I had been driving the '96 Camry for some time and about 2-3 months ago I had start to feel it was some what lacking in what I wanted to drive as my daily commuter. It was an automatic. The engine was a massive 2.2L i4 that got worse gas millage than a 2010 V6 Camaro even when hypermiling. The suspension was terrible and I just all around hated the thing.
Fast forward to mid December 2009. I was browsing Craigslist for a car in my budget when I stumble across a lady selling a 1991 Honda Civic Dx. I have wanted one of these cars for several years for 2 main reasons. They have potential for incredible gas millage due to weighing right around 2000lbs and they have a tiny, 1.5L i4 gasoline engine and this one had a plus, it was a 5spd, not a 4spd and the engine had just been replaced less than a year ago with one of those 30,000 JDM engines you can buy for a few hundred bucks online. They are also great cars to play around with on the weekends for people like myself who are weekend warrior road racers.
Long story short I managed to pick this thing up for $1300 all told and I have dropped just shy of $800 into it so far with general fix-er-up things and I couldn't be happier.
I was having trouble at first passing emissions. Then one day while I was driving it, the distributer cap ripped itself to shreds and after replacing it, the emissions suddenly were fine, so issue number one was resolved by another issue being corrected which was nice.
Next I replaced the CV half shafts for both driver and passenger sides. I replaced the ricer intake that was on it with an OEM box I picked up at pull-a-part. While I was there I also picked up a few other things I needed. I got myself a new gauge cluster with a tachometer on it. I picked up 2 slightly worn, but not destroyed, '97 Integra front seats (stock seats were terribly destroyed). Found new hatch struts to hold up the trunk as well as a few other random odds and ends I was missing.
There are still more things to be done and it's slowly coming together but after sorting out most of the major mechanical issues I've posted my first tank of gas to the log here and I clocked in at right around 36mpg which is is about 5mpg above the EPA est. for highway driving but was only about 40% highway at most.
So here's the big question...without changing anything huge externally, I would like to keep it as clean and stock looking as possible (IE not major aero mods). What kind of things would you all suggest I start doing to improve MPG. Obviously I know the nut behind the wheel is the first thing, I'm working on that, I'm still kind of new to driving a stick, I have enough experience to know the basics, but I'm still not as smooth as I would like to be. I'm talking mechanical things I can do, engine, transmission, weight, etc.
I'm planning on purchasing an mpguino as soon as funds allow because the ironic part in all of this is my parents got me a scan gauge for xmas and now I can't use it since I just got rid of the camry and will need some kind of instrumentation.
And here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy.
