My introduction, and plans
 

Hi I'm David,

I'm pretty active in the Honda community online for years now. I have been autocrossing since 2003, and my current autox car is a 91 CRX Si modded for STS2 competition. It still gets mid 30mpg mileage which is fine since I really only use is a couple times a month for competitions.

The car I drive the most is a 2000 Honda Civic Hatchback. Its automatic, and basically stock motor-wise. My commute to and from work is mostly highway, totaling 74 miles a day. So you can see how I'd quickly become interested in maximizing my fuel economy.

My GOAL is to get as close to 40mpg out of the civic as possible, meaning I can go a full week between fill ups.

So far I have done the following steps to get from 30 up to 34mpg:

1.) Modified my driving habits. Though I cannot be a pokey driver on busy 70mph highways, I do not speed, and I draft whenever I can. I also never take off too quickly.

2.) Slightly taller than stock tires. The diameter of my current tires are about .5" taller than stock...effectively raising my gearing.

3.) Added a factory front spoiler from and Si model...it looks great, anyways.

4.) Removed the 50lb subwoofer box... I dont miss it at all.

5.) Well-inflated tires.

My plans to continue increasing FE are as follows, along with questions:

1.) Remove factory mud guards. The car gets quite filthy without the front ones...so I'd like to avoid losing those if there is a way to.

2.) Partial grill block off...Is it better to block off the top small grill or some of the larger bottom one?

3.) Remove power steering belt.

4.) Underbody panels. I know Honda sells an underbody panel for 92-95 models that installs towards the rear. I would like to make something like that for starters.

5.) Install low-resistance wiper blades like Valeo Ultimates

6.) Continue to improve driving habits

Changing out the trans for a manual is out of the question for me. I have a CRX I could daily drive, but there are small legs of my daily trip that would require clutching etc up to 100 times if traffic gets slow. Besides, my wife will not drive a standard, period.

As a side note, I'd love to be able to create a Engine Off button, that I can hold down to turn the engine off temporarily, then release when I want it to come back on... any DIY insights on that would be appreciated.


I hope to reach 40mpg in 2008! Thanks in advance for your input or comments.

Welcome David. It's great to have more people here who are actively working on mods!

Though I'm not yet qualified enough to answer questions, I would like to note that I wish those damn SUV drivers had mudflaps on their vehicles. It is absolute hell driving on highways in northern New England with these people driving around kicking up salt/sand/snow/dirt onto my windshield every time they pass me thinking 4wd will keep them on an iced highway at 80 mph. Coincidentally, they are the people I am most likely to find in a ditch later.

Greetings and Salutations.
It all sounds good. Now if I can just find that time expander around here for my own stuff.
Point 1 on the mods is easy, check the aerodynamics threads for a way to keep your guards by making them into boattails behind the wheels. I can't remember right now where exactly it was.
Check basjoos aerocivic, I think maybe thats where it was.
C'mon guys, help out my tired memory.

"Memories, in the corners of my mind"

Have fun.
S.

BTW wher are you located?

Welcome to the site! I was going to suggest a manual (would definitely get you there on the highway), but after reading the whole intro, I won't!

Sounds like you're already well on your way! I would suggest a scangauge II as the most important thing you can buy.

do you have any links to where I can look at ScanGauge II's? Is it difficult to install? (The civic is OBDII rev 1, with a large serial plug somewhere under the dash)

Yeah, the auto-to-manual swap would seem fun, but the cost and labor plus the pain of occasional log jams (at least twice a week) makes it not so fun. I do enjoy the easy driving auto, even if it is not very fast compared to the CRX.

Here's the Scangauge

Welcome to the site!

www.scangauge.com is the best, plug and play!

Too bad on the manual. I <3 my auto to manual swap, :)

Sweet, Scangauge will work with my 95 Ranger beater as well!

Welcome: On the grill block, you can block the upper one entirely and you probably won't even notice any difference, temperature wise. On the lower part, in the bumper, you should be able to do fine with a 1 inch by 4 inch slot and the rest of it blocked. I am running that on my 89 Civic and from mid September through mid June I can't see any engine temperature increase, in town, highway or anything.

The other change you can make, if your willing, is to bump the tire pressure up to 55 lbs or so. A lot of people are not comfortable with that, in which case you can just use the maximum sidewall pressure. I've been running 55 on old balding tires and on brand new Michelins and I haven't encountered any issues with it, but the car does roll quite a lot further.

On the Scangqauge, you should be able to just get it and plug it into the port on your car. From what everyone says, that would probably give you the biggest improvement. My car is an 89, so it won't work, but mine is paid for and I can get about 37 on the freeway, at 80, so I am pretty happy with my cost effectiveness.

On blocking the grills, isn't it better to put the block-off on the OUTside of the grill instead of hidden inside it?

Yep. Think smooth airflow.

I dont know if i would pull the power steering belt off on the newer civic if you are running 15" plus wheels, with the larger tires you stated , control at low speeds will be hard to handle , but maybe not, worth a try i guess, also I dont know about that being tied into the computer for a check engine soon light, my civic is a 98 ex with the auto and running it without the power steering would be rough, best of luck!

Yeah, I want to look further into it. I dont have problems with the CRX using 225mm wide race tires and no PS, but the idea of fighting the factory PS pump in the civic is not appealing. I'm going to do some research on it and I'll post what I find here.

Back in the Day... the 70's that is, I ran a GTO without the power steering pump hooked up. A knuckle in the steering column broke and I lost ability to steer it... at all! I only say this to remind all that when you change a system's designed use, sometimes design flaws become apparent. And they can be dangerous. Careful, careful!

Can't you swap a teggy manual rack in there?

I suppose I could even get a manual rack from an earlier civic CX model, but part of my goal is saving money, not spending more, believe me, I've modified and replaced almost every functional part on the CRX...the costs add up fast!

I have looked around and found lots of good info on how to properly bypass the plumbing in a PS setup. It comes down to looping the input/output and adding a small reservoir with an air bleed somewhere along the loop. From there, you drain the fluid down to about 25% of usual so the system stays a little wet, but you are mostly moving air around in the cylinder. A more ambitious way to do it is to remove the seals in the system, so there is no resistance at all, but that requires removal/teardown.

I only suggested it because I knew about the seal issue with power racks, but I didn't really know how much a manual rack sold for. I've thought about installing a gsr rack in my crx a few times but never got around to it, :p

If it were me, I'd split it up and make two buttons. I've done some pretty long coasts, and I'd hate to have to hold a button that whole time.
You could easily rig up a kill switch and a separate starter button.
Kill switches are easy, there are several ways to kill an engine, you just need to find which circuit you'd like to interrupt. (fuel pump, ignition timing, ecu, etc...) I did a writeup on kill switches.
The starter button is a bit harder, with an auto you might need to bypass a circuit or two (if your car won't let you start in Neutral or without a foot on the brake, for example) See SVO's DIY for more on starters.

Hi David, welcome.

Sounds like you're getting lots of good advice already.

In case you haven't fully decided yet, let me be the Nth person to say: definitely get a ScanGauge. It's portable, easily resellable later if you decide you don't want to keep it forever (you will keep it forever though), and useful for much more than just its fuel economy instrumentation.

Also, add your car to the garage, start filling out your fuel log, and let the power of peer pressure from putting your stats out there for everyone to see guide you to better and better results. :)

Looking forward to following the progress.

Darin

Pwer Rack & P without the Power
 

Hey, ya might want to fill that rack with some grease too! with the fluid gone (which secondarily lubricates it) it probably won't last too long.

Yeah, Its kinda like that. The hydraulic fluid is separate from the rack grease on the Hondas. SOME fluid is left in the unpressurized hydraulic system to keep it 'wet', but not so much that you are fighting it through all the valves. The actual grease for the rack is always left as it originally was.

Here's a good writeup I found: http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=184202

Lubrication issues aside, doesn't the power assisted setup have a different effective gear ratio than the manual rack?

On my particular civic model, I belive it is about 1/2 turn less from lock to lock than the manual rack. Therefore, it would be a little harder than the manual rack would, but nothing I cant handle. I'm used to a non power rack in the CRX with wide sticky tires and a tiny steering wheel.

I can try it out and still put it back to power assist if I dont like it, or hunt down a bargain on a manual rack to put in its place.

Or add a steering wheel from a bus. :)

Glad to hear you've considered the implications & have experience with it.