Got me an Insight...

[Ecky]

Great data, I love to see graphs and charts. Seeing this, I'm inclined to believe that even plugging the block heater(s) in for 20 minutes is not insignificant.

EDIT: During the last Vermont winter, I found that my fuel economy would steadily rise for the first 30-40 minutes of driving, despite coolant temperature peaking after only 5-10 minutes. Presumably, other things such as the transmission, axles, tires, etc. were still warming up.

[MetroMPG]

Good data. Thanks.

[Crazy88]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Great data, I love to see graphs and charts. Seeing this, I'm inclined to believe that even plugging the block heater(s) in for 20 minutes is not insignificant.

EDIT: During the last Vermont winter, I found that my fuel economy would steadily rise for the first 30-40 minutes of driving, despite coolant temperature peaking after only 5-10 minutes. Presumably, other things such as the transmission, axles, tires, etc. were still warming up.

Oil temp. is more important than coolant temp, and the oil warms up slower than coolant. Fortunately, Insights have an oil "cooler" which also helps the oil warm up quicker.

[NoD~]

Here's the headlights compared...



Installation is pretty easy. The ring comes out so you can install that first, then the rest of the light.





I could just BARELY get the light on with the rubber protective boot on, but it tore my hands up and completely covered the cooling system, so I opted to do some trimming...



And here they are, installed.



As for performance, they are very bright. Far brighter than stock. The big down side is that they do splash up more. Note that I made NO adjustments after installing, so I'll play around with that soon.

Anywho, driver's side is LED, passenger is stock.

Close to garage...



A bit aways...



And brights...



Driving around, yeah... it's bright. Details in the immediate road are very improved. Signs 1/4 mile away reflect like never before. I didn't drive around so much as to test out other driver's vision VS my new lights, but I'll get them adjusted a bit soon and do some more testing.

My biggest complaint? Fans. Why couldn't they do a braided heatsink or something else? They barely move any air, they make noise (not loud enough to hear from in the car, but still), and they are prone to die sooner than later.

Consumption wise, they consume 21.5/35 watts, where the factory lamps are 55/60 watts (low beam/high beam). So yeah, that's less than half the power on the low beams, where I use them 99% of the time.

[NoD~]

Got my Darkfish P&P-FAS in!



Seems to work well. I don't have it wired up to my Doax shift knob yet and don't have the DC/DC keep alive wired yet, but it seems to do the job.

Anybody with a kill switch: Is the MPG reader pretty accurate still for trips and what not still? My first time using it and I got high 90's MPG on my way to work today where I usually get mid 70's to mid 80's (coasting with an idle).

[WD40]

Awesome, man I can't wait till I get mine delivered.

[Ecky]

I use an injector cutoff relay, and if anything, the FCD might read a hair low, because I doesn't know the instant the fuel is cut off.

Does that kill switch still throw dummy lights on the dash?

[NoD~]

The battery lights come on first, then the oil light. Once I press the brakes under ~20, the car still attempts the normal auto stop and the green light comes on to signal it. I believe once I put the DC/DC keep alive in, it will not do the battery lights.

One thing I like is that, after killing it, I don't have to hold clutch or anything to keep it off. Just stays off, then throw it in gear, starts right back up from my stop! Can't wait to get it on the knob switch, though. (Have it dangling in my cup holder right now, ha!)

[Ecky]

Sounds like the behavior is somewhat similar to mine, except that I need to leave the clutch switch engaged. However, I rather like that I can tap my clutch switch to restart the engine, then give a quick throttle blip to rev match before dropping into gear.

[NoD~]

I'll have to tap the gas and see if it auto-starts like it does in gear (I think it should!).

I got my Daox shifter wired up. Seems to work well, just a gentle push of the button and down she goes.

So on my way to work with the kill switch, I got 99.4 MPG. This is without a warmup (forgot to plug it in last night). On the way home, 85.0 MPG, which is a new record as far as I can remember (usually get low to high 70's). Also note, my car never did hit full 195*F warmup temp, where normally I hit that about half way, so extended coasting with the engine off again feels very good. Combined, a total of 7.4 miles for 91.8 MPG! Man, if I can keep this progress up...

I ran the DC/DC keep-alive to the IMA battery wall, but no further. That one will likely be a weekend job (too hot when I get home from work. I don't do well in the heat).

After that? Unsure. I'm still on the Cooper CS4 tires, but going to the stock tires is $500+ and I really shouldn't drop much more money any time soon into this beast, so I'll be doing cheaper mods for now. Looking at...

-Weather stripping for hood seal for heat, door and hatch for noise
-More under body panels and finishing exhaust tunnel covers
-Adjustable front block (0-50% total lower block)
-Engine Insulation (box, blanket? Who knows)
-Assemble the solar panel for cabin cooling system (and, perhaps, 12v trickle)

Pretty happy with where I'm at with this, though. Seems I've ripped through quite a bit in a short amount of time. Big thanks to this site and it's awesome members for keeping me motivated!!