help ecomodding a saturn ion

[Weather Spotter]

From 50 MPH I can coast 1 full mile and still be at 15 MPH when I apply the brakes for the stop sign. Without aero mods it was only .6 or .7 of a mile.

any picts of what you did to the under side of the car?

[2007 ion2]

I will post pics, but not yet. I still have duck tape on one part that I cannot figure out how to suspend without drilling into my car. I'm thinking about just switching types of tape to "speed tape" used on aircraft. as long as it will cling to the plastic, I will be good, but duck tape is too temporary.

[Weather Spotter]

Put up some picts and we can help with ideas

[2007 ion2]

here are the pics, I tried to fill every bit I could with one piece, but I will need to come in with at least one more piece in the rear. the upper grill block is still in mock up form here, but you get the point.

[wyatt]

It looks like your car was a partial "bottom breather". It pulled a lot of it's cooling air in from underneath. That's what the "air dam" was for, not keeping air from going under the car, but for redirecting air up into the radiator. If you have closed off that opening, and still aren't overheating, I would look into taking out the "air dam" and extend the smooth under paneling further back. For an air dam to be most effective, it should be at the very front of the car, where it is now, it isn't changing the stagnation point in front of the car, it's just getting air to pass over your engine compartment, which could be done with smooth paneling more effectively.

[Otto]

At the rear, maybe lower the leading edge of the Coroplast and attach it flush with the bottom or the cross-member with all the holes in it? Put zip ties through those holes?

Around the muffler, use aluminum window screen to smooth the air flow, yet still let the muffler heat out and "breathe?" That way, muffler does not over-heat the space around it.

At the front, make a curved air dam out of that lawn edging stuff, which the tucks into the lower trailing edge of the bumper cover? Maybe this would shed some of the stagnant air more gently to the sides.

[Wrench]

@ Otto: That crossmember with all the holes in it is the rear axle. Saturn ditched the nice (expensive) independent rear suspension for a crappy (cheap) solid axle design when they dropped the SL cars and went to the ION. I don't see a very good way to attach a pan to a live axle.

To the OP: I've been looking into aero-modding my 2004 ION, aiming for 40 MPG highway (best tank 35.5 MPG, 72 MPH cruise, stupid 10% ethanol Minnesota gas).

From my quick and dirty testing as well as the road grime buildup on the car I think the biggest gains are to be had in the rear. As my tuft-testing (somewhat) shows there is a significant stagnant area on the rear window that can be easily seen every time it rains or snows (droplets sit motionless in the middle of the rear window and snow will actually swirl around the center of the rear window at 70 MPH for many miles.

As I'm sure you've noticed, the trunks of these cars gets TONS of road grime and tar stuck to them which made me think the car is dragging a huge wake. The wake theory was proved (to me anyway) the time I had an 18" boat-tail mod on the car (snow buildup hanging off the vertical part of the trunk) from driving 5 hours in a blizzard... I had to remove it so I could open the trunk, but it would have melted in a couple days anyway.

I intend to tidy-up the rear bumper area similarly to how you did it as well as experiment with vortex generators at the back of the roof/top of the rear window. Maybe an upper grille block thrown in for good measure.

-Wrench

(Guess I can't add attachments, probably because it's my first post. I'll come back and add them when I'm allowed to.)

[Ecobalt]

Originally Posted by Wrench

@ Otto: That crossmember with all the holes in it is the rear axle. Saturn ditched the nice (expensive) independent rear suspension for a crappy (cheap) solid axle design when they dropped the SL cars and went to the ION.

The Ion had a "twist beam axle", not a "solid axle". Welcome to our forum.
Saturn Ion First Drive

[Wrench]

Semantics... solid axle, twist beam, they're both crap and they're not nearly as good as a true independent suspension.

[camopaint0707]

Originally Posted by Ecobalt

What transmission?

He has the F23 transmission rated to 170 tq if he has a manual trans.