Quote:
Originally Posted by niky
I say go for the 5th gear swap. It's cheap and the benefits are pretty good. Probably even better if you can get a junked 626 tranny out of the bone-pickers.
A good header could help lean things out and improve MPG a little more, but most of the good ones are out-of-production already, and all that's left are the generic Taiwanese and OBX ones.
The P5 is a great car. Absolutely fantastic to drive. The short 5th and the odd 1st-2nd gap are perhaps its only practical foibles.
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Sounds like you know the car pretty well! I'm pretty happy with it overall. Ideal size, decent efficiency, and a nimble chassis. I'll do the 5th gear at some point, but all the research I've done says it only goes from 7.55 to 7.17 - so it doesn't seem like a huge change. Though, every little bit helps! I'm just knocking out the less labor intensive things first!
I may pick up an OBX header...I had their downpipe on a turbo Volvo and it was actually very good quality for the money. Good fit, nice welds, low price. I just hope it doesn't affect engine note too badly - I want this to stay the "quiet" car! I'm leaving the rest of the exhaust stock...I can't stand a car that sounds "fast" and can hardly get out of it's own way. lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Welcome to the forum.
Ditch the roof rack. Do not put a bike up there! Stick it inside the car (it's a station wagon!), or get a rear rack so the bike can ride (mostly) in the vehicle's wake where it's going to have a smaller effect.
Sounds like you're considering ditching the sunroof deflector as well. Good idea. Full time aero penalty for what percentage of actual use?
A thought: propping the rear of the hood may intuitively seem like it will help exhaust air from the engine bay, but the cowl area is a zone of high pressure. You may not be getting the results you're after there. |
I ordered the caps to delete the crossbars; removing the sunroof baffle may prove a little harder. It attaches via metal brackets and I didn't look closely yet, but it appears those brackets are going to be a PITA to remove (much like the roof rails...to remove those, you have to take out a bunch of interior trim, remove the headliner, and unbolt the rails from inside the car).
The hood vent I can see working...it's really just so heat can escape to keep underhood temps under control, since I'm loading the radiator a little more heavily now. But you can see the heat escaping from the gap, especially after long periods of idle (stop and go, red lights). Ideally I'd do a grill in the hood (a la 300ZX), but it's a lot of work with cutting the hood and all...the spacers took me 5 minutes.
Coolant temps are good so far - 195 to 208. It hasn't been too hot lately though. We'll see what happens when summer hits! I'm jonesing for that elusive 35mpg...it's just gonna take some time, I can only afford maybe 1 mod per month!
I'm sure some of you know how that is though. haha. Thanks for the notes guys...more to come!