2006 Aveo build

[06Aveo43061]

@freebeard: Well the side skirts is only the start of the aero mods. Figure I'd tackle them first since it seemed the easiest to modify. I'm planning on doing a whole aero package for the Aveo. Front air dam, skirts, rear wheel skirts, belly pan, and a rear diffuser. I'm also making all my mods easy removable in case of poor driving performance or lack of safety. Depending on the performance, I can always modify to less aero (like spats over skirts) if I feel it's necessary. I'm actually tossing around the idea of doing door handle spats. One, it catches air on the side of the car, and two, my door handles let water in my door. Kinda killing two birds with one stone.

Also as far as my car lasting 200,000 miles because I dropped so much weight.... Well that's not exactly the case. I didn't remove my interior till this spring or do any other modifications till then. I drove about 190k on a bone stock Aveo. No modifications.

Thanks for the informative reply.

[19bonestock88]

Originally Posted by 06Aveo43061

My mechanic has a program on his shop computer that allows you to go into the stock settings and adjust for modifications like an exhaust/air intake/ignition change. That's about all I know, as I don't physically do any of the heavy lifting with my car. Basically, more oxygen means less gas to fire. He only slightly modified the original settings. Only change I noticed is a slightly rougher idle in drive quality, lower idle RPM (from 1000 rpm stock, down to around 600 rpm after the mod)

Going to do these side skirts first, then tackle the front end. There's so many spots in the front end to catch air on the Daewoo. This will include the pass. mirror delete, pass wiper delete, antenna delete, as well as the grill block when I do the front air dam. Going to go low as possible with flexible ends on my dam so when I don't make clearance the dam bends slightly, yet stays rigid enough for the aero benefit.

For the wheel skirts, I'm tossing around the idea to get them professionally done, and if I do I'm going to inquire about getting a pan done, as well as the rear aero. I have no idea what's the best method for the underbody rear end.

Thanks for the interest and reply

On the contrary, I'd start with the nose first... If the engine crossmember hangs below your bumper cover, or something like that, then bigger gains are to be had by doing the air dam, and grille blocks... Best I can suggest is to use paper and pencil, rub carbon on the paper to get the outline of your upper grille, and measure your lower grille(it's rectagonal, right?), and then cut these out of coroplast($15-25 for a 4x8 sheet, check sign shops), and tape em on at first... This allows easy removal in case of overheat... You then make openings in them to bring the engine temperature down to near normal(mine runs 5-10F warmer)... Of course, monitor these using an UltraGauge or the like...

For the wheel skirts, read MetroMPG's write-up, and possibly my thread in the Aero section... I spent around an hour making my clips and reinforcement bar, about fifteen minutes epoxying the clips to my fender lip, and then around a day making the skirts themselves(again coroplast is your friend, or maybe plexiglass)... I made the mistake of not mapping the curve beforehand, so it took forever, and mine came out less than professional...

[06Aveo43061]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

For the wheel skirts, read MetroMPG's write-up, and possibly my thread in the Aero section... I spent around an hour making my clips and reinforcement bar, about fifteen minutes epoxying the clips to my fender lip, and then around a day making the skirts themselves(again coroplast is your friend, or maybe plexiglass)... I made the mistake of not mapping the curve beforehand, so it took forever, and mine came out less than professional...

I've seen his thread. I honestly don't know if the wheel skirts are possibility with my current wheels. They're 1 1/4" wider than my factory wheels (I get bad winters, was originally for more tire on the road during our bad winters). So if I still have these wheels, I'm probably only going to do spats in the rear. At the minimum with these wheels, I'm going to attempt to close out the excessive fender gaps. With the new suspension and weight reduction done at the same time, it left my car looking like a monster truck. If I do the full skirts, they'll have to bubble out quite a bit as the tires extend beyond the side of the car by about an inch.

[19bonestock88]

My skirts bubble out by about 35mm at the bottom, due to tire stickout... I'm currently running a size wider tire than stock due to availability...

[06Aveo43061]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

My skirts bubble out by about 35mm at the bottom, due to tire stickout... I'm currently running a size wider tire than stock due to availability...

I'm going to have to look at it. I know the rear wheel skirts and rear end is the last thing I'm going to tackle. I want to get my fabrication skills up to pair before I tackle something like that. It's why I'm starting with the front and side first. Seemed easier.

[freebeard]

I failed to respond to this:

I have no idea what's the best method for the underbody rear end.

Here are two example from different fields of inquiry. From the race cars, a Lotus:



It accepts air that has been mangled (in the sense of rolled flat) by the bellypan and combs it into a non-turbulent wake. This is sorted out pragmatically on racetracks in the real world where fabrication is an issue. Then you have the quackademics with their wind tunnels chasing a theoretical optimum. Here's a whole thread on the Morelli fluid tail by aerohead. http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ail-33283.html

For almost a decade now I've been using the expression 'phantom tail' to describe a degree of boat tail truncation which would not affect the drag coefficient.

aerohead's active in Aerodynamics, but I don't know if he ever visits Ecomodding Central. ...and he's a little busy right now.



No fender skirts and diffuser here. The wheels are turbines that suck air into a duct that squirts it into the problematic lower corners of the ring-shaped air flow.

So there's more than one way to skin a furry mammal.

I got some commercial fiberglass fenders skirts, but they won't fit my car because the axle end impacts the skirts latching mechanism. Probably it needs a picture, but the modification I came up with (I will implement if I find them again. They're most likely here somewhere) is a tube bent to fit the contour across the bottom of the wheelwell with flattened ends. There would be brackets fore and aft with a notched, semi-circular hole. The skirt is offered up at 45° so the flattened ends slip in, but when the skirt rotates upright, they are locked in. Then a Dzeus fastener or camlock of some kind (or two) at the top to pin it there.

Coroplast harvest is [election] seasonal; coming up again in November.

Edit: Note especially the last post in the Fluid Tail thread, which is all Ecomodder member's boat tails which have the ring shape but are longer than necessary (according to Morelli )

[06Aveo43061]

Freebeard, thanks for the info, you really know your stuff. I'm definitely in need to do some serious research and learning on all of this eco mod stuff. Feel a little over my head.

[freebeard]

Just trying to help. Seek a diversity of opinion.

[06Aveo43061]

Got pulled over today on my way back to my apartment. Guess a person called in the impaired driver number and reported me. Highway Patrol clocked me at 47mph and then when I passed him I was in a pulse, he clocked me at 65mph (in a 70 mph zone). Only in America would people be against others trying to save on natural resources. Didn't get a ticket but the Patrol told me to "keep up with the traffic". There was hardly any traffic and the minimum speed is 45mph.

Besides that, I hit 392 miles on my last tank when my fuel light popped on. Filled up with 9.8 gallons, approx. 40 miles per gallon. Made a few mistakes for about 200 miles on my pulse and glide, thinking this next tank (taking a new morning route monday to work) I'll be well within 40mpg plus with using P&G.

[freebeard]

In case you were wondering, I discussed two differing approaches to side skirts and two differing approaches to the back end to show that there are differing opinions as to what works. A-B-A testing is the answer.

I find P&G works best in rolling hills, pulse up and glide down. My favorite hypermiling technique is to slow down early for traffic lights so I can hit them green doing the speed limit past the car in the other lane that sped past me into the red light.