Hello... I've been on many different forums over the years, but never thought I'd join one about getting higher MPG out of a car
Although it wasn't until last year that I started a job that's a good 45 minute drive one way, so I decided it was time to get a car with better mileage.
Last year I almost bought a 1st gen Honda Insight. Price wasn't quite right though sometimes I wish I had just gone with that. But a friend gave me a 1991 Civic hatchback shell, which I had been storing for him for a few years. He was going to make a project out of it, but changed his mind. Instead of getting rid of it, I'm going to clean it up and make it drivable. I plan on doing some aero mods, as much as I reasonably can.
I picked up a D15Z1 along with its transmission from someone I know. I'll be using an adapter kit for the VX trans since it uses a hydro clutch and the EF is set up with a cable clutch. The Z1 was rebuilt last year, turbocharged & tuned with a Hondata S300 to get better MPG (and a little bump in HP) than stock.
He also had a D15B8 with a very small GT15 turbo, and got crazy good MPG from that setup (I believe upper 60s). He was selling both engines, and it was a hard choice between the two, but the Z1 was rebuilt while the B8 was not.
My current hangup is finding the right turbo, then getting it tuned. The guy who built & tuned this setup hasn't answered all my questions about buying the right turbo. He was using a "GT2554," but the ones I've found aren't clockable. So my project car won't be going anywhere for a while.