifold. Not sure how they would fit on an EFI chamber. They were good as you could use them to tune the carb as well so they were quite useful. I had one on my first car, a V4 Corsair, now I am showing my age, but I got fed up of for ever tinkering with the Ford carb which were never that good in the first place. Original Corsairs and I think Cortina's ran with a Zenith which was much better but, then Fords made them out of much cheaper materials to cut costs and they wore rapidly and became impossible to keep in tune.
OLDMINIMAN
M J Young
I agree that driving style
I agree that driving style will probably save the most cash.
I am convinced the magnet thing is a placebo as you would only order one if you wanted to save fuel and as a result would drive more ecconomicaly anyhow. I also think that fuel companies and car manufacturers would use them if they realy worked.
I have already ordered the air filter so I guess its a bit late to cancel.
Thanks for the feed back.
www.centraloffroadclub.co.uk for free fun offroading in the midlands
www.centraloffroadclub.co.uk for free fun offroading in the midlands
MPG
Many things can be done, mainly it is remove any weight from the vehicle, if it is not needed, ditch it, do not remove such things as spare wheels, jacks etc.
Ensure the accessories such as roof racks, roof bars, and even front fog lights are removed if not needed, also drive with the windows and sunroof shut.
Make sure the tyre pressures are at their optimum pressure, this and open windows decimate fuel economy. Forget high flow filters, despite the claims i have never seen any improvement in fuel economy, or performance when they are fitted alone, power improvements are only minimal when they are used with a number of other modifications.
Good servicing and maintenance are the best options; get the engine set up correctly on a rolling road, manufacturer settings are merely averages. Fine tuning such as this may often release quite a lot of power, and due to the improved efficiency; more economy if correctly driven.