Aerocivic - how to drop your Cd from 0.31 to 0.17

[groar]

Originally Posted by basjoos

Refilled for the first time since installing the B15Z1 (VX lean burn) engine in my car and got 81.2 MPG over 438 miles of mostly interstate driving with a fair amount of driving on wet roads.

Congrats for your best MPG since a year

Hope some car constructors will follow your example. I agree with you that on highway a better engine management and a better aerodynamic are better than a full hybrid system. A mild hybrid (engine stop&start) permitting EOC on highway could be wonderful

Denis.

[MetroMPG]

81.2 is fantastic - congrats Mike.

EDIT: I'm curious if the SuperMID tells you your average speed for the tank.

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

81.2 is fantastic - congrats Mike.

EDIT: I'm curious if the SuperMID tells you your average speed for the tank.

I recall it doing so.

[Christ]

Basjoos - I'm a stickler for this... and I'm not trying to be offensive, but I have to point out something:

Your engine is a D15Z1, not a B15Z1.

The smallest available B series engine is a 1.6 liter, and it's a DOHC model that came in Civics and DelSols mostly in other markets.

You may now return to your originally scheduled programming.

[greasemonkee]

Good job Mike! I'll sleep better now.

Don't let that vtec solenoid get cob webs in it


Actually, his engine is a D15B.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by greasemonkee

Good job Mike! I'll sleep better now.

Don't let that vtec solenoid get cob webs in it


Actually, his engine is a D15B.

Not if it came from a VX... D15B is an import engine, was never available as standard equipment in the states.

[rkcarguy]

Triple digit MPG's..that's what I'm talking about.
First tank was nearly 10mpg over your other averages..for the most part.
So can I push you a little further to try water injection on that thing? Crap..that may involve ecu tuning for it to work right though if your using the standard VX ecu....
Kudo's to you though. I get notified when this thread updates was happy to see the results with the new engine.

[JimIsbell]

Originally Posted by basjoos

If the car has the correct shape, you don't need a hybrid system to get good mileage on the highway. I think even an Insight-I would be hard pressed to match my highway mileage at normal highway speeds now and its a much smaller car.

Yes the Insight is a smaller car, but are you running an Air Conditioner also? I have averaged 85 mpg with the air conditioner, over an entire tank of 10 gallons of fuel (850 miles) , on a REAL trip from Corpus Christi Texas to Algona Iowa and that included stops for meals and one overnight stop and citys, etc. AND that also included a passenger and two weeks of luggage.

On a short trip of 54 miles I have gotten 118 MPG without the AC and no passenger or luggage.

Are you getting that mileage with a full load on real road conditions including hills and dales and citys and traffic etc.?

I would try to mod the Insight similar to what you have done, except that it would have to be prettier. Yours is pretty in an engineering sense which satisfies me but my wife wouldn't be seen dead in it. Does your wife ride in it...#8-)

[basjoos]

Yes, I do run the air conditioner at times. After all, this is South Carolina in the summer. The reported mileage was gotten in the course of driving my usual routes with a mix of trips ranging from 15 miles to 100 miles in length, city driving in Greenwood and Greenville, SC and in Hendersonville and Weaverville, NC. Up and down US 25 from Greenwood, SC into the mountains of NC on I-26 driving at the posted speed limits ranging from 35mph in town to 70mph on the rural highways. The altitude ranges from 450 feet elevation in Greenwood to 2200 feet in the NC mountains.

So to answer your question, yes I am getting that mileage hauling a significant load ( myself, 3 dogs, and miscellaneous cargo) on real road conditions including hills and dales and citys and traffic. If I wanted to, I could knock out 100+mpg trips if I strictly confined myself to flat rural roads with no traffic on them where I could stay in lean burn all of the time. But when I run into town with traffic, lights, stops, etc. the mileage comes down.

My wife rides in it and wishes I would install more aero mods on her Honda Odyssey (for which I have done a grill block and underpaneling). I don't care about "pretty". "Pretty" gets stolen more often

[Christ]

Does the aero-civic have any opportunities for a few hundred lbs of weight reduction? That would probably help to put you in a better zone for keeping it in lean burn even more often.

As far as the Insight v. AeroCivic debate, it's pointless... you can't find even a gen1 Insight for the price of the parts, and chassis, involved in the AeroCivic, without getting a salvage certificate and a parts car.

Even if the Insight does get a couple more MPGs, you're not really pushing any envelopes, because at the MPG you guys are getting, 1 or 2 more is not a very significant number, other than being significant in how hard it is to obtain a number any higher than your average. The problem is that the cost/benefit ratio lands squarely in AeroCivic's land, except (maybe) the "pretty" factor, in some people's eyes.