Good morning fellow ecomodders, hypermilers, and efficiency enthusiasts of all kinds.

The EcoModder blog has been inactive for over a year (save Tim’s two most recent updates), and I have been asked to help pick it up again.

So, since I also have not been active on this site for nearly a year, to start I thought I would re-introduce my self:

My name is Bakari Kafele.  My internet screen name (or at least one of them) is Jacob Aziza.
You may remember me from such internet sites as the EcoModder Forum and Instructables.com

I have an old (1983) full-size truck with a 6.9L diesel V8 that I use for deliveries and hauling and occasionally towing.  It would be a monstrosity for a commuter vehicle, but it’s about the smallest thing that could serve my work needs – most people hauling loads heavy loads (see below) would use a box truck, a flat bed, or maybe even a dump truck.

At the very least an F-350 or equivalent.
So, depending on how you look at it, getting 15 miles per gallon, (as I was five years ago), could be considered decent, given the type of work being asked of this old truck – 15 mpg being what I measured I was getting, which coincided more or less with what most people report getting in the same make model and year truck.

Then, in 2008, I read an article about Wayne Gerdes.

I found it to be revolutionary and inspirational.  It was one of those moments where it seemed like the idea should have been glaringly obvious all along, and yet somehow never occurred to me.  Slow down, accelerate with moderation, coast early instead of braking last minute.  Obvious stuff, right?

While I had always been environmentally conscious (I was running the truck on biodiesel most of the time,  and my personal transportation was – and is – mostly done by bicycle), I had also been a speed enthusiast in my youth.  The only reason I gave up on casual street racing, drifting, and other performance and trick driving in my Honda Civic was that I totaled it when I attempted to take a tight turn (the sign recommended 20MPH) at 55MPH.
I never put two and two together; never recognized the direct correlation between driving habits and resource consumption.

After reading the article, my driving habits underwent a 180 degree turn.
Despite having once received a letter from the DMV warning me that I was one point away from a suspended license, I now started driving below the speed limit, anticipating stops, and even coasting.

And after a few months, I was pulled over by the CA Highway Patrol once again.
Not that driving 50MPH on a 65MPH highway is actually illegal in CA; but because EVERYONE speeds here, all the time, the officer assumed I must be intoxicated to actually drive below the speed limit.  When I passed the breathalyzer, I was free to go.

I found that to be a (tragically) funny thing – I am surrounded by people breaking the law.  I am the one person NOT breaking the law.  And I am the one who gets stopped by law enforcement, because it is suspicious that I am not breaking the law like everyone else.  I thought that would be an interesting story to share, especially with people who were also trying to get the best possible fuel mileage from their own vehicles.
So I went online, and tried to find out if there were any discussion boards specifically dedicated to this “hypermiling” thing.

And that’s how I discovered:  EcoModder.com
Wow.  A whole new level.  Not only were there dozens of more in-depth secrets to driving technique, but people were actually modding their cars – not to make them faster or look cooler – but to actually make them more efficient.  Revolutionary, mind-blowing, and in the end as it turned out, life changing.

I won’t chronicle the entire process here, because I already did in the forums, as it was happening.

During this process a friend of mine (and fellow mechanic at the bikeshop I worked at at the time) convinced me to write about my truck mods for Instructables.com.

They happened to be doing an energy efficiency contest at the time, which I entered and took second place in, winning a T-shirt!
But even better, the founder and CEO of the company noticed my contest entry, and personally hired me to do a little work at his home.  How cool is that?

Throughout this time period, I had also been writing my own personal blog, and one of the founders of faircompanies.com, Kirsten Dirksen, happened to run across my article on anthropogenic global warming, in which I argue that the evidence is still inconclusive, but we should be acting as though it is true regardless of what science eventually finds.  She asked if I would post some of my content on their website, which I began doing.
About a year or so later she emailed me saying they were taking a trip to the US (from Spain) and asking if I would be willing to be interviewed on camera.

I was still new to hypermiling and hadn’t started ecomodding when the video was taken, so while I did mention driving the smallest vehicle that meets ones needs, fuel efficiency, and bicycles, the portion on my small home got most of the attention.

As my ecomodding habit began, since I was already posting eco related content to the Faircompanies website, Kirsten followed the development of the truck, and its transition from 15mpg to up to 30mpg. The next time she came to the US, several years later, she requested a follow up interview – and the new video which came out recently is all about hypermiling and ecomodding.

That brings us to today.

I recently looked into replacing the rear differential, as was suggested to me in the forums, but it turns out the 2.73  and 3.08 were never made for the stronger 8 lug / F-250+ wheels.  So I’m back to wanting to replace the transmission with one that has overdrive to lower my highway RPMs, but I haven’t found a diesel ZF with the granny gear yet.

I’ve been getting slightly lower mileage than my peak, just over 25 miles per gallon over the past 6 months, VS 29MPG average over the 6 months before that – but still a whole lot better than the 15MPG I started out at.

I suspect this is mostly due to having re-installed the alternator after my onboard 120v charger died, and being lazy about pulse and glide (as in, not doing it at all).
Between the video coming out and writing here, I’ve been more motivated to get my mpgs back up.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

UPDATE – I recently replaced all four tires with the General Grabber HTS, which is one of only two brands that is supposedly low rolling resistance in a tire with a 120 load rating.  I have only had them on about a week, so its too soon to say if/how much they will help (they are replacing on/off road tires in back, and dangerously worn road tires in front) – but what I can say is that the first time I drove with them fully inflated (the shop of course only inflated to 50 – even though I specifically asked them to go to the sidewall max of 80PSI) it was so easy to turn the (manual) steering wheel that for a split second I actually thought there might be something wrong.  I had gotten used to the old tires, and these ones turn with so little resistance that it feels like power assist by comparison.  That feels like a good sign to me.
I also just received my new battery charger (yesterday!) so I can take the alternator belt back off.  Between the two, I’m hoping to hit my 5th 30+mpg tank average – and then keep it there.  We’ll see…

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.

.

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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