Honda Insight w/Acura TSX engine - Ecomodding

[Ecky]

Coming along...

[Stacygifford]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Coming along...]

already looks better than mine lol
excuse the filth. I regularly use this thing to haul parts including the k24a2 lol


I would like to fund a way to mount the table from the back of the crvs as a sort of false floor.

[redpoint5]

You guys are insane. I took the rice cooker apart last night to replace the dead battery, but found it soldered to the main board. It will probably remain in pieces until I finally get around to replacing the coin battery to a dual AA holder.

My point is, my big electrical project is replacing a battery in a rice cooker, and you guys are swapping engines, tuning, and rewiring everything. Very impressive.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You guys are insane. I took the rice cooker apart last night to replace the dead battery, but found it soldered to the main board. It will probably remain in pieces until I finally get around to replacing the coin battery to a dual AA holder.

My point is, my big electrical project is replacing a battery in a rice cooker, and you guys are swapping engines, tuning, and rewiring everything. Very impressive.

I've come to find that while a big project like this feels horribly intimidating in my mind, I just need to get out my angle grinder or wire cutters and start cutting, and the rest follows. The fear of doing is far worse than the doing.

[Stacygifford]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My point is, my big electrical project is replacing a battery in a rice cooker, and you guys are swapping engines, tuning, and rewiring everything. Very impressive.

Originally Posted by Ecky

I've come to find that while a big project like this feels horribly intimidating in my mind, I just need to get out my angle grinder or wire cutters and start cutting, and the rest follows. The fear of doing is far worse than the doing.

Oh, no doubt. I've worked on a ton of projects (electrical and mechanical) but nothing of this magnitude. I started my swap because I knew I couldn't afford the $6k to actually fix the cars hybrid problems. However, there was no way I was giveing up one of my dream cars just because it had a failure. No matter how long it took to "fix"

After pulling the engine I had a little while of "oh ,S#!* this is going to be a disaster"

However, just take it as 1000 small projects. One wire, one bolt, one part, one harness one bracket at a time. Given slow steady consistant work, youd be amazed what you are capable of.

Mine took 8 months in a 10'x15' storage unit without power.

But I have a solar panel, battery, back up car and power inverter !

[MakitaDiesel]

Enjoying this thread because of the exclusive details that Ecky consistently provides. How much this or that weighs, the transmission to RPM charts, borderline obsessive numbers debate. My kind of build, even if your skills outweigh mine lol.

Also like the cost listed for everything for those like myself who aren't as far along in their swaps. Only thing missing is sources for said parts. Used, new, Craigslist, Ebay, Pull-a-part? Just a humble request for myself and others.

While I'm here I thought I'd weigh in on the trans debate: While a $1200 3.4 FD would be ideal my K24a2/Insight swap simply doesn't have the budget for it. I instead opted for the 03-07 Accord trans to have the tallest gearing without additional cost. Because it is of the high frequency type, unless I use the stock TSX ECU I will be needing a convertor box to translate the signal.

Mak

[Ecky]

Thanks for your reply!

My understanding is that gears 1 and 2 are almost unusuable with the Accord tranny. You'll be starting in 2nd, and 5th will be like the Insight's 3rd, only with 2.4x more engine. A 4.0 exists for $600.

My transmission I got from Mike at Professional Awesome, who makes the ball joint adapters. He had an extra one. I opted for a JDM K24A from hmotorsonline for $1000. It's from the earlier year TSX so it has 5HP less, but is also ~1/3 the price.

[Ecky]

Currently going back and forth whether or not it's "worth" replacing the TSX's 6th gear (0.659) with a 2012 Civic Si 6th (0.647). The difference is a miniscule 1.85%, but the difference in RPM looks a bit less trivial. I already have the TSX gear.

Honda Insight stock transmission: 2217rpm @ 65mph
TSX 6th with 3.4 FD: 2181rpm @ 65mph
Civic Si 6th with 3.4 FD: 2141rpm @ 65mph

Total cost adds around $200, maybe less if I plan to replace the synchros for 6th anyway, for a 40rpm reduction:

https://www.kseriesparts.com/HON-9THCIVIC-6TH.html

For comparison, moving to 185/65 tires (which I'm very likely to do eventually) would net a decrease of approximately 100rpm / 4.9%.

Tell me I'm crazy. This adds about 2.5% cost to my budget for a <2% RPM reduction on the highway. For comparison, my final drive affects all gears by roughly -30% and is around 15% of my budget.

[samwichse]

You're crazy and it doesn't sound worth it for a 40 RPM drop.

[Daox]

You're crazy.