Today coming home on the 8 miles stretch, I sped up to cruise at 50 mph. The load went up to 80 and stayed there much of the way. It would go to 85 occasionally. The gph had went up to 1.1 and did not vary much. The mph on the scan gauge II and the FE mph were both again were right at 60. Occasionally it would drop to 56 due to highway imperfections.

I paid more attention to the rpm today. I went from a 40 to 45 zone for near a mile. Then the main highway were I took it up to 50 mph. The rpm did settled back down to about 1285.

This new engine has only 300 miles on it. Could that be the reason my lod reads 80. With my last two cars it would read, 40/45 lod on the same scan gauge and the 8 miles of highway. One was a '03 Corolla 1.8 liter, VVT engine. The last was a '06 Ford 500 with a Duratec 203 hp V6. I was driving at 45 mph at the time.

The highway has a very slight upgrade when we drive back to town. I have tried driving at 40, 45 and 50. It seems this atkinson engine likes 50 mph better than the slower speeds right now for efficiency. I found at 37 mph and below, the traction battery likes to power the wheels.

I only see the 90 to 120 mph on the scan gauge when I let off the gas.

Burt