In an effort to increase the blog’s focus on ecomodding and some of the great content that comes out of our users, I’ve decided to begin a series of posts on an ongoing project coming out of my own garage. The idea of swapping a Honda Insight hybrid drivetrain into my CRX began at this year’s Green Drive Expo, where despite my good mileage I realized I just couldn’t compete with the first generation Insight.

With that in mind I had two options: buy an Insight or ecomod the CRX. Buying an Insight would’ve been easier, but more expensive, less fun, and frankly my CRX is still in great shape. So, I decided to shop around for a totaled I could strip down for parts to recycle into my CRX.

Having found one, the swap became just a matter of doing it, which is where I currently am, and that’s where this update comes into play. The swap is half-finished, with all the old having been stripped out with the new ready to go in.

However, removing everything is clearly the easy part, with the second half of the project being the troublesome attempts to put things back together and make them play nice with each other. At this point there isn’t much to say, but in the upcoming posts I will take you through how I tackle several problems in making this whole thing come together.

Look out for upcoming posts on:

• Custom engine mounts
• Integrating the obd2 wiring system into the obd0 harness
• Adding the IMA hybrid system
• Tweaking the IRX for superb gas mileage

To stay up to date on the nitty-gritty, follow along with my project thread on the forums.

What does a Ford Motor Company fuel economy technical expert do for fun at the end of the day?

He heads home to his own shop and custom builds an aerodynamically efficient, two-passenger, 3-wheel motorcycle capable of 125 mpg (US) at 65 mph (1.9 L/100 km @ 105 km/h) and a top speed of over 100 mph (161 km/h).  And then after using it for 3,200 miles (5,150 km), he puts it on eBay to make room in his garage for the next version which will be a plug-in hybrid.

“After working [on] improving conventional production car/truck fuel economy I wanted to try something with fewer constraints,” says EcoModder member John (HyperRocket).  Now there’s an understatement.

(It kind of makes you wonder how many house painters go home at the end of the day, budding Picassos, to toil on masterwork canvases…)

His street legal, 2-seat, tandem vehicle is registered as a motorcycle and was engineered for both high efficiency and fun:

• the drivetrain is from a Kawasaki Ninja: a 250cc liquid cooled, four stroke, DOHC 2 cylinder tuned with an exhaust gas analyzer for best efficiency & driveability

• six speed manual transmission

• weight: 505 lbs

• excellent 0.16 coefficient of drag, calculated through GPS-based coast down tests

• HID projector headlight up front, and LED’s elsewhere (front turn signals are integrated into the side mirrors for aerodynamics)

• safety features include 4 point seat belts, roll bar and front mounted IMPAXX crash foam as now used in NASCAR sides

John claims fuel efficiency of 105 mpg (US) (2.2 L/100 km) cruising on the highway at 65mph when equipped with the bling wheels and sporty gearing, and even better numbers with a couple of additional mods: “When equipped with the pictured motorcycle tires (not included) and a smaller rear sprocket it achieved 125 mpg @ 65mph.”  (1.9 L/100 km @ 105 km/h)

If you think a vehicle like this might draw attention, John confirms that with a good anecdote:  After being stopped by police and explaining the project to the curious officer, ‘back up’ was called in.  “Four squad cars showed up, several houses of neighbors came out and the whole thing turned into a spectacle. No ticket, everyone was genuinely interested in ecomodding!”

The trike’s eBay auction has a starting bid of $15,600 USD. While not questioning the design or workmanship that went into the machine, we wonder if that price will draw efficiency-minded bidders in these days of $2 per gallon gasoline.   Undoubtedly his work would have grabbed a lot of attention last summer, when fuel prices were driving people into a frenzy, paying utterly ridiculous prices for used Geo Metros to save money at the pumps.

Best of luck, John.   We’re looking forward to seeing what rolls out of your shop next!

—

Follow the discussion about the HyperRocket in the EcoModder forum

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Every year, the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan adds a few influential people to their archives. The Automotive Hall of Fame has the task of preserving the most important ideas and moments in automotive history, so it’s quite an honor to be inducted.

That’s why I was happy to hear at the New York International Auto Show that Wunibald Kamm, designer of the Kammback, will be inducted in 2009. In 1938, he helped BMW design the first Kamm-Coupe, a 328 with a .25 drag coefficient, matching the first generation Honda Insight.

Clearly, his ideas were ahead of his time and never widely adopted, but with fuel economy coming back to the forefront of automotive design, Kamm is finally getting some attention.

This is of special import to us ecomodders, since the Kammback is one of the most effective and possibly coolest looking aeromods around. For some more reading on actual Kammbacks (including the one in the picture above), check out these threads:

• Geo Metro Kammback Design and Construction: Step by step.
• Better Minivan Gas Mileage with a Kammback: 3.7% better, to be exact.
• Civic VX Kammback: Clean looking install on a Civic VX.
• Building a Del Sol Kammback: The Del Sol is a perfect Kammback candidate.
• Another Civic Hatch Kammback: Another clean-looking Kammback

This year, we started a contest on the fuel economy forum to highlight great ecomods and fuel economy projects. Right now, our Mod of the Month contest is in full swing, with voting soon to close on the February nominations. There are some great projects, so take a look and then go ahead and give them a vote:

• Paul & Sabrina’s open source electric motor controller
• Ben Nelson’s Electro-Metro
  
• Tim’s Arduino controlled actuated grill block
• Binger’s LED tail light conversion
• sepp’s nissan kingcab aerocap
• captainslug’s “NEMO” – <$1k DIY Neighborhood Electric Motorcycle
• ncs’ smooth front undertray

Good luck to all the contestants!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL88AidYTQQ

It’s always great to see a member from the fuel economy forums taking their passion and turning it into something more. That’s what I wanted to highlight a blog that prolific member Ben Nelson has been keeping over on blogspot, focusing on videos of his electric geo metro, electric motorcycle, as well as home and other projects.

By how much he posts on EcoModder you might assume it was his job, but in fact Ben is a video guy by trade, so all of his videos are well done and packed with interesting content. Follow this link to check them out, it’s worth it. Keep up the good work, Ben!

It hasn’t been that long since the MPGuino was cooked up on our very own fuel economy forums, but the creator, a member who goes by dcb, has just started offering up the great little gauge for the low price of $55 ($63 if you want it shipped internationally). A lot of ecomodders now have these gauges in their cars, as they allow almost anyone with a fuel injected vehicle to get fuel economy instrumentation when it was not previously possible.

However, the first versions were all completely homebrew. That meant sourcing your own parts and soldering the unit together all by yourself. For something people that wasn’t so bad, but for others it still ended up an ugly, time consuming mess (as it did for me). So, if you’d like to pick one up (and show the open source project a little support) they’re being shipped now with donations.

A little soldering to hook it up to the car is still involved, but it’s just four wires, so nothing too bad. If you’re already rocking one, be sure to post up some links to pictures in the comments so we can see how the install looks.

Electric cars don’t have to be prohibitively expensive.  In fact, they can be surprisingly affordable for a resourceful tinkerer.  In Part 4 of this 5 part series, Paul Holmes answers ten questions posed to him about his $2200, 1971 Volkswagen Beetle electric conversion, and the lessons learned from the experience.

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1) How much did it cost?

The total cost was $2200. The batteries were $1500, and everything else was about $700. I could have gotten a good deal on some used Deep Cycle batteries, but my wife applied for a Sears Card, so we got six Platinum Die Hard Deep Cycle AGM batteries.

2) How far can it go on a charge?

I estimate that it will go 20 miles at 25 mph (totally dead battery pack). The maximum I have driven it was about 12 miles in a day, and it still had plenty left.

3) How fast can it go?

The top speed is about 50 mph. The fastest I’ve gone is 45 mph. The front of the car shakes if I go over 35 mph (the Super Beetle Shimmies – still working out some bugs). I typically cruise at 30 mph. No one gets angry at me, and it keeps the current draw from the battery pack down to about 70 amps.

4) Why did you do this?

My wife and I rented the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” a while back. Around the same time, I watched “An Inconvenient Truth”. I converted my bike to electric and began using it as my commuting vehicle to various substitute teaching jobs. As I would sit in traffic behind cars, it would make me choke sometimes. I started to see all those cars as stink bomb factories. They were everywhere, everyday. I noticed that it smelled really nice for about an hour after it would rain, and then the stink would slowly take over once again. I imagined what it would be like if all the cars were electric. Sitting at lights in total silence. No stink being emitted. It could smell beautiful and fresh every day, assuming we could generate the electricity in a clean way. Well, I wanted to be the change that I wanted to see in the world. I decided to attempt a cheap conversion, even though I had no idea how.

5) Where did you get the idea/motivation?

I knew a cheap conversion could be done after reading Dr. Larry Tillman’s conversion blog (part one, part 2, EV Album). Then I saw some videos of the ForkenSwift. $680? Heck! I could afford that! Also, after riding an electric bike around for a while, I just had to drive in an electric car. Also, gas was $4.00/gallon.

6) What do you typically use the car for?

I use it to drive to school every day, each time I get groceries, every time I go somewhere that is not freeway driving.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Wlm4CXnWs

7) What’s the coolest response you’ve had to the car?

I incorporated it into a math lesson for algebra students. We went outside to the parking lot and when I turned the car on, they thought it was very funny that it made no sound other than a click of the contactor. Only when I started to back up did they really believe me that it was on. They started taking out their cell phones and snapping pictures. When I pulled back into the parking spot, the crowd of students parted and then enclosed the car in a circle once I was back where I started. Everyone was offering congratulations and asking how they could do it too.

8 ) What is something unexpected you learned/discovered from your project.

I didn’t really think it would work once it was done. Except for a few minor things, everything worked exactly as I hoped it would. It was EASIER than I thought it would be.

9) What was the hardest part of the project?

The hardest part was connecting the motor to the transmission. Specifically, making the spacers for the adapter plates was very difficult. They had to be exactly the same length, and they needed a hole drilled down their center, which was hard.

10) Any advice for anyone else considering doing something like this?

You don’t need to know anything about cars to convert a car to electric! I knew NOTHING about cars!!! I’m not demonstrating false humility here – I knew NOTHING!!! If you keep it simple, it can be a fairly straightforward and cheap process. Also, get a professional to mate the motor and transmission. It will be like $500, but it’s really, really annoying making those spacers! Pay the dang money.

Thanks, Paul!

Links to more info about Paul’s car:

• Read the project’s build thread in the EcoModder forum
• Vehicle specs at DIYelectriccar
• More vids on YouTube showing this electric car

Next in this series:

> Part 5 – Parting thoughts

NOTE: The above readout may seem a bit unclear at first glance, but from left to right, top to bottom, here’s what the information means: Instantaneous MPG, Speed, Trip MPG, Distance. I took this photo after a short drive.

By now, we know about devices like the PLX Kiwi and the Scangauge II, but what about those of us who don’t have 1996 or newer cars? How about those who don’t want to spend $170-$300 on instrumentation or prefer to support open-source projects?

Well, the MPGuino is the answer! A few months ago, Darin posted on the forums looking for someone to help him build an open-source MPG gauge for all fuel injected cars. From there, forum member dcb stepped up to the plate and has taken the reigns in a really big way. Nowadays, on release v0.66, the MPGuino is a fully functioning, useful display that anyone with a bit of soldering kills can put together.

Building the MPGuino

The MPGuino is based on the arduino platform, and for it’s tiny footprint I chose to base my build around the iDuino, even though lots of folks use the freeduino. Since the iDuino doesn’t accept the car’s 12v, I used a cell phone charger to convert to 5v and wired directly to the board. Everything else, down to the LCD, which I bought on ebay, is pretty standard to the build. For more of the basic, check out the release one thread.

Anyway, here was my parts list and aproximate prices:
- iDuino: $20
- HD 44780 LCD: $10
- Parts from ratshack: $6-7
- Auto cell charger: $5 (at the dollar store)

Total: $42-43

It’d be a bit cheaper with a freeduino and some parts you might have laying around or found online, but I was trying to slap this together quickly.

Anyway, on to the assembly! The first thing I did was follow the iDuino assembly instructions, posted and annotated by the makers of the kit. However, I didn’t insert the jumper pins because I found it easier to just run the wires I would be connecting through the holes and soldering directly. From there, go ahead and follow the wiring instructions from this image:

My button and component board is a little ugly, but here’s what it ended up looking like:

The next step from here would be to find a project box and try to clean up the mounting a bit, but I haven’t quite gotten to that part yet.

Anyway, with the physical unit put together, go ahead and download the arduino 11 platform to your computer and then test out some of the sample programs. If it isn’t broken (hopefully it isn’t!), go ahead and upload the latest MPGuino software and make sure that everything is working.

That’s about it! The next is to wire it into the car. I disassembled the cigarette lighter cell charger like this and wired it into one of the spare spots on my fuse box so that it would be powered whenever the key was in I or II. From there I simply tapped into the speed sensor wire and fuel injector wire, which I’ll leave up to you to find on your own car, though some suggestions can be found here.

The next step is to power up the MPGuino in your car and figure out how to use it.

Using the MPGuino

Luckily, there’s really not much to using the MPGuino. The first thing you need to do is go ahead and figure out the calibration figures for your car. I’m told that most Japanese makes will use 8204 for the speed sensor and that many American makes will use 10000. However, it’s easy enough to compare the distance on the MPGuino to your odometer in order to see if any adjustments need to be made.

The fuel variable is a bit trickier. Some of them have been figured out, so I would search and then ask, but if your car hasn’t seen the likes of the MPGuino before, you might be the pioneer who figures out the numbers for a perfect calibration. The trick here is to simply keep track of your tank mileage on the MPGuino and then compare it to a standard fill up and make adjustments based on the percentage you’re off from the pump fill.

I’ll be the first to admit calibration can be a pain in the ass, but luckily it’d already been done for me. After that’s out of the way, you can check out your mileage by simply using your three buttons to scroll through the screens. See more about that here.

Personally, I tend to use the instant/current screen the most, and when I’m on longer trips or trips where the sun will hurt visibility on the screen, I use the big instantaneous numbers.

Anyway, this is really were the fun begins. The MPGuino in conjunction with your EcoDriving skills will net some good numbers (see first image).

Limitations of the MPGuino

As of writing (v0.66), the MPGuino has a few issues, the biggest of which is that you have to do all the assembly yourself. That’s not a problem for a lot of us, but for the MPGuino to go more mainstream we’ll have to figure out how to make it more accessible to your average ecomodder.

What’s more, the LCD leaves a little to be desired in terms of readability in the sunlight. However, a solution is currently being worked on.

For more issues, and more up-to-date issues, check this thread or more generally look around the MPGuino forum.

Places for MPGuino Improvement

Luckily, the MPGuino’s faults all play into it’s biggest asset: open-source. Sure, I may want an AFR display, but all that means is that I’ll have to do it or find someone smarter to do it for me. Though limited by hardware (but only to a small degree, platform changes are always a possibility), everything else is up in the air with the MPGuino and anyone can edit the code. If you’re interested, check it out for yourself in the Arduino 11 environment.

Well, I hope you’ll find this useful. If you have any questions or knowledge, don’t hesitate to post in the forums, open-source relies on all you to test and help improve the project!

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