Bellevue, Wa. checking in.

[BellevueProtege]

Hello fellow eco-modders!
I've eco-modded a 1999 Mazda Protege with smooth wheel covers, air dam from a chevy truck, upper and lower air blocks (drilled some small holes) and went from 26 mpg stock to 36mpg. Have adjusted nut behind wheel as well. Noticed large American trucks now hating me. Max. MPH now 50.
Wanted to say hi and stop being a lurker. I have a new appreciation for this car. Also took spare out of trunk and replaced it with two cans of fix a flat. Full 5W-20 synthetic Castro oil. Next: side lower rocker panel covers. Other ideas?

[hummingbird]

Welcome!

Good you decided to come out with it...nothing to be ashamed about the 50 figure!

Seen you have accomplished quite a lot. It would have been good to know the details of your work and detailed fuel log - tells a lot. If you have not visited it yet, check out the Garage and other tools on the site.

Is your vehicle a 1.6L or 1.8L. auto or manual? I will have to get impressed more if it is a 1.8L

Start a thread in the success stories section and upload pictures there. Will allow us to see and learn.

Let us keep a target of 60 MPG and see who achieves it first - you or me. (I have a slight advantage here, my vehicle is 1.5L. But what the heck!)

[cfg83]

BellevueProtege -

Welcome to EM! This probably doesn't apply to your generation of Protege or tranny, but Multiades did a 5th gear swap in his 1994 Protege manual tranny :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...10-a-2748.html

CarloSW2

[Daox]

Welcome to the world of non-lurkers. Glad to have you.

For other ideas I'd recommend looking at the 65+ mods list. Find one that you are comfortable doing and go for it.

[SVOboy]

Welcome to ecomodder!

[1337]

Welcome. It's great to see an other Protege driver.

I noticed in your fuel log that you blocked the upper grill. FYI, our generation of Protege has a huge lower grill too, and I have been able to keep most of both grills blocked without any overheating.

[BellevueProtege]

Hi Weekend Warrior,

Thank you for the post! I have blocked both upper and lower grill openings and it sure made a great difference on mileage! I too have noticed no change in operating temperature, but I have noticed I'm adding water to the radiator reserve more often. I found a post where someone took a Chevy pickup air dam (S-10 variety) and mounted it below the front bumper, so I went to the auto wrecker and picked one up for $20 and all I had to do to mount it was drill a few mounting holes to the lower bumper cover. My MPG is close to yours and I have to auto transmission. It has a nice slapstick feature to it allowing me to coast downhill in neutral easily. I really want to do mirror deletes next, any ideas?

Best regards,

Bellevue Protege

[1337]

Bellvue,

Would you mind sharing some pictures of your S10 airdam? I like the idea, and I wouldn't mind doing it to my Protege, but I'd like to see what it looks like first.

[hummingbird]

Bellevue Protege, check local laws before deleting ORVMs - you could earn a ticket if there's something against it. Check first with both mirrors folded for a few days if you are comfortable driving without them. Also check out small internal convex mirrors people use instead of the ORVMs.

Easiest places to look at for these internal mirrors is Aerocivic or AndrewJ's vehicle with boattail.

[BellevueProtege]

Thanks Hummingbird,

Yeah, getting pulled over would not be good for mileage I think I'm just going to fold them back (nice feature!) and somehow firmly attach a little blind spot mirror. Then put two large convex mirrors inside mounted on the dash. Of course I saw this done first on eco-modder, love the site!
I've been thinking of a bumper slogan for all the tailgaters. What do you think of 26 (crossed out) 29 (crossed out) 32 (crossed out) then 35 (space) MPG. ?