2006 Honda Insight MT Build Thread

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Also, I will not be recording fuel economy for my car unless I happen to take a longer trip. Most of my trips are quite short, i.e. 4 miles or less, and I can't really hypermile around campus. My MPG is, of course, bad. To put it into perspective, since arriving at college I have traveled 0.9 miles and averaged 31.6 MPG.

EDIT: Also! After only ~2.5k miles I brought the lifetime average up from 62.5 MPG to 62.7 MPG!! Car has 257,100 or 257,200 miles on it now.

Most of my driving anymore is this short stop and go around town stuff. I have never skipped a tank in the years I've owned this car.

Nice economy on your trip, especially considering the weather!

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Most of my driving anymore is this short stop and go around town stuff. I have never skipped a tank in the years I've owned this car.

Nice economy on your trip, especially considering the weather!

We'll see...at this rate a tank will likely last me the whole semester.

Would've been 80 MPG if I had disabled the battery from the start of the trip.

I can just envision the extra space from the hybrid battery removal....have you setup your fake 100% SOC with your arduino yet?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

We'll see...at this rate a tank will likely last me the whole semester.

Would've been 80 MPG if I had disabled the battery from the start of the trip.

I can just envision the extra space from the hybrid battery removal....have you setup your fake 100% SOC with your arduino yet?

50% actually and I haven't bothered disabling auto-stop because it's been hovering between -5 and 20 degrees, no chance of accidental auto-stop in this weather.

The extra space is quite nice!

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Don't you get forced regen at 50%? I get visible regen at below 60% or 70% (I forget which) and of course that constant background charge unless it's 95% or higher.. What's the advantage of having it at 50% vs 100%? Yours is probably different than mine due to how yours doesn't force regen as soon as mine.

The IMA delete plus this summer's boattail (finger's crossed) will make the Insight cavernous!

The boattail - I had plans for one for the Civic but that never happened. We'll see if I actually get to it on the Insight.

[Ecky]

Mine basically left the battery alone unless it got below 3 bars. On the highway it would very slowly creep up sometimes (if above a certain speed I think) but that wasn't always the case and the creep was not with visible bars.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Mine basically left the battery alone unless it got below 3 bars. On the highway it would very slowly creep up sometimes (if above a certain speed I think) but that wasn't always the case and the creep was not with visible bars.

Maybe it's just part of the newer Gen 1 Insight's "improved" battery management system. Original (I think) battery at 13 years old but maybe this is why some say the newer Gen 1s get lower mileage than the older ones. Either way the IMA has been more of a pain than it's worth, and I don't even have an official IMA "issue" aka dummy light yet.

How hard would it be to swap in a 6 speed?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

How hard would it be to swap in a 6 speed?

Mmm tough to say. It *seems* most early L series engines share the same bolt pattern when connecting engine to transmission, so there's a lot of evidence you could take a Civic Hybrid or Fit transmission and attach it without issue, ***However*** the location and shape of the mount that attaches the transmission to the framerails of the car may vary from transmission to transmission. I want to say the 1st gen Civic Hybrid's was identical, but no promises on any of the others.

Off the top of my head, I believe the CR-Z, the 2015+ Fit and the 2016+ Civic (1.5 turbo trim) all had L series engines with 6-speed transmissions which have a good chance of bolting to the Insight's engine without modification.

There's also a matter of axles. I highly doubt the ~3000lb Civic is using the same axle splines as the 2500lb Fit so chances are good that an axle which would fit into the Civic's transmission on one side would not fit into your car's knuckles at the other side. You could maybe make a custom axle which has Insight splines on one side and the correct ones on the other for whatever transmission you're selecting (assuming they're actually different). I believe the 1st gen Civic Hybrid's transmission does in fact take Insight axles so it's a perfect drop-in, but it's a 5 speed. The Fit, Civic and CR-Z, unknown but I'd give the CR-Z's benefit of the doubt.

In my car I'm actually using the knuckles (what the axle fits into at the wheels) from a 2002-2005 Civic Si to work around this problem. They fit K series axle splines but also have 4 wheel lugs and will fit the Insight's rims. So I'm just going to be using off-the-shelf axles for a Civic in my car.

This might be a project to take to IC, lots of good minds there.

[Ecky]

What was your target speed for your trip down to WV?

Today I drove down from Burlington to Boston. Target speed was 55mph, even though I get better economy at 48-50 - I was getting paid time and a half for the drive with 50 cents per mile reimbursement (~170 miles each way), so I didn't want to milk it THAT much. When I got up this morning it was -6 outside, closer to +6 when I left my apartment. I topped my tires off at ~47 PSI.

I got my average up to ~58mpg by the time I passed the NH border going south. When I crossed the MA border it became rolling hills instead of mountains and I reset one of my FCD trips to see how much better I was doing. The last ~30 miles through MA with zero net elevation change and cruise control set to 55 I averaged ~82mpg. I likely could have added 5+ mpg to that if I had my kill switch installed, but that's out until after the engine change. Total trip was around 71mpg. I haven't had fuel economy that high in Vermont since maybe September.

[19bonestock88]

Why do you want a six speed? I mean you can look and see if the Fit was ever offered with a six speed, but the final drive is gonna be short...

Of course you could swap in a K20 and six speed, still get decent mileage(for a 12-13 sec car)

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

Why do you want a six speed? I mean you can look and see if the Fit was ever offered with a six speed, but the final drive is gonna be short...

Of course you could swap in a K20 and six speed, still get decent mileage(for a 12-13 sec car)

CR-Z, 2015+ Fit and 2016+ Civic turbo have 6 speeds that may bolt up, in descending chance.

Biggest hurdle is final drive IMO, none of these cars have particularly tall gearing when paired with the Insight's tiny wheels. A custom final drive may be available but will likely exceed the cost of the transmission - mine did.