04 Civic Si - New member from Minnesota

[greenwar]

I have been reading about hypermiling and found this website/forum.

I already read through many of the posts and read about some of the extreme aeromods you guys did to your cars. Kudos to you for achieving such high mpg with simple, cost affective mods.

I daily drive a 04 Civic Si 5spd hatchback with a 2.0L K20A3 motor. I like the car because its fuel efficient yet sporty. I recently learned that Vtec in K20A3 works more like a Vtech-E than a regular Vtec. It apparently runs on 3 valves per cylinder upto 2200Rpm and then switches to 4valves per cylinder. After finding that out, I figured I will drive efficiently and see if I can make a game of getting some extra mileage out of my car. In typical pedal to the metal driving I was getting 25-26mpg.

Today I had some time so I decided to try hypermiling. I inflated the tires to 38 psi (makes the car very bumpy due to its stiff springs), filled up the tank and went for a A-B-A trip of 74.1 miles. Trip included city driving (I tried shifting below 2200), stop and go traffic on the intercity for about half a mile, and then 55-60mph driving on the interstate. I would say total of 50/50 city/hwy drive. I came back and filled up the tank until if won't take any more fuel. It took 1.823 gallons to do 74.1 miles. That comes to 40.64 miles per gallon. I found this astonishing! My assumption is that the Vtech-E is the reason for such great gas mileage without any mods at all.

My car is in need of tires and I am thinking about picking up some LRR Michelins to help with the FE. Seems like Michelin Energy MX4 is the way to go.

I will continue to hypermile and see if I can manage to maintain the same FE.

Just for kicks here is a picture of the car.



GreenWar - towards a greener tomorrow.

[SVOboy]

Good old EP3 can turn out some decent numbers eh? It sounds like you've got a good handle on hypermiling, but have you seen our hypermiling tips yet?

Welcome to ecomodder!

[greenwar]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Good old EP3 can turn out some decent numbers eh? It sounds like you've got a good handle on hypermiling, but have you seen our hypermiling tips yet?

Welcome to ecomodder!

Yeah, I checked out the hypermiling tips. I tried using some of them today.

Ep3s have electric power steering so I bet that kind of helps. BTW, do you guys sell any window stickers? People tend to get offended if I am driving slow even if I am at the right most lane. Perhaps a window sticker will give them some idea why I am driving at 55 when speed limit is 60 or 70.

[SVOboy]

We do indeed have some clings: http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...-page-239.html

[greenwar]

Sweet. I will order one of those stickers asap.

[RH77]

Welcome to EM...

Nice ride. The Si is a great package. Functional, high-performance, efficient.

I miss my '99 Si Coupe (B16A2). Honestly, the best vehicle I've owned -- also black (NBP) and efficient if I kept it out of VTEC. Silly me -- traded it for an Evo. Not kidding -- big mistake.

Anything above 35 for a K20 is great. You have the perfect car on your hands: fun when you want -- efficient when you need it.

Enjoy the site and keep up excellent testing -- A-B-A, etc. Get that sticker ASAP! It improves FE by at least 5%

Best FE to ya...

RH77

[k-series]

Your car doesn't have "Vtec-E" it's regular i-Vtec but only on the intake cams, not the exhaust cams like the RSX-S (k20a2 motor).

It makes it more fuel efficient and a pig on the road because of it. (I had an '02)

I highly suggest lowering the car on the stock shocks with progressive springs. It's a modest drop and won't effect the OEM shocks much at all.

Welcome to the site from another new member.


Steve

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. Definitly check out the tips posted and look into a scangauge for more feedback from your car. If you can keep it out of open loop mode you should be able to hit over 40 without too much trouble.

[greenwar]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

RH77, I bet you loved driving that Evo, so don't regret it. As you will find out, EP3 Si wasn't really as performance oriented as the previous generation. Redline is only at 6750.

K-series, you are right. I read at honda-tech that K20A3 works like a Vtec-E, but its not a Vtec-E. There is no lean burn mode. I won't say its dog slow, but its not fast. I have a rwd honda that I will call fast.

Daox, Thanks for the tips. I will get the scangauge II for sure. It will be cool to monitor mpg while driving. What do you exactly mean by open loop? I will do some search to find out, but in case you feel like repeating yourself.

[Daox]

Open loop is when the engine stops using the oxygen sensor and (almost always) makes the engine run rich. Some engines can dump up to 25% more (possibly even more) fuel while in open loop. This negates pretty much any benefit you would have seen from accelerating properly. On modern OBDII engines you really only kick into open loop upon very agressive acceleration. On my Matrix I literally have to put the pedal to the floor to get it into open loop. If you just accelerate at about half throttle (still pretty brisk acceleration) and keep the rpms at about 2000-3000 (under vtec engagement I assume) you should be doing pretty good.