HI to everyone
 

Hi I am building another car and need to play with this one too. I bought a 1992 Honda Civic with 110000,non smoker, and in really good shape. I want to see what kind of mpgs I can get. Its a d15b7 with a dx 5 speed. What should I expect ? I know I have to change how I drive at least in this car. thanks

I'd look your car up at fueleconomy.gov and go by the OLD, ORIGINAL mpg rating for highway. The last gen ratings weren't as "dumbed down" as the current ones, and I've found them easy to match or slightly exceed simply by driving sensibly.

high 30s on the freeway without even trying. moderate effort and light mods should get you close to 50. i have the 1998 DX and with much effort and quite a few mods i average 60+ tank to tank.

Thanks Frank you were right I changed driving habits and am getting much better mpg. cal98 I've been watching your threads for ideas. I just replaced all tune up stuff, I have the little 13 in wheels. This civic I got is a ecomodders dream,manual everything no ac,dx trans ,it also didn't come with a passenger side mirror. Never modded,dealership maintained. I am talking to pherable.net to tune a ecu for mpg. I also have a Det local tuner that will custom tune if I want (500 not likely) What do you think?

Pherable.net
 

The pherable.net product you refer to I am guessing is the Powerbox, and I think you'll find lots of people here recommending caution. Their claims sound moderate and the approach is clever marketing (other ECU tunes are very expensive because they offer so much more than we really need). But the one-size-fits-all approach has dangers. They tested on a 2006 Equinox, which will have a variety of features a 1992 Civic DX will not have, such as a knock sensor, for example. If you are talking with them, email them and ask about what sensors their box reads/requires.... wide-band O2? Our Civics don't have them, but I would not be surprised if a 2006 Equinox did.

Not sure what a Det local tuner is... what's that? Detroit?

EDIT: went searching for you on this site for commentary on the "powerbox" and found this highly negative review: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post183981

Here is there website Phearable.net - Electronic Fuel Injection Tuning Solutions - Hondata, Neptune, Crome, Uberdata, Ectune, AEM, Honda Tuning, Widebands, Fuel Pumps, Intercoolers, Turbos, LS/VTEC, ECU Chipping, Chipped Ecus, P28 and they have you send in your ecu and they "tune" it with your info. I had another turbo Honda and they did my ecu for that and that car got 32mpg(when you were being frugal). I found my experience with them to be good but that was for performance. Thank you for pulling up those ecu tables by the way. Do you skip shifts? Like 2nd to 5th or so or do you go thru the gears?

Ah! That's completely different. Theyll set up an FE tune for your OBD1 ecu? I do sometimes skip 4th, but only under certain conditions wheee the jump from 2200 in 3rd at cloae to 40 mph will allow an ultra low rpm (around 1200) 27-31% load cruise where I can turn on the alternator to generate some power in a depleted battery while still getting 80-100 mpg or when trying to wam up the engine in the morning.

Hey cal civic sorry I haven't replied in so long, phearible won't tune it, so poo on them. I have been skipping shifts and just bump and kiss with the clutch with eoc and pulse and glide I have noticed about 8 mpg improvement. Its been so cold here in Michigan I have to block the rad and then let it run for 10 min before it gets warm. So I know thats not helping either.

See, now that's your problem. You have to let it run at least an hour first.

Bummer. But, you would be better off warming it by driving it very easy, light throttle (no high load acceleration) and coasting it with the engine on in neutral until the temp needle starts to move, which in my Civic is at about 125 degrees (according to the UltraGauge). That way your warming-up time is also travel time.