New member from (all over) Ontario

[Stuey]

Hey everyone! Been reading the forum for a few weeks now and signed up today.

Thanks to the great tips on this site I've been working on changing my driving habits to squeeze out some extra km's and yesterday I performed my first Eco-Mod. Pics to come soon, but I made some lexan covers for the grille in my bumper to reduce the air hitting my Rad and causing drag.

Highway trip last night showed 0% change in engine temp, the needle sat where it always does, even under some hard driving to test it out. This weekend will see a good 600km trip so I'll be back with numbers to let you all know how well it worked.

My vehicles are a 2001 Acura EL (1.7, 5-speed Manual) and ye olde 1993 Chevy Silverado 1500 2wd that pretty much sits in the driveway unless I need to move something big.

I reprogrammed the ECM of the truck a few months ago with a newer version and got much better fuel econ (18 L/100 down to somewhere between 13 and 15) but would love to get tips from everyone on body mods to do to it, i've looked around but haven't found much luck other than "buy a truck cap" (it's coming.. eventually).

Looking forward to a great future with all of you,

Stu

[MetroMPG]

Hey Stu - welcome to the site.

I figured we had another Canuck (without checking your location) when I saw "Acura EL 1.7". Where in Ont are you? I'm in the 1000 Islands.

Congrats on the first mod. Should yield a small but measurable result at highway speeds. Got instrumentation yet? That's when the real fun starts.

[Stuey]

Metro,

Thanks, and yea, good ol' Canadian Only cars, haha. I'm from the Toronto area, but go to school in Hamilton, and am currently working a 16 month internship in Ingersoll... hence the "all over" in my thread title. Actually I'm working at the plant that once way back in the day made those two cars you have in your avatar ;-).

We'll see how well the mod performs, so far i've driven 180km so it's too soon to tell, needle still says 7/8 :-D

[MetroMPG]

Ingersoll, eh? Making Equinoxxen at CAMI?

I don't bother explaining to most of my US friends what a Firefly is. I just call it a Metro. But I wouldn't expect an EL owner to stoop so low as to call it a fancy Civic :P

[Stuey]

Well personally I'M not making them... I'm up in the engineering office, but yea I watch them get made all day, haha.

I do my very best not to stoop... people call it a civic and I'm like no no.. EL. Luckily I don't know enough people in the states for that to be a huge issue but to the few I do I just say it's like a luxury civic (mm, heated mirrors).

Actually this car lived in the states for a while with my brother when it was new... when he got hit by someone down there you can imagine what the repair costs were like just because every part had to be shipped from up here :-D.

As for the new mod, I filled up this morning after driving 251.6k, and it took 14.662L, or 5.83L/100k, that's definitely a new record for me, I've never broken 6. Hopefully it's not just a pump error (clicking off too early) we'll find out this weekend.

This has probably been asked before but I couldn't find it in a search, is there any way to put in info in the EM Garage in metric units? Converting to miles and gallons is a pain every time.

[MetroMPG]

The conversion is on the to-do list. I've been saying that for months, but have been too busy with other projects. I'm planning to do some work in the EM garage in the coming week or so.

Looking forward to hearing the results of the longer trip.

[Stuey]

Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to the updates :-). As for your question above before, no instrumentation yet, I looked at the MPGuino but was a bit confused at exactly what parts I needed/how mcuh it'd cost overall and figured for not much more $$ I could probably grab a scangauge and save myself the time w/ soldering, etc.. (plus it'd look cleaner).

[MetroMPG]

If you've got the cash, the SG has many more features. If you mainly want MPG, it looks as though there may soon be a complete Guino kit available from an online retailer.

[MetroMPG]

I should add: I'm working on an arrangment for a good SG price for Canadian members. Let me know if you want to go that route.

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. Sounds like a nice car. Do you have any pics of it?

[MazdaMatt]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I should add: I'm working on an arrangment for a good SG price for Canadian members. Let me know if you want to go that route.

When you say "members", does that mean donating members, or just everyone that sits here wasting the work day away reading threads?

Stuey, I'm from Georgetown, currently living in London. The guy that sits beside me is from Ingersoll. And yeah, I've always called your car "a fancy civic"

[RH77]

Welcome to EM...

I often visit Canada and wonder why we never got the EL / CSX here. It's a great idea -- a true compact luxury vehicle.

I guess they want to sell more higher-dollar Acuras here...

I vote for pics too!

Best FE to ya...

RH77

[MetroMPG]

MazdaMatt - anybody will be able to order from the Cdn source. Just waiting to hear back from him. He was going to put up a web page with details.

[Stuey]

Sounds good about getting the SG supplier, any idea of a timeline on that? Is it worth waiting to get one?

As for the weekend trip, I'm back, and I'm not exactly sure how to interpret my results. Normally I drive alone, empty trunk. This trip ended up with 2 other passengers, and the trunk packed as full as possible with camping gear, clothes, and food.

Unfortunately I needed to pull the car battery for a few hours to power a prank we were pulling off, and the second after I unplugged the battery I realized I forgot to write down the trip meter reading but I do remember what the reading was just after the time i filled up before that (the one i spoke about above where i drove 250 km) so going by that I might be off by at most 10km, i drove 570.2km and got approx 7.5 L/100km.

That's the mileage I'd get on a bad day of driving alone going 120 (without grille blocks) and due to time constraints (gates to the campground close early.. and my girlfriend really wanted to be there already, haha) I wasn't able to drive in the most fuel efficient manner, so I think the guards made a difference. The next few weeks will have the final say when I can get back to my normal routine.

As for the pictures, I have them, they're coming, I'm just at work right now so I can't post them.

RH77, I think the reason you guys don't have EL/CSX is because the states market for the longest time has been about SUVs, and up here a lot more people prefer smaller cars and hatchbacks (I believe we've had quite a few hatch's you've never had either) but times are changing, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the next-gen CSX down there whenever it's designed/produced.

MazdaMatt, hey neighbour! Hehe.. I know it's a fancy civic, but I drove my grandmother's Civic for a few weeks while trying to sell it (it was a 2002) and while the interior has a bunch of similarities, there are just so many little things different that I was going crazy over. Seat isn't height adjustable, mirrors werent heated (or powered, but that's just a trim level issue) seats weren't as comfy, fuel econ was miserable compared to my engine/tranny (yaay for automatics!) and the smaller wheels (and being steelies) were wayy louder than mine. Plus the interior trim is higher qual in the EL.

[Stuey]

Still haven't actually driven enough to warrant a fill up... but I fear this tank isn't going to be one of my best.. not quite sure where it went wrong. But anywho, you guys asked for some pics, so here are some pics, the first one is of the car like.. 4 years ago (doesn't look much different but it was a good shot cuz I just finished polishing it so I like the pic)

The other two are of the lexan vent covers I made. I took the pics today, so that's them after about 1000km.