Northwestern Hallo! - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

gtkid2002 · 02-24-2009, 02:07 AM

I greet you all from the hilly land of WA! I come from Preludepower.com - Powered by vBulletin and was brought here by Hackaday. I live up 600', commute to sea level, and somehow managed to get a rough estimate of 47mpg in a car that is supposed to get 18mpg city, with few mods. I want to get a degree in alternative energy at OIT, and experience with automotive at WyoTech or something. I love solar stuff, just not the whole.. really expensive part. But yeah. I'll probably post either stupid, or odd ideas/suggestions.

And yes, I'm aware the Honda Prelude is considered a ''Sports Car''. Well, this one gets better MPG than my dad's 01' Civic (Standard tranny, 41mpg [He cant and wont hypermile]), and a lot better mpg than a friend's 95' Accord that gets 18mpg. So yeah.

Be prepared for.. stuff! And seemingly stupid questions! Like this!
Fuel Injector On/Off Switch: Damage? - Preludepower.com

Daox · 02-24-2009, 10:22 AM

Welcome to the site and congrats on the good mileage. What kind of mods have you done to the Prelude?

gtkid2002 · 02-24-2009, 07:33 PM

So far I've done a fuel cutoff switch, stock spoiler delete, and I've switched to 5W-30 oil. I have to redo the fuel cutoff switch though, because I didn't pay enough attention to the firing order, and so it's firing twice in a row, then missing, instead of hit miss hit miss. I might also have to switch to 10W oil because I found out not too long ago my valve cover was leaking.

SVOboy · 02-24-2009, 08:44 PM

Welcome aboard, sir!

Daox · 02-24-2009, 08:51 PM

I wouldn't bother switching oils. Just go grab yourself a new gasket or take the current one off, clean it up, and run a small bead of permatex gasket maker over it and slap it back on.

RH77 · 02-25-2009, 01:27 AM

Wow, nice ride! 4WS is a rare find...

The trick to heavy Hondas is monitoring the fuel economy constantly. They tend to like to run a bit warmer than normal (intake temps and coolant). Plus, engine-off coasting or throttle-cut on deceleration (DFCO) will help out.

Regarding the valve cover gasket, it probably was going bad anyway. I run the required oil and had a small oozing problem after 10-years and 130K miles. A simple replacement of the gasket fixed the problem. This particular vehicle has had very few replacement issues: gasket, radiator, and and rear brake caliper. That's it.

Seriously, enjoy your unique car. The 4-wheel steering is indeed a rare animal (by the way, have you tested it with the engine off?)

RH77

gtkid2002 · 02-25-2009, 02:17 AM

I'll probably get a new gasket, and seal it up as well. As far as I know, it's original, and the car has 186k on it. I tried sealing up the old one, but I don't think that worked well. I have to was my engine bay where the leak was at to find out if what's on there is residual or current leak oil. My poor car just needs a full tune-up. Hasn't had one in years.

Yeah, the four wheel steering works when the car is off. It's the only kind in the world (Wikipedia!) that is all mechanical. I love it. I accelerate on corners when people have to brake, it's actually the only reason I don't have a VW Bug right now. I wish I had a manual though. But I don't think 47mpg is bad on an auto transmission. I forgot to mention that since my muffler was shot (no pipe leading up to it, and the bottom of it had been ground/scraped horribly), I replaced it with a cherry bomb. I know that's probably blasphemy on here, but it's all I can afford. Still got the catalytic converter though, and I wont remove that.

cfg83 · 02-25-2009, 02:21 AM

gtkid2002 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtkid2002

So far I've done a fuel cutoff switch, stock spoiler delete, and I've switched to 5W-30 oil. I have to redo the fuel cutoff switch though, because I didn't pay enough attention to the firing order, and so it's firing twice in a row, then missing, instead of hit miss hit miss. I might also have to switch to 10W oil because I found out not too long ago my valve cover was leaking.

Welcome to EM! You're already ahead of me, the fuel cutoff is on my todo list for this year. Rumor has it I can just disable the fuel injectors at the fuse with a momentary switch, so I may have an easier time of it.

I think the late 1980's/early 1990's was an MPG heyday for Honda, so your Prelude is just *waiting* to save more fuel.

Like RH77 says, 4WS is very rare. I wish I kept the brochure for those.

CarloSW2