I'm back!
 

Well I'm back at it again after what must have been a 10-year hiatus. The last time I had considered hypermiling, I was a broke college student who needed every last penny. Unfortunately, now I'm a broke working adult who can't afford $4 a gallon gas nor can I afford to buy a more economical car. Besides, I love my car and wouldn't get rid of it for anything.

I'm driving two 6th generation Honda Accords. The oldest is a 1998 with the 3.0 J30A1 4AT. It's got 307,000 miles on it and going strong. The second is a 2002 2.3 F23A1 5MT with 227,000 miles, also in solid condition with recently rebuilt front end.

I'm hoping to get a consistent 30 MPG from the V6 and 35 MPG from the 4 cylinder. I've got a scan gauge on the V6 right now and I've pumped up my Falken Sincera tires to 40 psi. The V6 is my preferred ride in spite of the mileage so I'll be driving it the most. Hopefully y'all can give me some feedback on the tires. I'm particularly concerned about excessive tire wear because tires have gone up just as much in price as gasoline. They ride great at the placard recommended 32 psi but rough as hell at 40. I have noticed a few MPG improvement however.

My next goal will be to fix the undercarriage which is pretty raggedy and diminishing my aerodynamics. Not sure what else I can do beyond that. I took out The driver's seat because it was worn out and replaced it with the passenger seat. It's down a seat so I've lost some weight there. If anyone else has attempted to hypermile this vehicle, please chime in. I was getting pretty terrible mileage 18 to 20 before making a concerted effort to improve it. The vehicle has a p0420 catalyst code which may be hurting my mileage but I haven't checked the fuel trims yet.

I'm glad to be back even though I prefer not worrying about fuel consumption under normal circumstances!

What about Greenie - '94 Geo Metro LSi -- 55.23 mpg (US)?

The frame rusted in two! Haven't driven it in 10 years. I let my father take the Mitsubishi when I was in college and one day it died on him and left him stranded. He never could figure out what happened to it and it was eventually scrapped. Pontiac was involved in a collision with a deer and leaked water like a sieve after the insurance company had it repaired. I gave it to my brother because I couldn't stand the moldy wet dog smell any longer, and it ate up brake pads yearly.

I do have some classic econoboxes I'd like to restore and get back to hypermiling. My dad has an 87 festiva he parked and left for 5-10 years. I got it running but foolishly drove it a few miles with varnished gas and clogged up the carburetor so it's parked again (I live 6 hours away, otherwise I'd have already fixed it since he doesn't want it). He's also got a Metro that will run as long as I get a new fuel tank and pump, but it has title issues that I would have to sort out. My grandfather passed away a few years back and had a 95 Metro which ran and drove up until the day he died but has been parked since. I won't be able to fix that one up until his late wife also passes.

It's pretty hard to find those old econo boxes in the urban area, I live. My dad and my grandpa were both mechanically inclined and had the land to buy a few junked vehicles to use for donor cars. If I lived nearby i would cobble something together and make it run, but right now I can't find anything like that in my area. Too many wealthy people who aren't interested in such vehicles.

I did see a fully restored festiva with a fantastic paint job. I'll upload the link if I can find it, but it wasn't for sale and is someone's daily driver. I really like the festiva and its look more than the Metro and would rather drive it even if it gets worse FE. Those Mazda B series engines are bulletproof.

So.... now?

Where is the frame damage? Could you turn it and the one with title problems into a stretch limo?

Well swell, a picture I took myself and uploaded to an Ecomodder album has been disappeared. Proof is here. Undettered, I found this on DDG:

https://bangshift.com/wp-content/upl...eo-541x685.jpg
bangshift.com/general-news/car-features/chevy-car-features/rough-start-stretch-geo-metro-real-thing-solution-parts-hauling-problem/

I misspoke. I should have said his widow. She's still hanging on.

It's just not an option for me to move those vehicles. I live 320 miles away in an apartment and I don't have my own shop. I also have never used a welding machine.

The Festiva is a prime candidate to start back up. I just need to get the fuel system sorted out and it will run and drive. I can do all the maintenance to get it back to solid condition and it isn't rusting in two. I could tow that to the shop I work at and get it going quick enough. I've also got a donor car that was wrecked with plenty of parts to pick from.

For now I'm very satisfied with my Hondas and have no intention of getting rid of them. I learned how to wrench on them and they've served me well and also spurred me into pursuing a career in automotive repair. I expect that they will outlive me.

It's Okay. Since I got the XFi I'm becoming something of a zealot.

That 5mt 4cyl is going to be your go to for FE.

Living in an apartment always has such downsides. Had space not been much of an issue, I guess you'd be tempted to get a trailer and go save those econoboxes.

No doubt. I'd prefer a small house with a huge garage. Or I could just live in the garage, no house required.

I always liked the idea of an apartment over a two-car garage, with an outside staircase and an inside fireman's pole.

My only objection to an outside staircase would be the lack of weather protection, but the space under such staircase could be used to store a motorcycle too...


Just a kitchen, a bathroom, a clothes washer and dryer, and a living room with one or two sofa-beds would most likely be enough, as long as the garage would be big enough.


Most of the folks who could stay overnight once in a while, if I lived in such a big garage, wouldn't mind sleeping on a hammock. Not a bad idea at all...

I was actually thinking of a specific example on Eugene's west side. The pole could double as an entertainment device. :)

My favorite floorplan exists a few blocks from here. It's an L-shape with the house right up against the sidewalk, with an enclosed two-car garage on the alley and an open carport at the corner. It's like a one-car showroom with the walk to the front door passing right below the kitchen window (for surveillance).

Just pulled these numbers on a 44 mi trip to the salvage yard to pick up a wheel in the V6. The trip was 90% highway. Kept steady foot on the throttle and speed between 55 and 62 mph. This car isn't as efficient in stop and go traffic, but on its pretty deep darn close on the highway! I'm happy with those numbers.

That's quite predictable for vehicles with a large displacement. Idling in the city will always be worse with a larger engine, yet once it hits the road being able to reach cruise speed with a longer gear and lower RPM leads to a more balanced comparison.

I'm so glad that I hooked up the scan gauge to this vehicle. I had been previously driving this car indiscriminately, between city and highway. Now I make sure I only drive it on roads with relatively few traffic lights. I should be able to get well in excess of 400 mi out of a single tank of gas, as I'm averaging close to 30 mpg. Previously I was only able to get around 21 MPG, even driving pretty conservatively. While I have been in full-on eco driving mode, I never drove it hard because this model Accord has a very weak automatic transmission. With terrible numbers like those, I was suspecting there was something wrong with my car - possibly a rich fuel trim causing the catalytic converter code. Now, I'm not so sure about that.

All I've done is modify my driving habits and pump up the tires from 32 to 40 psi. I also installed a new China-zon distributor (the old one was slinging oil everywhere) and replaced a few old plugs ( when I replace them the year before I only got four on accident). I was expecting 30 MPG to be pretty difficult to achieve in this vehicle but its looking like a great starting point.

It does surprise me that a '98 Accord would still rely on a distributor. Most of the cars of that vintage that I was used to, basically Brazilian rebadges of the Opel Corsa B, got rid of the distributor in '96, and that was a much more austere econobox... Makes me wonder if converting to some distributorless ignition could be useful for your Accord.

Honda used a distributor on the '98 /99 year model V6 Accords and on all of the F-Series engines for the 6th generation, 98 to 02.

OK, but would it be totally out of question to adapt some distributorless system? It's now quite common in my country.

Almost all new vehicles use a direct ignition system to my knowledge. It is possible, but I don't see enough benefit from doing so to make it worth the time and money. I would have to cap off the spot where the distributor attaches to the camshaft. I would also need an ECU from a 2000 to 2002 Accord and to have it programmed to accept my keys. Possibly a new ignition switch as well and the coil packs.

I've never done a job like that, but I would imagine there might be other issues to come up as well. I don't see it passing the cost/benefit analysis.

It's been a quite common mod in my country, even though it's mostly done in simpler cars. Coil packs from some Chevrolets are often adapted to models from other manufacturers too.

I have considered it, but only because I needed to replace my distributor. It was leaking oil internally and creating a huge mess. An OEM Honda dizzy was around $300 but I opted to try one from Amazon for $80. I installed it 2 months ago and it's been working perfectly. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to switch over having just invested that money in the distributor.

With that said, I'm always interested in upgrades to the car. Coil on plug does have its advantages with regards to emissions and performance, but how would that translate on a commuter car that's driven gingerly at best? My 98 V6 Accord has the same EPA fuel economy ratings as the 2000 V6 Accord which has a direct ignition system.

The four-cylinder Accord is also leaking terribly from its distributor. This one would cost $400 from Honda which is out of the question. I was just hired to work for a Honda dealership so maybe I'll get a discount on parts and change my mind, but I'm leaning towards rebuilding it.

What kind of performance gains would I expect if I instead chose to upgrade to direct ignition? Fuel economy would increase by how much? Performance?

And on a sad note, the car hasn't been getting as good of mileage as I thought. My scan gauge wasn't properly calibrated. It was off by nearly 20% at the last fill up. Close to 25 MPG .... honestly more in line with my expectations by disappointing nevertheless.

Most of the performance and fuel-economy benefits would seem negligible, yet the much lower maintenance is worth. The main reasons for switching from a distributor to a distributorless ignition in my country have been related to parts availability and lower maintenance.

My original distributor lasted for 300,000 although it did have a leak. I think the plug wires are original as well as the ignition coil.

The Honda distributors really don't go bad, they just leak. It's very cost efficient to simply rebuild them. There are also aftermarket versions available and Honda still makes OEM distributors for nearly 25-year-old cars. At the moment it doesn't make any sense to switch over.

Availability of certain parts in my country is not that great, and sometimes only the newer system available for a random engine/model is kept on stock in order to keep it simple. Honda doesn't sell such a large volume in my country as it does there, and believe it or not the Accord here was a luxury car...