Noob From Aus
 

Hi All, I’ve been Lurking for a while doing some mods and experimenting here and there so thought I’d share what I’ve been up to in my own Hypermiling/Ecomodding adventures!

My daily driver is a ‘98 Australian delivered EP91 Toyota Starlet - 1.3Litre (4E-FE) DOHC, 835kg (1840lb). Just clicked over 200,000km on the odometer so hasn’t had a lot of k’s done on it for how old it is. EPA specs on it are 6.8L/100km (35MPG) Combined – 8.8 L/100km (27MPG) City – 5.6L/100km (35MPG) Highway. Before I somehow got onto Hypermiling (can’t remember how I got into what has now become an obsession but the first memory of the word “hypermiling” was the biodiesel Ford truck hauling guy who lives in a Caravan or RV in California and took his alternator off, made it more aero etc.) I used to get about 7.3L/100km (32MPG) with my sheeple driving skills. My best tank so far has been 4.2L/100km (56MPG) in urban driving so clearly the EPA have no idea haha. I used to have an R32 Nissan Skyline and was fairly heavily into drifting having travelled to Japan several times to participate in drift matsuris (festivals) at Ebisu Circuit. However for daily driving I was always frustrated that I couldn’t have any fun without risking my license and having all this power was completely pointless. At the same time it costs a fortune to drift on the track and it sucks only being able to have fun once every two months so I just got over it. This is the main reason I enjoy hypermiling, it is legal to do, I can do it every day, it’s challenging/fun, and it saves me money as opposed to most forms of entertainment.

The mods I’ve done so far include:
• MPGuino as my car has no OBD port, was dead easy to install anyways after googling my engine’s ecu pinout. I’m still calibrating this as I’m on my first tank with it but even though the absolute numbers are not accurate yet it is awesome to see what gear/RPM etc is best to drive at when going up hills or what RPM my engine starts using fuel again when coasting down in gear. Really happy with it as it’s like playing a video game every time I commute!
• Engine kill switch which cuts fuel to injectors. So much better than turning the key (and safer!)
• Grill block
• Rear wheel arch partial wheel covers made from duct tape – future plan is to make full wheel covers out of coreflute and aluminium brackets.
• Passenger side mirror delete with internal convex mirror – interestingly, in Victoria unless you have a vehicle with internally obstructed rear view mirror you don’t need mirrors on either side of the car at all! But I like the driver’s side one so might make an aero version!
• Warm air intake – Just removed the cold air intake haha.
• Removed power stearing/aircon belt – It is such a small car so doesn’t need PS and at least now the steering is consistent when EOCing.

I Also have a DIY E-bike setup on an old 26” mountain bike. With a 1000W rear hub motor from Ebay and homebrew 15Ah 48V LiPo battery pack (made from old RC plane batteries) I can make the ~41km round trip to work if I take it easy. It is quite a hilly route so takes some juice to get up the hills if I don’t want to sweat too much. The E-bike is virtually free to run as I charge it up from a solar battery bank in my shed!

In the warmer months I like to commute to work under “man-power” on my conventional road bicycle which is obviously the best form of transport created by man but now that I’ve got an 8 month old I like to be able to get home earlier to see her before she sleeps so tend to drive more.

Anyways, this post is long enough so till next time I’ll be tinkering here and there on my Starlet looking forward to many more miles of sweet sweet EOCing:thumbup:

Just get one out of some random sports motorcycle.

Good idea, there's quite a few cheap options on ebay.

Welcome to the site. Great vehicle you have there. I still have my EL42 (1993 Toyota Tercel) in the driveway. I've thought about a 4E-FE swap into it a few times. :)

I came to the same conclusion, except I still have my R32 for the moment. I think a car that does 0-100km/h in around 10seconds is the sweet spot for a 'sports' road car. I also like being able to use most of the gears, with a Skyline it's 1st, 2nd, Police siren.

When I used to cycle 20km into the city, I found it was faster than driving though. I even got a chance to prove it once when a girl saw me (her in her car- me on my bike) near my house, then at our destination I over took her as she walked in from the car park. Had I known we were racing I'd have gone faster :thumbup: That was on my then heavy XC bike, an E-bike conversion would make that thing a rocket.

You gotta love toyotas! The 4e-fe is a great little engine, the performance from it combined with the light starlet body is great. I reckon a dedicated track version of the starlet fully stripped out with NA 4EFE and decent suspension and tyres would awesome fun!

I agree with 1st, 2nd, Police siren, 2nd gear does about 100km at redline! which is fun to hit with the RB20.

E-Bikes are pretty awesome things, if I go flat out it takes me less than 30mins to get to work compared to car which takes 35-40mins - especially when hypermiling. The only issue going flat out is that I need to charge it again at work to make it home which is a bit of a hassle. The bike route is shorter at 20km compared to 25km by car but this is also outer suburban traffic, if it was the same distance in city driving the E-bike would smash commute time of cars AND you don't get all sweaty so no need for shower at work :thumbup:

I'd love to see some pictures of the car.

As requested:)

You may be able to figure out from the below photos why I've nicknamed the car Pink Bits, actually a guy from work called it that. Why pink? Why not! I want to put full covers over the rear wheels so this probably wont be on too long.
http://i66.tinypic.com/1j5d20.jpg
http://i66.tinypic.com/28jbf38.jpg

Duct tape grill block
http://i66.tinypic.com/2h6v7mt.jpg

Passenger mirror delete
http://i66.tinypic.com/mreiig.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/8we368.jpg

Here's my MPGuino with custom 3D printed enclosure. This is a prototype design which needs some improvement but it works fine for now.
http://i64.tinypic.com/2wojdjd.jpg
http://i66.tinypic.com/qrf81j.jpg

And of course the obligatory ridiculously large JDM shift knob! Behind that you can see my battery voltage gauge.
http://i66.tinypic.com/2n67kgn.jpg

Oh, just FYI PS deletes aren't legal in Oz.

Interesting, The relative bit from vic roadworthiness regs state:
"Any power steering pump or associated components must work and be securely mounted."
Well it works fine, I'm just not using it..... should have got a lower spec starlet without PS lol.

I totally agree with you about the fast vehicle not being practical/fun on public roads. That's why I imported a Honda CBR 250R (MC19) from Canada(Canadians imported it from Japan). I'm sure if you pay attention you could see some in daily traffic, I will never have that pleasure. 19,000 RPM, 4 cylinders, sounds eargasmic, makes decent power, and I get to use the GEARS! :thumbup: I love tiny engines! :) Especially when they rev high. Fuel economy is fairly dissapointing though, and 4 carbs is a massive PITA!

As far as not being able to remember how you got introduced to Ecomodder, I was on the same boat until recently when I remembered that I found Ecomodder when I looked up something to do with grams per mile of CO2. There was a sticker on a side by side I had that talked about the emissions system (which came apart in less than 200 miles :o), and I wanted to learn more.

Anyway, on to your car. An easy improvement for you would be a kammback. You mentioned in your car's profile that you removed a spoiler, you could cut up the spoiler and use it as a basis for a more aero spoiler/kammback.

Another issue I saw aero wise with your car is the severe hood/windshield angle, something you could do to help "reduce" that angle would be to make a panel like a wiper deflector, so that angle isn't so sudden.

If you are worried about legality/get tired of the disabled power steering, I believe there is a manual steering version of your car, so you could just swap the rack over.

I would not be around long if I had a motorbike! I'll stay with my pushbikes haha.

I'd like to do a kammback sometime however aero mods on my car don't really have a large effect on fuel economy as the roads I commute are all urban streets, the max speed limit I hit is 60km/h and my average speed is about 45km/h. So I have only done easy aero mods for now. I would still do them but there's also the lack of time factor and having a ton of other hobbies.

Yep there is a non-power steering version but the marginal gains aren't enough to make me spend time and money doing it. So for now the PS belt is back on to be legal.

Impressive story man
Rwd i6 = trouble for me too.
Im pretty keen on getting a jdm ep82 4efe, i think the weight can be as low as 740kg! They have 100ps stock so it should be a peppy little thing.

Welcome to the site.


My Celica GT-FOUR has the same problem, my buddy almost lost his license when he drove it.

And slurps 19 MPG

Thus I have a economical-comical Russian junker. :turtle:

I'm jealous of you guys in NZ. You are able to import a lot more models of cars compared to Aus. I believe this is due to the government trying to protect our (now failed) auto industry. Maybe if Holden/Ford had made decent mid to small sized cars locally instead of crappy Falcodores there may still be an industry in the future (although high cost of manufacture probably was the biggest cause but I digress...).

Yes they are really fun to drive, you just need a manual transmission and rev it to redline! Not the best for economy then though haha.

Ahhh that'd be great fun in the snow though!

Really the only cheap small cars in aus are japanese so no (easily attainable) russian junkers :(

The bit about the power steering components has a bit of room for interpretation. As written it requires that any installed power steering components have to be in good order, so that rules out the old looping-the-lines trick. It doesn't say that you have to have it.

Obviously you guys in Australia know your road nannies better than I do so feel free to ignore me. But if a concurrent Starlet was available in Oz without PS, doesn't that open the door to removing it from yours? Just install the same hardware that would be on a non-PS Starlet and enjoy the reduced engine load. It wouldn't be stock to your car but it would be a stock application.

[edit]
(reads the rest of the earlier posts)

Sorry, never mind. But I believe there are significant gains to be made there, the engine isn't especially powerful so whatever load you take off it is going to be good for you.

Hello, and welcome to the site.

I like what you have done to the car. I particularly like your external rear view mirror cover... is it 3d printed too? it loos really good from the picture.

I can relate with the commuting being more interesting and fun now!

Welcome Again.

I agree the rule is somewhat open to interpretation but it would depend on the cop that wants to have a look, although it's a 98 green starlet, i would bet a lot of money i'd never even be pulled over if I was driving normally let alone check under the bonnet haha. My skyline on the other hand, if I saw a cop I'd start counting down from 10 and rarely reached 1 before they pulled me up. Road nannies suits Australia, or at least Victoria perfectly! We used to have number plates that said "Victoria - The Place To Be" ... the place to be fined!

It would be legal to install a non PS rack from the lower model starlet and remove all the associated PS parts but it's just laziness and too many other things to do that is stopping me.

Thanks! The cover is just a chunk of plywood cut to shape and painted then siliconed around the edges. It also doubles as something to screw into to hold the internal mirror bracket on with some short wood screws.

Few things bug me more than having to rely on the cop making the decision. He's a cop, not an automotive engineer. I say if there aren't regular inspections where your vehicle is registered, then don't give the cops jurisdiction to make judgment calls or give tickets on such subtle things as whether or not the power steering is hooked up!

"Is this vehicle safe to drive in this condition?"

"I got it this far, didn't I? I steered safely to the side of the road and came to a stop, didn't I?"

Unfortunately, exchanges in that vein rarely end well for the motorist.

As to the rest of it, that's just saving a different kind of energy.

Happy motoring!

The law was never intended for people removing power steer. It's legal to add power steer to a non PS vehicle (at least in my state) without any special permission, as long as you use 100% OEM components installed as designed for that model.

Reading between the lines the reverse should also be fine, but looping lines or removing drive belts is definitely a no-no.

Nice effort with the 3D printing.