Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
I'll post a video soon of my drive, but here are some initial impressions:
I think it was a mistake to remove the balance shafts. I may revise my opinion later. The mounts are solid polyurethane and either solid mounts or a balance shaft delete would be fine alone, but together they have similar harshness to the Insight's 3 cylinder at idle, only over a much larger rev range. Lots of stuff buzzes in the car. At first I thought the exhaust was pretty loud but it's actually engine vibrations I'm hearing, being transferred from engine to chassis. Probably doesn't help that the car has no subframe. On the other hand though, I might have been kicking myself had I not deleted them for the fuel economy and performance left on the table.
Speaking of performance, I'm using a "canned tune" that came with the ECU for now. It doesn't idle well but pulls like a freight train in any gear. Vibrations in the car should improve after a tune. If power improves correspondingly to idle after I get it tuned properly, it's going to be terrifying. The engine revs like a sport bike engine and in lower gears the digital speedometer doesn't update quickly enough - I'll see things like "2, 5, 18, 35, 65" - it's very easy to overshoot my target speed.
Fuel economy is likely to be in the 40's for my first tank due to some idling and testing performance. I drove home from NH through torrential rain at ~70 last night and, did I mention, I have to take the transmission apart again because it won't go into 6th? So, close to 50mpg driving at 70 with a poor tune, not in top gear, torrential rain, and no underbody panels in place. Not terrible. I'd likely have been in the 50's with the stock engine and no IMA driving the same path.
I still had some things to do. A/C compressor isn't wired yet. Knock sensor needs to be changed. Cluster needs temp sensor wired up. Car needs to be tuned. Evap system isn't installed. Secondary O2 sensor needs wiring. No cruise control.
But, it runs with no CEL unless I really rev it due to the wrong knock sensor.
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Wow, progress! But sounds very promising! Honestly i think the majority of the vibration issue is from 1) the poly mounts, and 2) the tune, in that order. Once the tune is cleaned up, it should be more stable and smoother. If you have the OEM style mounts, i highly recommend those, then fill them with window adhesive. I can't recall what the mount situation is, if they're custom or aftermarket, but with poly you will always have that vibration there. It is not pleasant at all....