Got me an Insight...

[cowmeat]

Also, leanburn doesn't seem to work well or even at all perhaps with the IMA breaker off.

I was never a fan of lean burn. I did a lot of highway driving and hated how it would suddenly kick out of lean burn and I'd have to keep feathering the gas pedal to maintain speed until it kicked back in.
When I shut off my IMA it didn't go into lean burn at all, so it was the smoothest highway driving I ever did in an Insight, and I really didn't sacrifice more than a couple of mpg. I did miss the IMA boost, auto stop and start, and the quiet restarts from the IMA battery.

[NoD~]

OK Finally got around to doing my relay. Was pretty easy to wire up... brake pedal wire turns on the relay (and grounded to a screw behind the little drop down storage box at my left knee) and the clutch cables are wired to the normally connected side, so the brake turns on the relay and kills the connection. So, regren braking without accelerating!

But then, I thought about it a bit more... why don't I skip the relay and just use a roller switch on the throttle body to cut the connection? 3 advantages...
1. Does not engage the clutch switch when the car is basically off (so won't start w/o clutch pushed in... unless throttle pedal is pushed!)
2. Does not require a relay, so no further power consumption and easier wiring
3. Allows regen on downshifting.

So I ordered roller switches.

I also "fixed" my shifter. The button was constantly getting stuck and I had a bad day, so it got kinda... beat up. I had to super glue it back together a bit. The threads are trashes, so I had to put some duct tape around the threading on the shifter and it seems to hold tight now. I also "shimmed" the top and bottom with some cardstock and it seems to not be getting stuck as often. Still experimenting on ways to make it more reliable. Drives me nuts when I shift and it somehow sticks in there, especially w/o the IMA giving me any boost in traffic!

Otherwise: Nothing more to report. I expect some less than great tanks from here as I don't have the IMA boost to help (I'm vastly a city driver... 3-4 miles at a time!) and it's been cold here anyways, which always seems to tank the numbers. But hey, my Forester can't get 30 w/o a miracle, so I'm really not complaining about 70+!

[NoD~]

Well, it happened. The IMA battery is just too dead to be of use. Really, at the price of the new pack and all, I decided to pull the battery and go with the weight savings. Used an Arduino to bypass the factory system. All together, I've pulled nearly 100lbs of weight out of the car! Over 70lbs from the battery, computers, bolts, etc.

I am looking into replacing the factory DC-DC with a Meanwell setup. This would allow me to move it to a different location and give me the entire trunk. Efficiency would go up, weight would go down, and total space increased? Worth it!

Still looking at other weight savings here and there. I don't want to loose too many comforts, keeping full interior in tact and keeping a decent stereo is important to me. The trunk will need a makeover to make use of all the space. Might ditch the spare tire setup in place of a small pump + can of tire seal gunk (taking spare only on long trips). Lot of options in the air!

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by NoD~

Well, it happened. The IMA battery is just too dead to be of use. Really, at the price of the new pack and all, I decided to pull the battery and go with the weight savings. Used an Arduino to bypass the factory system. All together, I've pulled nearly 100lbs of weight out of the car! Over 70lbs from the battery, computers, bolts, etc.

I am looking into replacing the factory DC-DC with a Meanwell setup. This would allow me to move it to a different location and give me the entire trunk. Efficiency would go up, weight would go down, and total space increased? Worth it!

Still looking at other weight savings here and there. I don't want to loose too many comforts, keeping full interior in tact and keeping a decent stereo is important to me. The trunk will need a makeover to make use of all the space. Might ditch the spare tire setup in place of a small pump + can of tire seal gunk (taking spare only on long trips). Lot of options in the air!

You'll want a diode or relay, the Meanwell unit will drain your battery eventually if left to sit.

This is the rectifier I ordered: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amico-SQL-1...72.m2749.l2649

This is the relay: https://www.amazon.com/Stinger-SGP38...keywords=sgp38

I opted for the Meanwell HRP-600-12 rather than 15, because I will likely reuse it as a 12v power supply after I finish my K conversion. If I planned to keep the car that way indefinitely I'd have used the 15.

EDIT: Have you yet read my k-conversion thread?

[cowmeat]

That very thing is why I'm driving the Volt now! I drove Ron Burgundy around with the IMA turned off for a while but even in dead-flat Florida it was too slow to be practical.

Of course I killed my IMA battery by falling asleep while discharging it with two 200 watt bulbs (down to around 1 volt if I remember correctly), so it was my own fault, not Honda's . . . but I got tired of the Insight pretty fast after that happened

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by Ecky

You'll want a diode or relay, the Meanwell unit will drain your battery eventually if left to sit.

This is the rectifier I ordered: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amico-SQL-1...72.m2749.l2649

This is the relay: https://www.amazon.com/Stinger-SGP38...keywords=sgp38

I opted for the Meanwell HRP-600-12 rather than 15, because I will likely reuse it as a 12v power supply after I finish my K conversion. If I planned to keep the car that way indefinitely I'd have used the 15.

EDIT: Have you yet read my k-conversion thread?

Excellent! I saw something about a diode and wondered if there was a good relay as an alternative (more efficient), so thanks for the input!

Does the 15v version drop down to ~14v or lower OK?

Originally Posted by cowmeat

That very thing is why I'm driving the Volt now! I drove Ron Burgundy around with the IMA turned off for a while but even in dead-flat Florida it was too slow to be practical.

Of course I killed my IMA battery by falling asleep while discharging it with two 200 watt bulbs, so it was my own fault, not Honda's . . . but I got tired of the Insight pretty fast after that happened

I saw Balto is considering building a bolt-on turbo kit. That would make a big difference, especially on the hills! That or I've looked into a D15 or D16 Honda swap. That would be a MASSIVE gain in power (doubling, basically!). Debating on those two options, but want to see what it feels like after getting all the weight I can out of it. According to online calculators, dropping 100lbs in weight should give my little car over 3/10th of a second faster. Nothing huge, but should be a noticeable gain in the daily driving routine!

But hey, cars nearly 20 years old, I don't blame anybody who decides to move on!

[Ecky]

The 15v version has +/- 1.5v of adjustment, I believe. For me, 13.5v is a little lower than I'd prefer but adequate.

D series are not good swaps for an Insight because everything is backward in the engine bay - the Insight's ECA is basically a baby L series engine, and was one of Honda's first clockwise rotating engines. Routing wiring and hydraulic lines is considerably more difficult than an L or K swap, and the K engines actually have off-the-shelf mounts available. I imagine an L would provide better fuel economy though, so long as you corrected the gearing.

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by Ecky

The 15v version has +/- 1.5v of adjustment, I believe. For me, 13.5v is a little lower than I'd prefer but adequate.

D series are not good swaps for an Insight because everything is backward in the engine bay - the Insight's ECA is basically a baby L series engine, and was one of Honda's first clockwise rotating engines. Routing wiring and hydraulic lines is considerably more difficult than an L or K swap, and the K engines actually have off-the-shelf mounts available. I imagine an L would provide better fuel economy though, so long as you corrected the gearing.

Clearly, I'm not well versed in Hondas. I did read that the off the shelf mounts were not very good as they put the oil pan too low, not sure if true to this day, though.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by NoD~

Clearly, I'm not well versed in Hondas. I did read that the off the shelf mounts were not very good as they put the oil pan too low, not sure if true to this day, though.

Hasport will have theirs out within a month (hopefully) which makes the 03-07 Accord and 04-08 TSX practically drop-in replacements. There's also a $200 subharness available which lets the K engine bay harness communicate 100% with the Insight's body harness.

The older, bad mounts (Innovative) fit the 02-05 Civic Si and RSX.

[NoD~]

Been a while since I posted...

Been working on lowering noise in this car. Adds a bit of weight, but weight doesn't seem to have much of an impact on MPG, so it's worth the sanity.

Something I found the other day is one of my tires has a bulge in it (thump thump thump). Timing is terrible (as always is), but I pulled the trigger on the Bridgestone RE92's and they should be here Monday. $130 each installed... not the greatest, but locally, it's the best I could find. Hoping to see an increase in MPG over whatever I have now...

...Just went out and looked, Cooper CS4 Touring 185/60R14. Didn't even realize I wasn't running the same size tires. Never paid much attention, just knew one day I'd have to replace them and I'd do it right. I'm guessing I should see some gains, lol. Been running ~50psi front and ~60psi rear.

Current tires, I can run leanburn in 5th somewhere between 50-60mph (probably 52-55mph average leanburn on flat ground), depending on the day it seems. I'm hoping this increases, at least to 60mph average, but I won't get my hopes too high.

In other news, I still don't miss the IMA system. The extra trunk space has come in handy a few times and not having to deal with the charging alone has paid off. I do miss that extra torque, no doubt, but not worth the $2K IMO. My MPG has gone down a little on average, but again, not $2K down.

I've talked myself out of an engine swap for now. Really, when I get 3K RPM, the pull on this car actually surprises me! I'm just so often in town going no more than 35MPH that over 2.5K rpm is rare. If I could increase torque from 1K-2K w/o loosing MPG, life would be complete... but dreaming a bit there (though reducing weight from any rotating mass is possible... but at what cost?)

Finally, my work got a 3D printer. I got pretty excited and made a lot of designs (and found/requested some as well) that I plan to print. Just haven't had the time to do so, sadly. I've got the front grill block adjuster to do, mirror blanks, but one of my own designs is an intake hot/cold switcher. Basically, it will T off the filter box and have one hose towards the cat, the other towards somewhere for outside air (maybe straight down through the plastic engine pan I made). Inside is an oval plate (similar to throttle plate) that will be used to adjust the amount of hot or cold air the intake sees. For now, it will be manual, but I'd like to program it ultimately. Probably do target 120*F intake, but go full cold on WOT and high engine temps for performance and safety. I'm happy to share these plans, though I haven't printed it yet to prove it works as I theorize.

Anywho, that's my latest.