Got me an Insight...

[Ecky]

Great job!

I do caution you against frequent grid charging, but YMMV.

Lean burn made easy: Let's say pushing the pedal down 50% brings you to ~50mpg / 85% load in 5th gear, and letting off to 25% throttle is ~75mpg / 50% load (just guessing). If you let off a little further, until the FCD reads around 100mpg, after a moment the display will jump up around 25mpg without you moving your foot - this is lean burn. You can then press the pedal back in until around that same 50% mark, only this time you'll be at ~75mpg / 85-90% load with the same pedal position as was giving 50mpg previously. Press it too far, and it'll exit lean burn, jump right to ~45-50mpg and begin to assist.

Once the car is in lean burn, it will stay there so long as you don't press the throttle down so far as to cause it to exit and begin to assist, or let off the throttle to zero. It should occasionally leave lean burn to purge the 2nd catalytic converter (NOx purge), but it will return to LB by itself after ~5-10 seconds.

As far as I can tell, lean burn largely simulates having a smaller displacement engine. Pumping losses are reduced by keeping the throttle plate open wider to produce the same amount of power. I'm uncertain, but BSFC might be improved too - I've always had better trips and tanks when I spent more time in lean burn, even when accelerating.

EDIT: Note that lean burn can be done in any gear. I frequently use it in 3rd and 4th gear at lower speeds.

[NoD~]

Yes! That's about what I found as well. I can basically keep it in lean burn as long as I don't let the real-time MPG gauge go a dot under 75MPG. If it does, it knocks out immediately. I usually keep it 1 dot above, especially going up hills, for a bit of hear room. Oh, and once it hits 29mph in 5th, it drops out as well, it seems.

I'm also unsure of what to do when the purge happens. Do you guys pull off a little to compensate, then get it back in once purge is done? Or just enjoy the little bump in speed? (Because, since I only get lean burn going that long on the highway, I usually can use it!)

Oh, and for the warm-air-intake... Heat of the day, I was pulling 120*F on the highway with it. Cooler night time air was doing around 105*F. Not a bad start, but I think a custom cat shield will need to be done soon that pulls air through some heat sink fins, but I'll want some adjustability to mix cool air and find the proper temps. I'll put that in the "to-do" list. lol

[cowmeat]

I'm also unsure of what to do when the purge happens. Do you guys pull off a little to compensate, then get it back in once purge is done? Or just enjoy the little bump in speed? (Because, since I only get lean burn going that long on the highway, I usually can use it!)

Back when I still had lean burn I would let off a bit during the purge cycle to keep up the mpg, which was a lot of work.
I'm finding it's actually easier to drive on the highway without lean burn now, since I'm not having to fight the purges the whole time. I get a little less mpg the whole time, but it's a lot less work and a smoother ride.
I'm at about 350 miles into this tank and the FCD is at 77.0 so I really don't miss lean burn like I thought I would

[NoD~]

That little rattle in the door speakers?



Gone! A little weather stripping goes a long ways...

[Ecky]

^ This is exactly what I did.

[NoD~]

Here's my take on an upper grill block. Took a few ideas over the last month, but this one seems to be the easiest to implement, but still work just as good as any other.

But a few small pieces of aluminum sheeting for the mounts.



Used cardboard to get a rough start (put behind the bumper and traced), then put that on the coroplast, then shut the hood as far as I could and used a pen or sharpie to trace the bumper... dismount and cut, then remount and do it again. Was about 6 times or so, but got it. Also drilled a 1" hole for hood lever.



And a duct-tape veneer later... it's very stealthy!



We'll see how it does!

[Daox]

Looks good.

[Natalya]

Thread hijack...

So NoD~ I thought your brake lights were cool and I bought the same ones off Amazon. But today I noticed some electrical issues while driving, and as it turns out a my brake light fuse was blown. When I inspected my brake lights I found this:









One of my brake lights evidently short circuited and set on fire and broke at its base. The wiring harness also got melted a little bit. If you notice your brake lights aren't working and you've got a blown fuse, check the lights, one of them might have melted.


################


In other news, I got a Scan Gauge finally, and I'm using it to look at engine temperature. My water temperature gets to about 195°F pretty fast (within 3 miles usually) and simply stays there when I'm driving. I once saw 202°F going up a big a hill in 3rd, and when I'm coasting it might go down to 193°F but those are the operating temps. If you haven't checked your engine thermostat or to see if the rad fan is always on it might be worth it.

[NoD~]

Holy cow! Thats crazy! How long have you had them? I haven't had any issues with mine.. yet. Id definitely conact that company about it. How bad is your wiring harness.

Either way, im sorry to hear about that. Hate making rexommendations and people have poor experiences from it.

[Natalya]

I made a post about this problem on Insight Central. Looks like the solution might be to use a resistor, but I don't know what type yet. I'll cross-post here if someone there makes a recommendation. I might also be able to figure it out with a multimeter.