What would you do to all-out modify (ecomod) a Honda Insight (gen 1)?

[Frank Lee]

If I was in CA with it I'd totally keep the hybrid gear, Boss.

[ithinkidontknow]

whoops, mental slip

[Silveredwings]

Originally Posted by ithinkidontknow

whoops, mental slip

It's all in good fun...

[theunchosen]

Basic within reason mods. . .I would dump the AC, refrigerant cooling fins, all the piping for it, swap the belt for a shorter belt(probably from a different car thats the exact length I need(length of old minus running to the AC.)) Boosts a little.

I would consider running a turbo with very non-aggressive back-pressure build up and running the alternator off of that instead. The total power ouput of an array would need to be about half a KW to effectively delete the alt.

Buy a battery pack of another wrecked insight(or prius) drop some solar panels in the front dash and rear window to charge the batteries passively all day to run the head-lights if you end up needing them or wipers if it starts raining. I think you could get 500 watts out of 2 very steep bladed turbines, but its hard to say as I've never seen anyone mention the power output of one(although if you used a saw to get the same RPMs with a speed increase gear its consuming a ton of electricity(1KW)).

I would dupe the engine into constant lean burn(variable resistance between MAF and ECU and O2(and any other sensors that throw CELs and change the AFR sneakily on me)), toss the old cat and inject a tiny amount of water at the intake(to shut down most NOx and SOx) and run the other 500w with a centrifugal turbo to keep the engine above 25:1 AFR(NOx and SOx virtually disappear at or above 25:1) using IMA to heavily assist to speed so I don't dip to 14.7 AFR(hydrocarbons that water injection won't fix). In the process I would definitely yank the throttle body to drop pumping losses.

With the alt running off the turbine, if the car is not drawing load it will automatically free-wheel(until it goes under load) and increase the AFR to increase FE. So once you get to speed and your packs are(80-90% charge let the PV handle the rest) set and you are up to speed you can coast in ultra-lean burn territory(throttle partially open creates pumping losses and holds AFR in lower range, while WOT ultra-lean avoids that and delivers cooler charge(water injection and pre-cooling(misnomer=intercooler))).

[discovery]

fix the existing EGR valve system for better MPG, and find the pot that keeps the lean burn mode more prolong or change the TPC with drive -by- wire, make the water pump electrical so the car would be beltless"you don't need A/C when targetting 100+MPG and next would be add an removable E-weel with no more than 6 BAT for city range. Other than that i think the car is good to go on a highway.

[random_variable]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

Remove soundproofing and stereo; use noise-canceling headphones with MP3 players.

I don't know about CA, but in many states driving while wearing headphones, or anything to prevent you from hearing sirens, is illegal.