Orange4boy Adopts an Insight. Tune up and IMA refresh?

[War_Wagon]

Dang, and I went and cleaned it out! That's ok, the genius I share the shop with gave the Optima from this car you can just see, to the battery recycling guy. It was beside the battery charger, so he figured it was no good for some reason that eludes me. This is why I can't have nice things! ha ha

[orange4boy]

OK,

Loving this car. It coasts so beautifully. It's quite astonishing. I'm still adding too much speed because I'm used to lower CD cars. It just goes forever.

Done so far: Checked spark plugs. They were excellent. They are indexed on the insight which means they are installed in such a way that the gap is "aimed" in the right direction for best ignition. This is to avoid the lateral electrode shadowing the combustion chamber from the spark. They were almost loose. I guess the crush washers were a bit thin for the job. Will have to replace the crush washers to index them again.

Mods: (I take pains to incorporate reversible mods to preserve the original vehicle.)

Grill blocked with foam pipe insulation. The ten minute job. May do aluminum block later.

Basjoosed the headlights and the front hood with weather stripping. That way it's reversible and almost invisible. I calculated that I blocked about 26 square inches around the headlights and hood! Never underestimate Basjoosing!

Installed low profile wiper blades. Eliminated about 15 square inches of profile area there.

I looked at the under belly to see what I might do there later and I saw that the under panels in front of the tires were missing. No spats! Now I'm on the lookout for a replacement set. Any pointers as to where to look would be helpful.

Shot term plans include moving the 12V battery to the back of the car as low as possible for better weight distribution and handling. It already handles like a go-cart.

As for the 65mpg I mentioned before, That's on highway runs. Tooling around town, I get more like 45-50 ish. Just by the display.

[sheepdog 44]

The tires! The tires! Either get RE92's or pump them up!

Do you still have the spare and jack in the car? Every bit of weight loss is a substantial % of the power to weight ratio compared to a 3,000lbs+ car. Better hill climbs, and better mpg. That should free up space for the battery.

Grill block helps a lot on aero. Do a warm air intake as well. You probably want to keep your wipers on in Canada. The "Nut" will give you the most gains.

[orange4boy]

Yeah, I forgot to mention the tires... They are properly ecomodded. Say no more. I'm not going to get new ones till these wear out though.

I did take out the jack and spare. Not much saving there as it is all so darn light but it is a light car to start with.

I'm not going to remove the rear wiper because even on the insight the boundary layer is thick enough that it must be negligible. Plus, Vancouver. Still, a low profile one is coming.

I guess a tuft test would confirm that it's in line with the flow... Any excuse for a tuft test!

It's already WAI with the grille block. Which gets me thinking... Has anyone cut a hole in the cat shield for a WAI?