98 Civic Upper Grill Block - A tribute to PaleMelanesian

[Wonderboy]

It's starting to warm up a little here lately (although not today, it's f***in cold and windy out) and I've been getting back into the hypermiling/ecomodding mood. I've been doing P&G with EOC more heavily than ever lately, and it's been working out great in the city. I seldom would EOC unless there was a HUGE hill or long slight incline ahead of me, and I'd never do it in a city setting - I'd do more of an engine ON coast. Now, however, I've been driving in the city with a good portion of the time spent with the engine off. I've yet to see the effect on mileage as I started employing this technique halfway through my last tank, and the SGII can't account for distance traveled while the engine is off. This is one of those things I can just feel though - I can tell its working pretty well.

Anyway, the real point of this thread is that I copied PaleMelanesian's grill block:





I liked it so I copied it. I did some highway driving, but P&G seems ineffective at highway speeds (going up to 65, gliding down to about 45-50). I didn't expect this little mod to give me the aerodynamics to be able to do this, but I'm assuming more aeromods make P&G feasible on the HWY. I'm all stock besides this piece of plexiglass, but Pale is too. Any pointers, or do I have the right idea?

[pawilkes]

I don't know if this will work for you but I set my SGII up for a hybrid and it does keep track of mpg while your engine is off as long as you flick the key back to the on position.

[SVOboy]

Looks pretty nice, can you snap some pictures from further away?

[PaleMelanesian]

For reference, here's my mod thread: Aero mods - new grill block and wheel covers - CleanMPG Forums

I'm honored / flattered that you liked my approach. I copied it from someone else, but I can't remember who.

Originally Posted by pawilkes

I don't know if this will work for you but I set my SGII up for a hybrid and it does keep track of mpg while your engine is off as long as you flick the key back to the on position.

Exactly what I do. It records everything except the 1/2 second while the key is off.

This aero mod will likely make a bigger difference on highway driving than city. Most of my driving is at city speeds rather than highway speeds.

Highway driving is tough in these cars. Especially so with your EX. The gear ratios are killer! Mine are bad, but yours are worse. I do pulse-and-glide on the highway. I aim for about 40-55 mph on flat ground or 45-60 mph if it's hilly. There's just not enough grunt to really handle some of these hills at 40. Of course, with your EX, adjust down by about 5 mph to get the same rpm.

Here's a distant shot of mine:

[Wonderboy]

I've been busy and haven't been able to get back for a while, but here's a shot from further away:

Highway driving is tough in these cars. Especially so with your EX. The gear ratios are killer! Mine are bad, but yours are worse.

That's bad news.. I don't want bad ratios! I discovered something weird on a huge trip I had to take the other day: I usually go 50-55, but I was forced to speed to get somewhere to pick up someone else's slack. It turns out that the SGII indicated my mileage was no different going 60-70 than it would be going 50-55. Here's my fuel log, describing the circumstances:

Huge tour of upstate NY for work.
Binghamton>Utica>Syracuse>Rochester>Around Rochester>Horseheads>Binghamton.

Tank was pretty low towards the end, but I was determined to make it back, and did.

A great deal of the trip (up until rochester) was in nasty cold rain. Even with rain, it felt like my brake "fix" was working against me. I slammed the brakes a few times when I could to see if that improved it, but by the time the rain went away, the mileage was more characteristic.

My eyes were glued to the SGII for this trip and I noticed a few things:
-My final MPG was very different from the mpg I saw most commonly displayed (35MPG)
-Going fast (normal people speed) didn't seem to change my mileage. I had to rush from Rochester to Horseheads (120mi) and I did about 65-73. This didn't change what the SGII read: When I drove 55, the MPG readout bounced around the 30s, and was in the lower 20s when I accelerated) The road/sky was dry for this leg of the trip.
-Doing an "Engine ON coast" seemed to work well when I was going about 70 - I would SLOWLY decrease my speed from 70 to about 60, then more quickly accelerate back to 70 (I tried to make this happen on downhills) and repeat.

Any explanations? I'm happy with about 42MPG for that trip anyway with how the cold has been affecting my mileage.

BTW, thank you to wilkes and pale for the SGII hybrid setting tip That did the trick.

[Wonderboy]

bump

[cfg83]

Wonderboy -

I see your bump and raise you two bumps.

I'm in *no* way an expert, but maybe the higher speed pushed you into your BSFC sweet spot. The higher speed cost you MPG, but the better BSFC spot was more fuel efficient, so it cancelled out and netted the same MPG.

That's my dos centavos,

CarloSW2

[Christ]

I can second that - a friend of mine got his best MPG on the highway (according to an SGII) in his 2-thousand-something CR-V at 62 MPH... intuitively, 55mph should have been better for him... but apparently, Honda did something "right" as far as making speeds efficient vs highway speed in that particular car.. (not model, just car.)

[Wonderboy]

That would be pretty cool. What would be cooler is if i had my car's bsfc chart...but i know i'm singing with a choir on that one. I looked everywhere.

[PaleMelanesian]

I've seen better mileage in my Odyssey at 60 compared to 55. However, that's running in the 1800 rpm range.

My Civic is another story. My best mileage comes at *slower* speeds. Considering that this is an EX that runs at higher rpm, I'd expect the optimum speed to be even lower than mine.

Maybe there's some VTEC trickery going on. My DX doesn't have that.