The Matrix broke 40 this weekend

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

How soon will you have a SG?

SOON! I sprung for a used SG2 on Ebay about 5 minutes ago. $115 shipped to my US address. I was going to go for a new SGe, but for 20 bones more, this is a steal. Once installed, I will mess around with some basic mods.

I was at my local Home Depot the other day (Langley), and they have a TON of corrugated cardboard, which they call Plaskolite. They also have sheets of of Lexan and other fancy glass substitutes that I may try to cover my fog lamps with. I am just trying to figure out how to fasten them to the bumper. Glue will work, but would be permanent/non-serviceable. A pain if I ever needed to replace it.

I may also try a HAI. Ideally, a coolant heat exchanger in the air box would be the best (and easily turned off and on) like t vago's:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ant-21863.html
...but I will start simple with a fancy drier vent/tin foil exhaust heated jobby.

[Weather Spotter]

Great Work! keep it up and you might catch up with my Matrix. I wun 51 MPG average all summer and on a trip like that I can get 53-54 MPG

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

on a trip like that I can get 53-54 MPG

Don't forget, the trip I do has MASSIVE hills - sometimes 8% grades for 5 km at a time. Excuses, excuses.

I picked up my ScanGauge 2 last week. I calibrated the speed with my GPS (+3%) and calibrated fuel delivery on about half a tank (+8.9%). The SG2 seems quite accurate, but I will do a full tank calibration on my next fillup.

What blows me away is how much fuel my wife makes the car burn.

Today we did a 100km (62mi) trip. 50% highway/15% suburban/10% city. I averaged 6.3L/100km (37mpg us). That is pretty smokin' if you ask me - 37% above EPA. When my wife does the same trip, she gets 9.2 (25). She is not interested. And she keeps bugging me to speed up.

What I am learning about the Matrix with the SG2 is that watching load % is handy to determine how far you can press on the throttle before the torque converter unlocks. The threshold seems to be 78% load. Anything above that and it unlocks. I pulse and glide a little bit here and there, and the gliding is always done in neutral.

Soon I will do some proper testing on best acceleration methods (easy vs brisk up to speed), pulse and glide vs. steady speed, and maybe hill tests (3rd gear locked TC vs 4th gear unlocked TC).

For those of you with manual transmissions: I am jealous of you.

[mechman600]

My first aeromod. Front license plate holder delete. Is there such a thing? Not much of anything, but it's a start.
Before:

After:

[Tango Charlie]

Mechman; I removed a front plate holder on a Buick I used to own. Front plates aren't used in Indiana, so I didn't have to worry about remounting the plate. Every little bit helps, as they say. Too bad there weren't lower mounting holes for yours- you could have hung the plate down low as a partial grille block.

And congrats on the SGII acquisition. Yer gonna love it.