New member from (all over) Ontario
 

Hey everyone! Been reading the forum for a few weeks now and signed up today.

Thanks to the great tips on this site I've been working on changing my driving habits to squeeze out some extra km's and yesterday I performed my first Eco-Mod. Pics to come soon, but I made some lexan covers for the grille in my bumper to reduce the air hitting my Rad and causing drag.

Highway trip last night showed 0% change in engine temp, the needle sat where it always does, even under some hard driving to test it out. This weekend will see a good 600km trip so I'll be back with numbers to let you all know how well it worked.

My vehicles are a 2001 Acura EL (1.7, 5-speed Manual) and ye olde 1993 Chevy Silverado 1500 2wd that pretty much sits in the driveway unless I need to move something big.

I reprogrammed the ECM of the truck a few months ago with a newer version and got much better fuel econ (18 L/100 down to somewhere between 13 and 15) but would love to get tips from everyone on body mods to do to it, i've looked around but haven't found much luck other than "buy a truck cap" (it's coming.. eventually).

Looking forward to a great future with all of you,

Stu

Hey Stu - welcome to the site.

I figured we had another Canuck (without checking your location) when I saw "Acura EL 1.7". Where in Ont are you? I'm in the 1000 Islands.

Congrats on the first mod. Should yield a small but measurable result at highway speeds. Got instrumentation yet? That's when the real fun starts.

Metro,

Thanks, and yea, good ol' Canadian Only cars, haha. I'm from the Toronto area, but go to school in Hamilton, and am currently working a 16 month internship in Ingersoll... hence the "all over" in my thread title. Actually I'm working at the plant that once way back in the day made those two cars you have in your avatar ;-).

We'll see how well the mod performs, so far i've driven 180km so it's too soon to tell, needle still says 7/8 :-D

Ingersoll, eh? Making Equinoxxen at CAMI?

I don't bother explaining to most of my US friends what a Firefly is. I just call it a Metro. But I wouldn't expect an EL owner to stoop so low as to call it a fancy Civic :P

Well personally I'M not making them... I'm up in the engineering office, but yea I watch them get made all day, haha.

I do my very best not to stoop... people call it a civic and I'm like no no.. EL. Luckily I don't know enough people in the states for that to be a huge issue but to the few I do I just say it's like a luxury civic (mm, heated mirrors).

Actually this car lived in the states for a while with my brother when it was new... when he got hit by someone down there you can imagine what the repair costs were like just because every part had to be shipped from up here :-D.

As for the new mod, I filled up this morning after driving 251.6k, and it took 14.662L, or 5.83L/100k, that's definitely a new record for me, I've never broken 6. Hopefully it's not just a pump error (clicking off too early) we'll find out this weekend.

This has probably been asked before but I couldn't find it in a search, is there any way to put in info in the EM Garage in metric units? Converting to miles and gallons is a pain every time.

The conversion is on the to-do list. I've been saying that for months, but have been too busy with other projects. I'm planning to do some work in the EM garage in the coming week or so.

Looking forward to hearing the results of the longer trip.

Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to the updates :-). As for your question above before, no instrumentation yet, I looked at the MPGuino but was a bit confused at exactly what parts I needed/how mcuh it'd cost overall and figured for not much more $$ I could probably grab a scangauge and save myself the time w/ soldering, etc.. (plus it'd look cleaner).

If you've got the cash, the SG has many more features. If you mainly want MPG, it looks as though there may soon be a complete Guino kit available from an online retailer.

I should add: I'm working on an arrangment for a good SG price for Canadian members. Let me know if you want to go that route.

Welcome to the site. Sounds like a nice car. Do you have any pics of it?