old hippy modder

[squatch]

Greetings, I've been lurking for awhile, been rodding and modding even longer(since the seventies). I got my license right before the second gas crunch in '76. Gas was $.54 a gal year later it was $1.35 so I guess you could say I've been interested in this stuff for a long time. Owned alot of high milege cars: '76 vega 35mpg, '72 honda 600(2cyl) sedan 45mpg, '80 audi 5000 diesel 45mpg, 86 ford ranger diesel 30-35 mpg, and currently have a 3 hondas in the family alog with a couple of not so thrifty rides. My DD is a $1500 '95 civic dx(dentmobile) that I picked up when gas started to get stupid and my new truck was in the shop for 4 months(cheaper than car rental), The truck is gone and the honda is still here. This car gets 38-40mpg day in day out. My driving style is pretty much light hypermiling from way back. I'm putting a new exhaust on it this week. A pacesetter header,hi-flow cat, and cat back sys. I hope this will get me a couple of more MPGs. May try some moon wheel discs. Does anybody have any recommendations for 13" tires that are known for good milage? I'm not going to go crazy with this at this time just replace things as needed with an eye towards milage. I've got too many projects right now to build an aerocar. Other than that just a green guy. We used to call it "appropriate technology" back in the day. I live in a super insulated log home with a ground source direct exchange heat pump. That means it has freon going through coils in the ground. It's the most efficient type of system but not the most common. Anyway some cool stuff going on here and I'll keep you all posted on how the next mod(exhaust) works out.

[DifferentPointofView]

Awesome, Welcome to EM. Just don't go too big on the exhaust.

[Johnny Mullet]

Welcome to the site

[Bicycle Bob]

Welcome! Try the Bridgestone Potenza RE92 tires.

[cfg83]

squatch -

Welcome to EM! I agree to the "replace as needed" mantra. Get good use out of what's there.

CarloSW2

[squatch]

Thanks for the welcome. I forgot the best part, I guess the best way to say it is a pic of part of the collection:

Lifelong distance cyclist. Unfortunatly I have worn through the cartilage in both knees so these don't get used like they used to. Well maybe after I get some titanium replacements I'll be commuting again.

[DifferentPointofView]

^
lol, thats the spirit!

[MetroMPG]

Welcome to the site, squatch.

You know, I've yet to see any reliable source of info that shows a larger/freer flowing exhaust will aid fuel economy for a vehicle driven lightly, as most eco drivers drive.

Darin

[squatch]

I understand, Bottom line is this same exhaust works well on my kids car. sounds good, and is cheaper than a stock replacement including parts store junk.. My mileage is pretty consistant so it should let me know within a short period of time. The pacesetter(monza) is more of a sports car exhaust than the current breed of F**t pipes. More about just smoothing out the bends than 4' diameter. It sounds different as well. We ran one years ago on my wifes crx si with good results. Worse case as long as I keep my foot out of it it shouldn't hurt much.

[TomO]

Welcome squatch!

I have switched out my OEM Maniverter to a cheapo eBay header and a 2" exhaust system with two 29" Cherry bombs and a Cherry bomb turbo muffler on my 94 VX. It didn't lose me any mileage, but it didn't really help a whole bunch. I had to fight the urge to goose the throttle since it sounded so nice, lol.

I can totally agree on the aftermarket stuff being cheaper than the OEM stuff I did my header, cat and the rest of the system for $150 (welded up by a friend of mine) as apposed to the $200 from Honda just for the Cat Converter. Too bad that 2" exhaust components are cheaper than 1.75" ones I wanted to stay nearest the stock sizing as I could to maintain exhaust velocity.