Thanks! The utility is why I bought it. I don't think there's a more versatile car out there. It does so many cool things!
I did a lot of research into other cars before making the final decision. It took me about 6 months. It was either going to be the Volvo V70R, the Ford Flex or this. The other two are definitely more appealing in the visual and performance department, but finding a manual V70R with low miles is like finding a unicorn in the desert and the Flex was about triple the price of the Element for a twin turbo and 3 more seats. Honda engineering, versatility and practicality took over and here we are!
Thanks! I just bought some ABS plastic again so I may consider doing a grill block soon. However, one thing irks me a bit; I never fully confirmed this but when the head gasket on the Civic blew the first time, I had been running a grill block for a while and a quite restrictive one at that. I would notice up hills at times the engine temperature gauge would rise a bit but I never got it running super hot or anything. However, when I pulled the head on the motor after the first head gasket leak, I noticed some distinct pitting on one particular cylinder sleeve (obviously the source of the leak as the piston was cleaner than the rest) and wondered if it had been due to the installation of the grill block, overheating, etc. The motor did have about 220k on it when it went the first time. Same issue the second time.
However, I do have the Ultragauge now and only had an MPGuino in the Civic, so I could monitor the coolant temperature more closely if I install a block. It's definitely in the back of my mind! 6th gear first, though.
Thanks! Some people on the Element forums realized that since it's just a K-series motor in the Element that you could probably swap the 6th running gear from the Acura TSX into the 5 Speed trans. There's actually empty space on both the main and countershafts for the 6th gear. Kind of odd Honda didn't offer the option as some people who have done the swap claim a 5 MPG improvement. The original forum post is here:
Element 6 speed MT Conversion Plans/Parts - Honda Element Owners Club Forum
It's been proven to work fine in FWD and AWD applications and some have even gone as far as to change the differential as well for a slightly taller final drive (seems you can only do that on FWD, though). I have the parts now, but I'm not willing to do it in my driveway in the cold so I'm waiting for a lift to open up. haha
But I've inspected the underbody and that could DEFINITELY use some help in the aero department. I'm planning to cover the indentations in the front bumper where the fog lights would go and probably run a low ABS plastic diverter in the front. My old Civic was just a boat tail short of Basjoos crazy so, I might wind up going down that path again..haha There's a lot of room in the wheel wells for some covers!
Oh! I did buy some side mirror cameras, add-a-circuit kits and two 3" LCD monitors to get rid of those humongous side mirrors! Waiting til it gets a bit warmer out to dive into that project too.
The only other post I saw on here about someone modding an Element for hypermiling mostly involved the dude getting yelled at so I'm kind of starting from scratch here in Element world haha Although the bag of hypermiling tricks is large and I've not plunged deep enough into it, yet!
