Honda Insight w/Acura TSX engine - Ecomodding

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

So the spring that broke was chopped down a bit?



If it's like the chop job on my Firefly & Metro, the removed coil(s) includes the last, flat loop that contacts the perch. Seems possible there's might be enough leverage due to the chopped coil angle against the perch that it fatigues over time.

When I chopped my coils, I cut them from the bottom, specifically to avoid that! Oh well.

So, in addition to my springs breaking, rust took my receiver too. I was pulling a trailer full of pressure treated lumber home, when the support beam that runs under the car gave out, causing my rear bumper bar to be twisted off the car. I threw the 1600+ lbs of wood in the hatch and drove home with the bumper cover pulling the empty trailer.










Oops!

Years back, when I put my other hitch receiver setup together, I had my father do the welds. He's not here to do them for me anymore, so went to Harbor Freight and picked up a nice welder and decided to teach myself welding. If someone else can do it, I can too, right?

[Ecky]

Saturday evening I did a practice weld, then cut it up to see how it looked inside. Seemed to come out great! Clearly not rocket science.








So, I went ahead and welded up a new brace for my receiver, one that won't run under the car and cause aerodynamic disturbance, or be (as) exposed to road salt.

[Ecky]

Got it painted up and mounted on the car. It supported my jumping up and down on the end of the ball, so it gets a pass.

I'm shocked at how easy this all was, and wonder why I didn't pick up a welder sooner. I'll need to get some gas and a spool gun and try my hand at aluminum.

[Piotrsko]

Steel is forgiving, aluminum is picky and fast , needs flux. Good luck

[Ecky]

This afternoon I flashed a new experimental lean burn tune. From 1000-2500rpm, 0-500mbar, I'm running 1.2 lambda (17.62:1), and from 5-600 it's 1.1 lambda (16.17:1), with 5° and 2.5° of ignition timing added respectively.

Even at that lean AFR, cruising, I'm seeing only around 360mbar, and I can climb pretty steep highway grades at <500mbar in 6th.

On my way home from shopping I averaged a hair over 64mpg, with a target speed of just over 50mph. I'd say in exactly equivalent conditions, this tune is worth very roughly 3-5mpg.

[COcyclist]

Nice work on the hitch. I used to live in the East. I sure don't miss the rust.

FWIW NHOU (New Hampshire Oil Undercoating) sells spray cans of their product. You may want to shoot some into the inside of the tubing that may not be protected by spray paint. It is supposed to be biodegradable and safe for the environment (smells like lanolin to me).

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by COcyclist

Nice work on the hitch. I used to live in the East. I sure don't miss the rust.

FWIW NHOU (New Hampshire Oil Undercoating) sells spray cans of their product. You may want to shoot some into the inside of the tubing that may not be protected by spray paint. It is supposed to be biodegradable and safe for the environment (smells like lanolin to me).

Thanks!

I've already sprayed a lanolin-based undercoating inside the steel tubing.

[superbat]

That hitch looks bad and I think it's the one with the most rust winch I've ever seen in my life!

[Ecky]

It's time for some new front tires. The rears have RE92s with more than 80,000 miles, and they look to still have at least another 30-40k in them. The fronts... well, I'm rough on them. I was fairly happy with the Vredestein Quatrac 5's in 185/60r14, which is 1.3% larger than OEM. They were quiet enough, a bit squishy but ride comfort was good, grip was good, wet grip was superb, and the fuel economy hit didn't seem huge. They're not grippy enough to hold the road in 1st gear and have had their life cut significantly short because of that.

I'd buy them again, but I want to try something different.

Right now I'm between:
Option 1: Michelin Defenders in 185/65r14 (4.9% larger), which we have on the Fit in a larger size. I really like these tires, a lot. I'd be upsizing nearly 5%, good for economy and should help with grip, but my 1st is already quite tall. These are around $110 per tire.

Option 2: I came across Vredestein's Sportrac 5's. They're currently $86 per tire, and according to reviews, they have both 1) significantly better dry grip, and 2) significantly lower rolling resistance (though I'm not sure if this is in comparison to just other high performance summer tires). I'm intrigued. They do have a warning not to ever use them below 20F of the tires will crack, but I run dedicated winter tires.

https://www.thetirelab.com/vredestein-quatrac-5/

https://www.thetirelab.com/vredestein-sportrac-5/

[California98Civic]

I would bet that when they say "significantly lower rolling resistance" they only mean relative to other sport performance tires. I think you are right on that. Buy 'em anyway and experiment. You need grip on those front wheels or the fun of the engine swap is defeated.