Project 100mpg

[Backtobasics]

When you get into the engine, I would like to see modification to improve efficiency, and reduce parasitic loses. Oil drain back tricks could be considered, perhaps even tubes to return oil to the pans without dumping it on the crankshaft. Knife edging of the crank would help too.
I would love to see the benefits of a max ported head. I am not advocating a hog out, but a complete stream line and bowl blend, especially on the divider in the intake runner, that separates the valves. I would think that a modification of the oil pan, to drop it down (extended oil pickup of course) to let the oil pool out of reach of crank would also yield benefits.
As I recall INDY has a replacement intake manifold, that let the engines breathe. I don't know of the CARB, but it would not be too hard to get smogged, and switch it over for the other 364 days of the year.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

the indy intake manifold is horrible for the neon, unless your boosted or are making rediculous power na. On a basically stock motor, you lose power almost everywhere with it, runners are just too big.

I have a guy thats going to port a head for me, nothing big, almost nothing to the intake side, smooth out the exhaust, while keeping velocity as high as possible. Guy has a flow bench in his garage. Combustion chambers and exhaust ports will then be ceramic coated, to waste less heat into the head itself, and use more for power.

As far as oiling, theres a couple of spots where oil ports dont match properly, that will be fixed, as well as oil shedding coatings on everything in the lower end and the bottom of the inside of the head, where oil pools up. Theres some small restrictions in the cooling system by the water pump from casting flaws that will be fixed as well. The crank will be knife edged, and lighter, and all bearings will be coated to reduce friction. Main journals, rod journals, and cam lobes/journals will all be micropolished.

for the manifold, im looking at the stratus manifold, as it puts the torque peak in a lower rpm, which might help mileage. Of course, my idea is to dyno test, to make sure its doing what it should do, or the smoothed stock mani will go back on.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

lots more pics up tomorrow.

went from 42mpg average with
stock+
cai (with half dirty air filter), 3mm larger throttle body, removed wipers, removed antenae, 2660 pound weight with driver, no muffler, underdrive pulley, gutted power steering pump being used as an idler pulley for the ac

got 43mpg average with the addition of
hot air intake (with dirty k&n, was broke last week so no new air filter), grill block (pics tomorrow), removed the passenger mirror for one day out of the 3 days on the tank, and a unhooked up ground (was rushed to finish the hot air intake as it got dark), in addition to driving a 6th of that tank in the rain, plus the rear stock spoiler delete

for this next week, im going to do the upper grill block, airdam, change the oil from 5W30 to 0W30 (time for an oil change anyways), delete the drivers mirror (using an inside mirror), along with a new pcv valve, mopar oil restricter in the breather that attaches to the intake so liquid oil doesnt gunk up the intake mani, and clean out the port for the EGR in the intake mani (it looks at least half way clogged), plus a new air filter

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

on a side note, just realized its been exactly a year since i picked this car up, and its gotten 34000 miles added to it from that date. Im going to try to aim for 32000 next year, i think i can do it.

work adds up to 27000 a year
this years extra was from stuff around town, and concerts out of town, picking up an engine in socal, and picking up some parts from a junkyard in norcal.

[2000mc]

if you still have the stock throttle body, you could put that back on for more precise throttling.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

i wish i did, but i sold it

ill be picking one up from the jy in a couple weeks, this week ive got my plate full, and next week will the the transmission swap, 10% lower rpms in 1st through 4th, and 25% lower rpms in 5th

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

well this sucks, wanted to have more updates but my attempt to do more work imploded on me.

got the new valve cover gasket, oil restrictor and pcv valve in this saturday. drove it around for 30 miles afterwards.

this morning i got the new air filter in, drivers mirror removed, mudflaps removed, and checked the tire pressure, and on my way leaving for work, the car died. Instantly, no cough or sputter, just stopped dead in its tracks. Its not seized, and turns over fine, the timing belt is ok as well.

theres no spark. Tried another computer, crank position sensor, cam position sensor, and coil. I dont think its the asd relay, because as far as i know, if the relays bad, the fuel pump wont prime and it does. I havent found any bad wires yet either. My dads coming up with his multimeter and were gonna go through everything, as this is my only car.

sucks, i wanted to get the upper grill block, egr clean out, and oil done today. And after checking my tires, i was super excited about getting over 45 mph on this tank, since my tires were right at 30psi, and i was going to put them at max, which is 44.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

cars dead, less than 30psi per cylinder. Dont know what happened, the timing belt is in one piece, and i dont see any sheared teeth. Cams are also still in time to each other. Looks like the engines coming out.

[Christ]

Crank could have skipped and left the cams timed to each other, but not timed correctly with the crank.

I doubt a blown head gasket would show <30PSI per cylinder, so that's probably not it. Unless you broke all four pistons, or broke/bent at least 4 out of 16 valves, it's gotta be valve timing.

[dcb]

no spark makes me wonder if you need to double check that gauge (or gauge operator )

Might just be a camshaft sensor or something too.