Got me an Insight...

[Ecky]

I've read about it on InsightCentral, but never seen it myself. Best I can remember, it's just a software bug, and you've done right by resetting it.

[NoD~]

OK decided to try out these LED turn lights, because they are the only ones that I found that will fit the stock housing, without being a garbage bulb: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...A1HUKFKSGZID4U (hope I don't see the same fate as Natalya's brake light! Pretty worried about my cheap no-name LED adventures since!)

LED on left and stock on right. 4w vs 25w I believe. Was tough getting this pic (blink timing VS my phone's slow camera)



The blinkers are fine right now, but once I get the front ones swapped, I want to make sure the blink is proper and not annoyingly fast. I pulled apart the stock relay and looked at it, then did a bit of research. Seems S2000 owners had replaced the metal bar with a 0.1 ohm resistor, so I'll be doing the same.



Waiting on the other 2 to come in to swap them out (ordered different time). Mostly did these because I like to have the flashers going on the highway (80MPH zone and I go 40-60MPH, 50-55 average) so brighter and more efficient? Sign me up!

[NoD~]

Did some work up front. First, 150w heater pad on the oil pan



Then, I took the stock aluminum pan and the driver's side plastic tray (I was missing the passenger one) and traced them out. I flipped over the plastic panel to mimic the other side.



I cut it out and seems it was touching the oil pan and heater pad, so figured I'd do some measures that'll help protect the coroplast and keep things warmer anyways, so I a layer of fiberglass mat down...



The next thing was to glue on some aluminum foil to reflect heat and keep the oil from soaking into the fiberglass.



And mount! I bought new hardware to put it on, since the stock panels were ziptied and missing parts anyways. Took a few tries, but got the holes pretty well lined up.



Will be doing a little highway tonight, we'll see how it goes!

[cowmeat]

I would suggest dropping it down a little so it doesn't contact the oil pan at all. Pretty much anything that touches it will eventually eat through it (even coroplast), and one drop of oil plus road dust plus vibration equals sandpaper!

I dropped the belly pan a little over an inch on Turtle by attaching it to a PT deck board tucked under the front bumper and a piece of 1x2 PT attached to the rear bracket. Here's a link to the ghetto front section that's still on Turtle today. It clears the oil pan completely

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post456673

[NoD~]

That's pretty sweet. Ill wait till this one craps out, then I'll rebuild. Unless I get time and the itch! Well see. Either way, thanks for the advise.

So I did one more thing today...



Pulled off the ruffled potato chip style underpanel. Pics really don't do justice on how bad this thing was warped!



The underside without it wasn't too bad, so I left it off for the day to do 30 + 30 on the highway for a BD BBQ thing.



So, prior to the hot air intake, the upper grill block, the under-engine belly pan, and removing that turd, I got several runs, all close to or exactly 83.8mpg each time. Today, I got something around 94mpg (damn my bad memory) on the way there and 88.3 on the way back, for an average of 90.9! It was quite a bit warmer today than it has been, though, which I think helped.

Speaking of.. I think i've hit my limit on grill blocking. My intake temps hung between 155-157 and my engine temps would hang around 202-207. All on the highway, seemed to be 195-198 city. I hit as high as 215 on the way up some steep hills going 40-45MPG. Looks like I'll need to open up the grill some more until an adjustable grill can be had. Also, adjustable intake system. All in good time.

[RedDevil]

Awesome.

By the way, do you measure under hood temperature?
My second gen is struggling with its second 12 V battery, maybe my grill blocking has contributed to the problem, as the under hood temperature got high and batteries don't like temperatures over 40°C/105°F.

Also, don't get under your car with just the jack holding it up. My jack failed while I was swapping wheels. It just suddenly started to drop. So I use a pile of wood blocks for double support.

[Natalya]

Originally Posted by NoD~

Weird thing happened yesterday...

I reset the SOC by pulling the fuse under the dash. ... After the calibration, all worked normal, but when auto-stop engaged, it got a dinging sound the entire time. Odd... then I checked my MPG. 150! WHAT? ... so I pulled the fuse and looked under and put it back in the right spot. ... Sadly, my tank MPG is now tainted as it was around 77mpg, but shot up to 86 after the few miles on the 150. Weird...

Anybody seen this behavior before?

I always reset SoC by disconnecting the 12V battery. Though I guess that messes with radio presets.

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Awesome.

By the way, do you measure under hood temperature?
My second gen is struggling with its second 12 V battery, maybe my grill blocking has contributed to the problem, as the under hood temperature got high and batteries don't like temperatures over 40°C/105°F.

Also, don't get under your car with just the jack holding it up. My jack failed while I was swapping wheels. It just suddenly started to drop. So I use a pile of wood blocks for double support.

Good question, I'll have to check some temps soon. I do jack stand every time, but take them out for pics because jack stands are ugly. Mine are, at least! lol

I did decide to get some more work done under the car today...

Traced out the OEM panel...



When I cut it, I left the extra length of the tail on there and cut it to fit properly, then zip tied the end to the ebrake cable. I also made a couple small panels to go from the long underbody panels and the front one, further covering up some of the various aerodynamically ugly bits.



I also removed 2.5" off the side of the lower grill block. Dropped temps in the heat of the day by a few degrees (seeing 198-202 it seemed) and dropped the intake temps a little as well. Pics to come later on that. Did 20 + 20 miles today and did an average on 90.7mpg. So I think it's coming along nicely.

[NoD~]

OK, here is the latest front block. Trimmed up for the right cooling in this blasted heat, plus it has my Genius plug adapter on the front, cleaning up my 3x cords that the car was puking out! (I had people stop and ask me in various parking lots if I had to plug in my car to make it work, lol). Much stealthier now.



So what's left on my list? In a rough order...

Sooner (This year)
*Front LED turns & relay mod. (may pend on LED headlights, undecided)
*Rear belly pan completion
*Exhaust tunnel cover
*Weather stripping on doors & hatch for noise reduction
*Weather stripping around hood for heat loss reduction and drag reduction
*Rear solar panel build and install
*Ecky's patent cat washing system

Properly closer to Winter mods...
*Adjustable grill block
*Trans heater pad
*LED headlights, reverse, and trunk light.
*Engine insulation of some sort

Later (maybe next year?)
*LRR tires (currently Cooper 185/60r14s)
*Smooth wheel covers or new wheels?
*Inner hatch window levour adjustable solar panel setup
*Flux Capacitor
*Good kill switch

[NoD~]

Threw on my Kill-a-watt on my IMA charger. With the charger going and fans a spinnin, it pulls about 40 watts. Over ~14.5 hours, it consumed 0.6 Kwh. Thought that was worth sharing.