2000 Insight - TLC and ecomodding build

[Daox]

Looks a lot better. I have to do that on my civic too, its extremely yellowed worse than I've ever seen. However, I have rehabbed a few lights before. Usually a few months later they're back to hazy. I've heard that you need to spray them with a UV resistant clear coating to make it last. I haven't tried this quite yet though.

[Ecky]

Did a bit of reading, going to pick up some spar urethane and mineral spirits to seal them with, and get my father (a painter) to apply it for me over the weekend when I visit.

[HyperMileQC]

Originally Posted by Ecky

@HyperMileQC, are you able to get away with a 100% lower grille block in the summer? What's the weather like?

I have a 100% lower grille block and 0% upper grille block so I don't have to remove even in the summer. Hottest temp around here is ~85-90 °F. I even have my fire blanket. I remove it when I go in the mountains. But in city its fine with all the P&G I do. I monitor the °FWT on the SGII and it never exceeded 212 °F even with 90 °F outside. The fan does a really good job of cooling the engine.

The more the engine is hot the more efficient it is to cool. So it takes less time to lower more degrees. But sometimes in the mountains I have to evacuate excess heat with the HVAC.

I think the ideal setup is one like MetroMPG did on his Insight, 100% upper and ~85% lower. He even made it "stop-light" adjustable so it was even better.

EDIT : Nice avatar touch-up.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Did a bit of reading, going to pick up some spar urethane and mineral spirits to seal them with, and get my father (a painter) to apply it for me over the weekend when I visit.

Let me know how it works out. I'll post up what I use in my build thread too. The Sunfire could also use this treatment.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by HyperMileQC

The more the engine is hot the more efficient it is to cool. So it takes less time to lower more degrees. But sometimes in the mountains I have to evacuate excess heat with the HVAC.

I've never had a problem with overheating on the flat, but even without a grill block, I can see over 212F climbing a long, steep grade. Of course you are not likely to run into this east of Colorado :-)

[Ecky]

Pulled the EGR valve and plate off. The valve looked alright, but I cleaned it and then soaked it for about 5 hours in some WD-40. The plate, on the other hand...

Before:


After:


Everything back together:



It was surprisingly easy to to get to all of this stuff. The EGR valve sits in front of the motor and just requires you take off the plastic shield. Two easy-to-get-to bolts hold it on. The intake manifold is held on by three bolts and two knuts, which required whatever you call those ratchet extensions that allow you to go around corners. Cleaning the plate aside, I could've done the whole thing in half an hour.

[Ecky]

Went at the headlights today too. Sanded the driver side with 800, 1200, 1500 and 2000 and then buffed it. Decided the passenger side only needed a bit of sanding with 2000 (enough to get the old yellowed coating off). Sanding marks were still visible after extended buffing, though it looked great from a distance. Got some spar urethane and mineral spirits from Home Depot, mixed them 50-50 and brushed them onto the headlights, and it looked fantastic... until it dried.




Oops! Bought semi-gloss instead of clear gloss. Maybe it'll buff out clear? Worst-case, I'll peel it off and get the right stuff.

[Ecky]

Buffed out acceptably. Undecided as to whether or not to sand it down and try again. I think had I applied it thinner, even semi-gloss would have been fine for this application.


After having put a few miles on, I'm impressed with how well the computers and shift indicators do at keeping the engine in optimum load. My bluetooth OBD scanner reports that I'm almost always driving with 70-85% load between 1500 and 2500RPM, which is right in the BSFC sweet-spot for this engine. 5th gear cruises comfortably at 2000-2500RPM on the highway, depending on speed (55-70). Going up and down hills, the computer applies either assist or a light charging load to keep the engine above ~65%. Assist comes on to help acceleration before the throttle plate up opens all the way (so far as I can tell). If the load gets too light or the battery is close to full, lean burn comes on and it jumps back up.

I have to wonder, had the Del Sol been geared this way, how well could I have done? It feels like this little 3 cylinder is geared like a V8.

EDIT: I'm coming to enjoy the gobs of torque the electric assist adds down low, this seems like a much better option than a turbo. Even at 1000RPM, I can accelerate fine. 0-60 is in the range of 10.5 seconds even with this gearing.

[California98Civic]

Looks awesome. I did this last year, and it seemed like I had new headlamps. After years of driving with the cloudy-uglies on the front end... sparkle!

Looks good.

[Ecky]

It seems that in the morning, my HV battery drops pretty quickly within the first few minutes of driving, and I'm suspicious of the 12v losing charge overnight and leaning on the DC-DC converter in the mornings. It's possible I may have some kind of small parasitic drain. Or it might be my imagination. Tested the voltage and it was about 12.8v which seems good for a 12v resting.

Since it's Honda branded, maybe I should take it into the dealer for testing? Will the warranty on the 12v battery carry over if I'm not the original owner?