gtOmologato's mild-mannered build thread
 

This is how mild-mannered started life (with me). Custom LRR tires included at no extra charge!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1503107041

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...2&d=1503107117

I started out getting all maintenance items caught up and added some 175/65-15's instead of the 185/60-15's that were on it, they're not LRR, but they should do pretty good through the winter for me. I also cleaned up the headlights a bit (Sylvania's new UV coating is pretty awesome) and got most of the smell out of it.
This post should cover all of the boring maintenance mods, from now on it should just be boring eco mods!

Stock tire pressure got me 37.2 mpg.

Let the (mild-mannered) mods begin!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...3&d=1503107362

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...4&d=1503107407

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1503107425

Mods so far:
-Beaded seat cover. It's been in the mid 80's here lately.
-SG2, extra cable looped and zip-tied under the dash
-Tires went to 51psi tonight
-Passenger wiper came off tonight



I had the front end off once already (to clean up the headlights) and got a better idea of what I am looking at for grill blocks and mild-mannered under body aero. I'm a fan of the more hidden mods.

I have a lot of dew on my car in the morning, so the drivers side wiper will only come off for the drive home.


http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...6&d=1503108107

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...7&d=1503108130

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...8&d=1503108152

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...9&d=1503108168

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...0&d=1503108297

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1503108312

Very clean!

I'm all for pulling things off the back, but the passenger wiper probably won't do you much good.

Thanks Ecky, it's actually quite a bit cleaner in that pic than it is in person, I have never even washed it!

You have a point with the wiper delete, but it's on the list of 65+ mods, so I figured it has to have some merit.
With the automatic transmission and the mods I have planned I'll probably never see any significant gains.
But, as long as I'm not using it I might as well pull it off, it'll have to go right back on when it snows though!

Since the passenger wiper is out of the "critical visibility zone", deleting it might not endanger you too much. I have already seen many cars with passenger wiper delete in my home country, even though back here it's done more frequently due to lack of money to buy a replacement wiper blade than to any fuel-efficiency concern. But anyway, if I were going to make a single-blade wiper conversion, I'd most likely try to make it stand up while not in use like it's usually done in race vehicles to decrease the drag more effectively. Notice the wiper blade in this Brazilian stock-car, standing in the left side of the windscreen.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RHf7O-3Zqj...Imagem0816.jpg

Personally, I think that removing the passenger side wiper is dangerous (unless you use Rain-X or some such), as an unswept area of screen could prevent you seeing a kamikaze pedestrian about to step out in front of you. It is certainly illegal, here in the UK, where even a bad stone chip could lead to a test fail.
Parking the wipers vertically is a better idea, in my opinion.

I'dd rather adapt a single-wiper setup similar to the one used in the Fiat Uno or some Mercedes-Benz cars from the '80s thru '90s.

A few new European cars have single wipers for the entire screen. Mind you, they normally park below the bonnet line. Would a modified, raised bonnet rear edge, be an option for some vehicles. My Jazz bonnet is tiny and wouldn't require much raising to hide the parked wipers, possible even just a rubber strip!

I like that Peugeot! (and the wiper layout too)

My drive is very rural. In my month driving to my new job I have encountered very few pedestrians. (I know it just makes me less vigilant).

I polish all of my windshields with glass polish on a 6.5" polisher, then apply Rain-X.
I know it is a visibility compromise, but if I see diminishing returns the first time it rains I will put it back on, I keep it in the trunk. It's funny, I never thought to remove it until I saw the idea on this site :o

I know from my driving in California (Santa Rosa and the surrounding area), that pedestrians were like hen's teeth. Here in the UK, there are loads of pedestrians all seemingly hellbent on suicide.

If one is considering extending the bonnet teo concearns come to my mind,

1st, that is where the passanger compartment gets its air, it is a higher pressure zone (from what i read on ecomodder) and extending it you may create a venturi effect sucking air out of the cabin, or your cabin fan may need to work extra hard for ventilation.

2nd, the gap has been designed specially, in case your front latch fails and the bonnet pops up while driving, you can still see through the gap. If you block it then you could lose all sight of the road ahead. (In my years of driving this has happened to me once and i was able to see the road, stupidity on my part, but still should be taken in to account.)

Two very good points. I was thinking more of angling the skin of the bonnet rather than extending it (actually adding a false skin), so that the wipers can still be used. However, what effect that would have on the pressure at the base of the windscreen could only be guessed at.

Lund has made these for years. But you're still toast if you hood flies up :eek:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1503614046

More mild-mannered mods:
I removed the power steering belt, mileage was 39.65 this tank.
I'm working with a junkyard passenger mirror to see in I can come up with something more(?) aerodynamic. I'll put pics once its done.

My mom asked me if the slow speed/driving style was worth it, so I did a speed/driving style contrast analysis on the way home from work.

I used normal speeds/cruise control/AC...34mpg and I made it home a whole 5 minutes faster...over a 60 mile drive :( No more analyzing for me.


Oh yeah, hypermiling is now mom-approved :thumbup:

Very nice!

For me, I get 100mpg at 55mph, and 65mpg at 75mph... and it often doesn't save much time.

Have you seen the mirror camera replacement mod I have in my build thread? Can't get much more aero than that, and it was inexpensive.

Have you ever considered those mirrors with their own aerodynamic fairing used in some supersport motorcycles?

I wish my hood (and the rest of the car) had paint like yours!

I will keep my lean burn and manual, though.

I have bought two beaded seat covers and I always put them with the narrow part hanging over the back. I never realized I could sit on beads, too! :D

Good luck! :)

Hey, you stole my car!

I wish mine had the tachometer in the dash, but I have the lowlier DX to your LX.

I wipe off morning dew with widow washers' thingly blade. Usually one wipe is the end of it, but sometimes there is enough in the air to re-gather, and that is a little bit of a PITA.

My newest grill block is in my build thread (linked in my signature). Maybe it will be of some use. It is a bit of a radical block, TBH.

Subscribed.

Remember those "monster" tachometers that were very popular among the ricers in a recent past? :D

The supersport mirrors sound like a great idea, wish I'd have thought of that earlier!

Xist - The clear coat is burned through in a few places...and it is rusted over the rear tires, but if you ever want to trade for that manual and lean burn, you just let me know :D and the beaded seat cover isn't bad to sit on at all, I thought it might be uncomfy, but it's about the same as sitting on the seat.

Cali - Somewhere in the middle of stealing your your car an automatic transmission climbed up into it :mad:
Let me know what works for your schedule and I'll bring it by for a 5sp swap :thumbup:
I could get by with a SG, but the dash tach is nice to have, even with the auto.
I have been using an extra wiper blade to squeegee my windows off in the morning, but it is still dark when I leave, so they almost always fog up again.
Yep, your grill is almost exactly what I have been looking for, I might try to copy it this weekend...with a few tweaks...because I can't leave well enough alone...

Diaper mod
 

I started my belly pan...sort of. Until I get the time and motivation to install the axle seal I bought, this piece of coroplast with shop rags zip-tied to it will let me park without making an ATF mess in the driveway. I'm pretty sure I'm far enough away from the exhaust, but being new to coroplast, I threw a fire extinguisher in the trunk for good measure :rolleyes:

Tomorrow will be the first day for the block heater on a timer. I'm starting with 1 hour and I'll see how it goes.

Block heater has been giving me between 85-110F, I think I'll increase the on-time until I see diminishing returns.

I finally built my upper grill block last night. I started with a cardboard template and cut it down until it was (almost) exact. Then I transfered my template to .060 ABS. I had to shave off some plastic locating tabs from the chrome trim ring so it would sit (almost) flush. Then I just sandwiched it in between the trim ring and grill, using the original hardware. The Honda decal is not affixed yet. I was going to silicone it on (so it would be removable if needed) but the backside is more concave than I had anticipated, so I will probably use double-sided tape instead.

I know that it would have been more aerodynamic if it was in front of the trim ring, but for me, it was worth the slight aerodynamic compromise for the cleaner look.

Lower Grill Block
 

So I built a partial lower grill block. It isn't perfect, but it looks ok and it should be effective? Pre-blocks, my IAT has been ~10F over ambient and coolant has been~181F.

I started my lower block with a cardboard template. If you ever do this, get a contour gauge, I did not have one :(. I refined the shape until I was out of patience. I marked where my tabs should be and transferred my template to .060 ABS and cut it out (I flipped it over and cut one out for the other side too). Then I used a heat gun to bend the tabs over and massage them into shape. I had a tough time getting the holes drilled. I had to drill through the bottom of the bumper cover to put the holes where I needed them. Then I secured everything with Zip-Ties (they deserve to be capitalized :thumbup:). It does not form a perfect seal, but if the bumper ever gets ripped off of the car...they will still be on there!

I will watch my temps and report back, I am guessing that the opening will be sufficient to keep the fans from kicking on. If not, I will cut a small rectangular hole on the passenger side.

Here's the rate at which my block heater works:

http://i.imgur.com/NqAQkqK.png

And here are pictures of it all done.
It does look a little buck-toothed, maybe I'll build a center section a perforate it...

Thanks Ecky, it looks like an more than an hour will be beneficial.

I ran some errands this evening and things got a little warm.

At 55mph and 65F, IAT was 87F, which I liked. But coolant temp slowly climbed to 204F before I turned the heat on. I haven't decided whether to tear the front bumper back off or drill some holes, right now I'm leaning towards drilling holes and cleaning it up later. 204F is probably doable, but it is supposed to be in the 80's this week.

Nice looking work.

Unless it's faulty, I'd let your cooling fan keep temps under control. The only time my cooling fan turns on is when I come to a stop/crawl after driving for a while.

I ended up puling off the passenger side block. My intake temps were up 30F over ambient and my coolant was back to 181F. 37mpg to work, 41mpg on the way home, good numbers, but too soon to tell.

Oh, and warmup (from 110F) took about .75 instead of the usual 1.5 miles.

Stubby79, I didn't mean to sidestep your comment. I'm ok with running over 181F, but 200+ while cruising is a little warmer than I am comfortable with. I'll have to keep playing with it until I get it just right. I think if I block all the air going around the radiator, so more goes through it, I might be able to put the passenger block back on and keep the coolant under 200.

I believe it was BamZipPow, but the pictures on his thread are down. Someone made a channel like I think you are talking about. It just seals the gaps between the front of the car and the radiator so that no air escapes around it.

Also if you haven't seen it already:
File:KorffIntakeDuct.jpg - EcoModder

BTW you should consider adding yourself to the ecomodder user map if you haven't already. https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=1047848

Good luck

Thanks for the pic M a t t.
That's really close to what I was thinking (maybe a little fancier than what I had in mind..back to the drawing board!). We aren't too far apart. We were just down at Johnny Carino's in Muncie last weekend!

I'll have to get myself of the map.

I installed a warm air intake. Intake temps went from ~10F over ambient to ~60F over ambient. Mileage went from high 20's to mid 30's.