Honda Insight w/Acura TSX engine - Ecomodding

[TDFbound]

This is awesome! I flipped through the whole thread, skimming through every single page and bookmarked a few pages for future reference. Do you mind if I send you a PM soon to begin a conversation about a build I've got planned? I've got two Civic VX cars, one that is bone stock and will get a "restoration" of sorts, and another with a swapped motor for higher speed enjoyment. It looks like you've had many similar ideas to what I've got now, so I'd like to bounce some of them off of you and see if I can decide on a direction to go with this car.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by TDFbound

This is awesome! I flipped through the whole thread, skimming through every single page and bookmarked a few pages for future reference. Do you mind if I send you a PM soon to begin a conversation about a build I've got planned? I've got two Civic VX cars, one that is bone stock and will get a "restoration" of sorts, and another with a swapped motor for higher speed enjoyment. It looks like you've had many similar ideas to what I've got now, so I'd like to bounce some of them off of you and see if I can decide on a direction to go with this car.

No problem! I can think of plenty of things I'd do a bit differently could I do it again.

[freebeard]

I flipped through the whole thread, skimming through every single page and bookmarked a few pages for future reference.

I've wanted a feature that would scrape a whole thread into a single file, and delete everything but date, Permalink#, poster and message.

From there Mac OS Summarize Text could cull out the redundancy and repetition.

[Ecky]

Small update. Some reasons my fuel economy isn't better include frequent towing. Today's load had a chimney in the back. Car was sitting pretty dang low!

[freebeard]

Some reasons my fuel economy isn't better include frequent towing.

Because you haven't put three triangles of Coroplast/Polymetal/Luan plywood on the tongue?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

That's a pretty hefty load! With your hitch setup, what would you say your max towing capacity would be, before and after the kswap?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Because you haven't put three triangles of Coroplast/Polymetal/Luan plywood on the tongue?

Hah!

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

That's a pretty hefty load! With your hitch setup, what would you say your max towing capacity would be, before and after the kswap?

I'd probably have tried to tow it with the stock engine too. Once it was up to speed it was fine - with the stock ending it might have been a 4th gear only / max 50mph sort of deal, and taken forever to get there. I think the biggest change in capacity is likely from getting some weight out of the rear of the car and having some heftier springs. Bigger brakes up front also probably doesn't hurt, but trailer brakes would even the score with that.

Merging into the highway I let it rip in 2nd gear, WOT and VTEC engaged, and the car accelerated much like the stock engine and no assist.

If I were to put a number on it, I probably won't haul more than 2000#, and prefer to keep it at half of that.

[Ecky]

Finally started using my block heater, which I was able to install several months (?) ago by switching to an RSX Type S water pump housing and water pump, which also includes an oil -> water heat exchanger. For those that don't want to dig earlier in the thread, the Insight block heater fits into the K series coolant drain hole, but there's a hole in the side of it where an optional water passage runs to a heat exchanger that sits between the oil filter and the block. Without closing that hole somehow, water would just gush out of the block with the block heater in place. The RSX oil warmer serves this purpose nicely.

Right now it's early Autumn and we're seeing a lot of 50's-60's F afternoons and 40's F mornings, and I'm finding that 30 minutes of block heating in this weather is worth very roughly 5mpg on my morning commute, or approximately 45mpg -> 50mpg, give or take. I plan to collect more data.

Running it costs ~6.4 cents per hour. At $2.70 per gallon (for premium fuel, which I prefer for the extra torque and improved economy from E0), 45mpg on my 12 mile commute to work uses 72 cents of fuel, and 50mpg reduces that to 65 cents. Or, in other words, 3.2 cents worth of electricity saves me ~7.2 cents of fuel. I expect most of the savings are in the first 90 seconds of driving, where the engine would otherwise run more rich, though I can probably tune out most of the startup fuel enrichment.

[minor4326]

wouldn't it be just as easy and cheaper to put a timer on the heater and run it 2-4 hours before work?

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by minor4326

wouldn't it be just as easy and cheaper to put a timer on the heater and run it 2-4 hours before work?

Not necessarily. Large current timers are about $70 USD, and 2-4 hours may not be enough time to warm things enough to buy economy