More power and better MPG
 

Well its been a long time since I made a post on here, so I figured I would update about my little hatch.

I got her about a year ago, bone stock and was getting about 31-32 mpg. I found this site and started honing my driving skills, topped out at an average of 40-41 mpg. Now comes the time for modding.

Late august to early september, about to start modding, auto trans blows up. Replaced it with one off craigslist (found an hf trans 3 weeks later :( next time!)

Heres the mods I did to it:
mpfi swap - si intake manifold, tb, etc, gives me 4 injectors instead of 2
d16a6 cam - same year SI cam, more lift and duration
cam gear - set to 5 degrees advance

later this week im picking up a stock 4-2-1 header from a d16z6, the 92-95 civic si, to replace the junk 4-1 cast iron pos thats on there now

Throttle response is a hundred times improved, acceleration is greatly improved, all around the car is much more fun to drive.

Also, as a bonus, Im averaging 44-45 mpg, with one anomaly at 49! All from an automatic!

In the future I plan to swap the 5th gear from the hf trans into a dx trans, for good cruising rpm and decent acceleration. Screw that low gearing in every gear :thumbup:

next mods:
lower the rear end of the hatch 1.5-2" to give the roof a better slope
raise compression to 11-11.5:1 by decking the head and changing head gasket
anti-reversion steps on intake plenum at the tb, intake side of head and on header
mild port of intake, head and header mainly to clean up casting lines
at some point im going to try a stock diameter mandrel bent exhaust with a straight thru muffler and 2 resonators with no cat

Goal is 50-55 average mpg with 60+ mostly highway, while retaining a fairly "normal" appearance

Before you jump on me for not running a cat, I dont believe in global warming, its a hoax to get us to pay more money to do the same things we could before except they were free. Ill keep my 2 strokes and dirty lawnmower and run my car however I feel like running it. No matter what we do, the earth always has us 1 upped, volcanoes for example.

Volcanoes spew out as much pollution as all the cars that have ever been put on Earth combined. Besides particulate (ash and other particles), volcanoes can release enormous quantities of gases, including the following pollutants:
H2O water vapor
CO2 carbon dioxide
SO2 sulfur dioxide
H2S hydrogen sulfide
CO carbon monoxide
HCl hydrogen chloride
HF hydrogen flouride

Even non-explosive basaltic volcanoes (Hawaii, Iceland) can release damaging quantities of pollutants in the form of "vogâ", or volcanic smog. The Hawaii volcano observatory has recently issued warnings for sulfur dioxide emissions and restricted access to areas around Kilauea. The 1783 Icelandic basalt eruption resulted in emission of over 100 tons of SO2 in less than 8 months- killing humans, livestock and damaging crops in both Iceland and Europe. Gas emissions during the eruption of the Siberian traps may have caused the great Permian extinction 250 million years ago. Volcanic SO2 emissions can range up to 10 million tonnes per day.

I've never heard the volcano argument before.

If we can tune our cars to put out the same chemical signature as volcanoes, we should be ok, right? Did I read that correctly?

Someone needs to develop an additive that will help with the hydrogen flouride.

Current fines for disabling emission components (Federal) are $2500 for individuals and $10,000 for businesses.

That could be for each offense.

Your choice, but I would really be hesitant about posting any info about intentionally disabling emission components on a public forum.

Not "jumping on you" at all.

They say a "word to the wise".

regards
Mech

The "Volcano" argument sounds, to me, a lot like the following:

I'm going to kill someone.

I'm only going to kill one person, and even though it's illegal, I don't believe in all that morality crap.

Jack the Ripper killed lots more people, he's one upped me from the get-go.

My one kill is going to be meaningless, because Jack the Ripper is a worse problem.

Does that seem about accurate?

I'm still more interested in getting my car to produce new toxins. Think of the horsepower a volcano has. HCL could have something to do with that.

seems pretty accurate

i love how people think there going to gain a lot from removing a cat, its really not that much, much less restriction then a stock muffler, and then makes your car just sound like crap

at this point i say even full race cars should be required to have at least something

I dont live in a place that particularly cares about federal emissions regulations. As long as it passes the tailpipe test its good to go. I need to get a new cat before next emissions anyway since the one in it is dead. So Ill get 2 printouts, first one with the current dead cat thats getting gutted, second with a brand new cat for comparisons sake.

Right, because killing people is right along the same line as putting such a ridiculously small amount of gasses into the air that the planet produces far more of than we ever could....

Along that line of thinking we might as well just ditch all industrial technology that produces any sort of pollution whatsoever, so we can make a unnoticeable difference in "global warming" and save everyone from nothing? Seem about accurate?

Changing the exhaust out is way down the road for me because I want to quantify if there are any mpg gains to be had from changing to a mandrel straight through catless setup from the cat, baffled muffler crush bent exhaust. If there is no justifiable gain I obviously will put the cat back on, its easier to leave it on than change it for emissions every time.

I also plan on changing the quench properties of the head, increase compression (depending on how good I do on the head possibly 13:1) along with a few other tricks to increase the volumetric efficiency of the engine.

And to the person that assumed no cat makes it sound like crap, thats simply not the case. As long as there is a resonator in its place there will be virtually no change in exhaust sound. Thats the ghetto ebay exhausts that make a car sound like crap. A properly tuned exhaust setup will produce a normal note, as loud or quiet as you want with a longer or shorter muffler. The raspy crappy sound is from an exhaust too big for the flow it produces, usually paired with a muffler far too big. Which typically results in lost power and efficiency.

I want to see how far I can push this project in producing both power and economy. My goals are on track right now to reach 150 hp and 60 mpg. It should provide for a quick and fun, yet economical ride.

Im just glad I live in arizona, Ill never give up my 2 strokes and my 1960 biscayne has no emissions regulations at all since its registered as a historic vehicle. Its a hybrid too, it burns gas and rubber :thumbup:

So what you're saying is that it's OK to keep increasing vehicle emissions, because, at present, global warming is a hoax...

What you're not taking into account is that without emissions regulations to keep that "hoax" in check, eventually, the "problem" becomes a PROBLEM, and your theory gets shot out the window.

The basic idea here is one of equilibrium. The Earth is equipped to deal with it's own gaseous emissions, and maybe adaptable to even more than it could produce on it's own, but to what extent?

What you're saying is like putting proverbial straws on a camel's back. Eventually, one more is one too many, and then it's too late.

It also depends on which gas you believe is worse, C02, CO, SulfurDioxide....

They all have bad effects... Pick your poison.

Matrix Full metal cats actually help exhaust flow at street speeds.
They make the exhaust laminar in the pipe, flows better.

Cats don't last on race cars, the sustained exhaust flow at race RPM melts them.

Dave

depends on the type of race car, f1, no, but autocross? or drag racing aside from high end big money races


whether you live in a place thats stringent on emissions or not, it doesnt matter. federal law rules over any laws (or failure to enforce the laws) that may occur at the local level, and all it would take is one person complaning about your setup, and you could be in for a fine.

btw, dont believe in global warming? I live in fresno, and work in visalia california. Im 30 minutes away from the foothills of the second largest mountain range in the country. Guess what, 100 years ago, very clear pictures could be taken of the mountains from where im at. Today i couldnt even see that they existed. Whether global warming will be what does us in or not, look at the areas of this country with the highest air pollution rates. There not the areas next to these vocanoes you talk about. There cities with huge amounts of traffic, or cities with a lot of traffic in valleys. I should know, 6 of the 10 most airbourne pollution ridden cities are all within an hour drive from me. Guess what, we also lead the nation in lung cancer and asthma.

Lets agree to disagree on global warming and the usefulness of emissions regulations. Id rather talk about our cars. My main goal is to prove that a high efficiency car doesnt have to be way under powered or a hybrid.

I hadnt heard of those matrix full metal cats before, thanks for the info. Far too expensive for my testing purposes though. Changing the exhaust out for a few tanks of A-B-A testing will suit my needs. To be honest, at the speeds I drive normally I doubt even a regular ceramic core cat hinders flow much. But Im going to test it and find out for sure.

Regardless of the cat findings, I will be keeping the mandrel exhaust and straight through 22" muffler in the stock location, so its a win-win. I like things done right, and crush bent is junk.

For now my main focus is getting the header on and retuning it. With the cam 5 degrees advanced its got a whole lot more torque down low. It feels like a vw engine almost. With the header and retune Im expecting another 1-2 mpg, hoping for a bit more than that since its running a bit rich right now.

I was looking at these bumper spoilers from a prius and it got me to thinking of picking them up for some experiments. Check em out:

04-08 TOYOTA PRIUS OEM LEFT RIGHT REAR BUMPER SPOILERS:eBay Motors (item 400077954374 end time Nov-07-09 20:30:34 PST)

Sport Compact Car magazine(rip) published some aftermarket cat test results a few years ago. Power losses were something like 1 hp per 100hp produced. The aftermarket cats didn't clean as well as the factory ones, but they did well enough to pass the tailpipe part of California's emission test. There is no excuse anymore not to run a cat.

The earth naturally absorbs volcanic out-gasses (CO2 etc) That carbon is turned into sedimentary rocks like limestone. However, it absorbs it slowly. When we increase the man made CO2 , it throws off that equilibrium. The earth cannot absorb it fast enough, thus causing the greenhouse effect. So the earth heats up because of the extra greenhouse gases, thus causing global warming. It's simple science.


Anyways, why remove the cat? I don't think people will appreciate breathing the fumes behind your car.

I like the plans, except removing the cat. The restriction it provides is negligible. It also quiets the exhaust nicely.

On some cars, such as mine, people cannot outflow the stock exhaust until they build their motors to insane power levels.

I live in a place with no emissions testing at all. None. Zip. I even see cars that are running open headers on the street, and cops still don't do a thing.

And yet, I keep the cat on there.

You might also consider the fact that a catalytic converter does next to nothing to affect the amount of CO2 that goes out the tailpipe. There's just a very small effect from converting CO-->CO2 and oxidizing those unburned hydrocarbons (which are measured in parts per million).

Exhaust work is cool. You can change the torque curve of a motor, and that can net some horsepower.

As for the emissions, If you take off a cat, and it gives you that much mpg's I'd suspect that the cat was bad.

I'm also fairly sure your Honda motor produces far less emissions than a Ford Truck, even without a cat. But it's what keeps your ride legal, so... good luck.

I was about to say that...cats are designed to recduce CO, NOx, and unburnt fuel. Not co2... And yes a good quality performance cat will flow more than your engine, so there really is no gain to be had. I do not believe in the whole global warming(as a way of life, not the theory) but i DO believe in cleaning up the air. If youve ever driven a car without a cat, youll want one back. It stinks and gives you a headache even with the windows up

I haven't had that experience personally, but I do also keep my vehicles tuned to run within emissions limits regardless of their purpose (race cars don't get cats, but I do drive them to the track, as I keep them in street legal classes.)

I can get the cars smogged by a friend of a friend for $20 after hours, but there are no emissions testing procedures around here that I need to pass, including (in some cases) visual inspections.