Toyota Prius: 70 mpg at around midnight till dawn

"mark_digital©" <com> wrote in message
news:com... 

I've been successful multiplying the mpg reading by 10 and filling up when
the miles/tank reaches that product but this only works if you start with a
completely full tank which, in cold weather, isn't always achieved. Someone
here (Michelle?) mentioned running out of gas using this technique.

"Bill" <now> wrote in message
news:com... 
As the weather turns colder capacity shrinks. It's due to contraction. The
incoming gasoline's temperature is consistent within a few degrees. During
the warm summer months the gasoline is cooler than what's in the tank
already. But in the winter the gasoline is warmer than the what's in the
tank already. The bladder will expand as much as it can within the confines
of the metal tank. The metal tank is smaller in the colder climate.
There's a certain terminology home delivery oil dealers use but it escapes
me at the moment. It's a consideration they have to take into account when
assessing the capacity difference of their delivery trucks when it's winter
and when it's summer.
Buying home heating oil in the summer may not be such a good deal after all.
$2.19 per gallon during the summer could translate to $2.59 during a winter
delivery and it's not necessarily greed but increased density.
I used to machine steel plugs so the outside diameter was .0001" plus or
minus 50 millionths of an inch, larger than the inside diameter of the metal
cylinder it was going to be inserted into. It's called a press fit only
because no epoxy is used to keep them together. The plug is shrunk by using
cold and it easily slips inside. The end of the plug had a tolerance too as
far as how much recessed or how much it could protrude from the cylinder.
Too much or too little and it was too late. The whole combined part could
not be machined to be within spec nor could the two parts be separated by
cold or heat. The outside of the cylinder had a well defined micro-finish.
It couldn't be held in a conventional chuck and it was too small to
withstand surface grinding and held in place by electromagnetic means.
There's also other special ways to grasp for machining but I'm not obliged
to say.