Hello from Maine
 

Hello, everyone. I have just come across this site today and I love it. I am always trying to get more MPGs out of my 1993 Honda Civic dx hatch. It has a b15 SOHC, with an automatic transmission. I am getting about 34MPG combined right now. I would love to hit the 40's. I am thinking of doing some lite aero moding, rear fender skirts and grill cover. I am also trying to change my driving habits to help increase the MPG's.

This morning I have inflated my tires to 40PSI when cold. They were at 29PSI before today. I am now putting the car in neutral down every hill and coasting for as long as I can, in a safe manner that is. I have also started to do the slight roll through stop signs in the rural areas near my home. I hope these little things will show in my results.

Welcome to ecomodder !

Inflating the tires and coasting is a good start.

Changing more driving habits will return even better MPGs.
Driving slower but keeping the momentum (that is, avoiding braking and stopping as much as safely possible) will mean your travel times hardly suffer from the lower speed.

Read through the 100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com and 65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy - EcoModder.com , and try to adopt as much as you see reasonably possible / safe.

After a while of practicing some of these tips, they become a new habit, so I revisit the list every now and then to pick up more tricks.

Thanks I will check them out tonight after work. This weekend I may start creating grill blockers.

I have taken a look at the 100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com and 65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy - EcoModder.com. Very cool stuff in here. Some of the mods are very creative seem like they work well. I really likes the driving tips page. I know I will be using some of them in the near future. I will be taking a small road trip this weekend for a friends wedding and My first mod will be the grill blocker. It will be a 200 mile round trip at mostly 55mph speeds. Hopefully I will see some results, of my new driving style and small mod.

SO I have completed my first mod, The grill blockers. I have made mine from cardboard duct tape and some black spray paint. Cost $0.
grillblocker.jpg picture by afahey - Photobucket
The road trip has now been pumped up to 400 miles in two days. That means with this one tank of gas I should see some results. I am hoping to do the whole round trip on one tank. We will see what happens.

So the road trip is over and as far as mileage goes I beat my goal of 40mpg, and got 41.1mpg. But there was an issue around mile 246. The engine started to over heat. My temp gauge was at 3/4 hot. I was cruising at 60mph when this happened. I turned on the heater to max but it was way to hot to ride around like that. I had to pull the grill blockers. As soon as I pulled the grill blockers the temp dropped back down to its normal level of 1/4 on the temp gauge. Chippy was fine the rest of the trip. The outside temperature was 70f with no humidity when my temp gauge spiked. Has this happened to any one ells who has used grill blockers?
As far as drive techniques go I coasted down every hill in neutral and I drove bare foot using my big to to press the accelerator. I think the big toe really helped me feel the accelerator better then when I was wearing the shoes.
Over all experience was 50/50, yeah I beat my target mpg, but at the cost of over heating my engine may not be worth it. For now the grill blockers are staying off.