2000 Insight - TLC and ecomodding build

[Ecky]

The weather is rapidly getting colder, so I decided to do a proper warm air intake. The Insight's intake diameter is 2", and it's surprisingly hard to find 2" foil ducting, but I came across some on an RV supply website.

Foil ducting:


Stock ducting removed:


New foil duct in place:


Drawing air from behind the cat:



Weather is in the 50's during the day, and dropping to mid 30's at night right now. I'm just able to get away with a 75% grille block and still get up the mountains around here without running the radiator fan too much.




In the mornings I'd see intake temperatures of ~16c after the car was fully warm (outside air temperature ~5c/40f), with the stock intake pulling air from behind the radiator. After my WAI, this is what I'm seeing:

Flat terrain:


Temperature at the top of the tallest hill in my usual drive:

[Xist]

Good luck! It is still considered barbaric to drive without air conditioning here in Arizona!

[Ecky]

After doing some reading here and here, I'm tempted to put the stock resonator back on. I didn't suspect it did much, since it's located before the air filter, but the TLDR is that the stock resonator really does increase torque at 1300 and 2100RPM, and robs it at ~1700RPM. I do most of my driving at 1700RPM (~50mph), but also a significant amount of accelerating and a bit of driving at 1300RPM (~35mph). The snorkel that extends from the resonator to behind the radiator is most likely just to reduce engine noise, so it can stay off.

Seems to me that I really want power robbed (lower vacuum?) at 50mph and additional power at 35, so I'm going to play around with things a bit.

One thing I'm wondering though is how the T in the resonator works. Ideally, it would be engineered to draw warm air (straight through) at low air volumes, and cold air at high volumes. I haven't actually looked at where the 90° section of the T goes, but I can only assume it's simply drawing air from just in front of the driver wheel. If I cap it, I might mess up the tuning of the system.

[Ecky]

Although the IAT wasn't getting above about 50c climbing mountains at low-ish speeds around where I live, on a 4-hour drive it hit 70c after close to 15 minutes of WoT climbing at ~70mph! That's a bit warm, I think!




Put the stock resonator back on, and left the T section (cold air intake?) attached for now. Under normal driving conditions I'm still seeing the IAT settle around 40c, but it's not getting nearly as warm while climbing a mountain. I'll continue to tinker as the weather changes, though, as ~100-120F IAT is a moving target.

[Xist]

How horribly difficult would it be to make an automatically-adjustable resonator?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Xist

How horribly difficult would it be to make an automatically-adjustable resonator?

I'm fairly certain there are plenty of other cars that come with variable intake geometries, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I doubt I could transplant one designed for another engine.

[Ecky]

After reading through The donkey CRX's Insight build thread, I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on two more (small) block heaters.

I would like to grab a 250w and 100w as he did, but the 500w and 150w units look to be the most cost effective. Two 150w units is what I'm considering, as I'm concerned about the outlet I'm planning to run this all off of. In addition to the block heaters, I'll also be installing an electric heater+fan for the cabin that will come on shortly before I leave in the morning, for a grand total of 900w. One of the pads will go on the oil pan (probably - will inquire if it's safe to put a heater on the Insight's magnesium oil pan) and the other will go on the transmission.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...hot+pad+heater

[Ecky]

I ended up picking up a heater Walmart had on sale, rather than the one I wanted on Amazon. On its low setting it draws ~600w, but it has a thermostat and shuts off if tipped over, so I don't have to worry about melting the car. Still, I plan to watch it closely for a few days before I let it run unattended on the timer.

The existing block heater is 400w, which means with the other heater running I have about 800w in total to play with while staying within the 15 amp rating of my programmable power strip and outlet. I'm thinking it would be wise not to approach it too closely, so I'm still debating on two 150w heaters (one for the oil pan and one for the transmission) or a single 500w for the oil pan.

Here's what I have set up so far:

WiFi power strip, programmed to come on 3 hours before my alarm goes off and shut off at 8AM:






12v trickle charger (also on the timer for now, for simplicity's sake), 400w block heater and 600w cabin heater all meet here:




Outlet I ran through the firewall:




Small electric heater:




I might end up running several extension cords out, since I'd like the heater to be on a different timer than the block heater (ideally it should come on when I wake up, not before), and the 12v tender to run all the time.

[Ecky]

I'm also experimenting with several rust prevention methods, for the bits that can rust. Looks like I'm going to do a sanding + dip in phosphoric acid, and then paint with Rustoleum high temperature enamel for parts that will get warm (e.g. catalytic converter heat shield, maybe the cat itself, brake calipers, misc. bolts) or primer + another low temperature Rustoleum paint for other things, such as the bracket that holds the battery in place, brake and fuel lines, etc. On my battery holder bracket the plastic/rubber coating had cracked and the metal underneath was showing the first signs of oxidation:

[cowmeat]

That's a nice shiny EGR valve. Did you get one of the cheap Accord V6 ones like I have or did you go with one of the more expensive ones?