02 G1 Insight with many ecomods- 999.6 mile tank @ 105 MPG

[Focus-Ak]

Originally Posted by The donkey CRX

... If you go to the thread for the 92 Red Mule car " Aeromodded Civic VX 72 MPG" The #1 perma link on page one shows the wheel without any covers and starting with perma link #130 shows how I made the vinyl covers for the rims and also where you can buy the vinyl. This is the same material used to "wrap" entire cars.

Sorry I don't know how to put a link here to make it easier to find.

Here is the permalink to the #130 post:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post427797

I see on that page that those covers were conical, to fit over steel wheels. The covers in you photo above are flat, so am I correct that these were applied to a ventilated wheel cover? If so, are these also the same 3mm thickness as your earlier ones?

These look terrific, and look like they should work terrific. Thanks for posting!

[The donkey CRX]

Thanks for the warning about grid charging every night. I am hoping that the Genesis One charger with its cell balancing mode will allow me to get away with charging every night. The IMA battery in this car was exchanged by Honda in 2011 and so far seems to be in good shape, but I admit I have very limited experience to know a good battery from a weak one except I am getting no warning of trouble on this one so far.

[The donkey CRX]

Thanks for posting the link to the vinyl covers how-to on the 92 red VX thread.

Trust me, the black vinyl covered wheel in the how-to and the new gray vinyl covers wheels are applied to the same Insight alloy aluminum space saver spare wheels. Both have a slight cone shape. If you look closely at each one you will see the outline of the ventilated holes from the original wheel.

Thanks for the compliment on how they look.

[cowmeat]

I admit I have very limited experience to know a good battery from a weak one except I am getting no warning of trouble on this one so far.

I would grid charge it once, then wait until you start getting recals or it starts throwing codes or force-charging a lot, then you can get an idea of any issues it has. Grid charging every night seems like overkill, and won't really give you a chance to see the actual condition of the IMA battery. Plus, the 12V battery tender should keep the IMA from charging the 12V too much. You do have a lot of extra instrumentation, though, so it's hard to tell how much juice all that takes.

Maybe consider pulling the EPS fuse to offset some of the extra draw. Or a solar tender like I have on mine to keep the 12V topped off.

[The donkey CRX]

Here are some pictures of how I constructed the adjustable grill block for the Insight. On the VX's I had almost 6 inches of gap between the grill and the radiator to fit the shutters and the adjustment cable. On the Insight that gap was barely 3 inches. This forced me to redesign how the shutters are actuated by the push pull cable. I had to mount the cable underneath the shutters instead of behind them.












Because the front plastic bumper was so flimsy, I attached the shutters to the bottom of the sturdy aluminum bumper.



The push pull cable is routed under the oil pan to reach the shutters









Both the push pull cables for the WAI and the shutters enter the cabin of the car from a 1 1/4" hole I drilled right next to the exit hole for the drain tube for the A/C evaporator. This access hole was also used to route all of the electrical wires for the sensors and gauges. Sorry, I don't have a picture.

[The donkey CRX]

Here is how the shutters look both opened and closed.









Here are the shutters with the bumper cover attached back on the car.








I wasn't too pleased with the way the shutters looked exposed on the front of the car so I got some mesh grill cover material and added it in front of the shutters. With everything behind the mesh painted flat black you don't notice the shutters at all.

[The donkey CRX]

On the VX's I would see as high as 140 degrees in the engine compartment in the summer, but even with the upper grill blocked and the shutters on the lower grill closed I was only seeing 80 or 90 degrees under the hood of the Insight.





I will need to work on getting more heat in the engine compartment.

[The donkey CRX]

Thanks for the tips on the IMA battery.

[vskid3]

Nice mods and numbers!

There was a guy on Insight Central who rebuilt the IMA battery using LiFePO4 cells. Something to look into when yours starts getting tired.

[Daox]

Got a link to that vskid3?