Project: Zombie Insight (2000 Honda)

[Formula413]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

50mph back roads: 91.1mpg for 55.1mi - 0.605gal in 82min
72mph interstate: 62.7mpg for 56.6mi - 0.903gal in 48min

One of these routes is better than the other for me. 0.3 gallons of gas and $2 in tolls versus 34 minutes of my time.

You're nuts! I'd gladly give up half an hour to get 50% better MPG. But that's me. I drive 60 on the freeway. With virtually no mods and a sub box in the trunk I've got to do something to beat the EPA numbers.

[user removed]

Glad to help when I can Robert.

I started in the auto repair industry in April 1969 doing bodywork. One thing I learned well was to read the panel gaps.

In the old days new cars had huge differences in the panel gaps, but by the 90s that was a thing of the past, especially in computer built and aligned uni bodies.

The frame dimension tolerances in repairs are within 1 MM tolerance.

I admire your drive to succeed my friend, and if I can help it is always my pleasure to do so.

Do you have the little rubber bumpers at each front corner of the radiator support. They are threaded so you can rotate them to adjust their tension on the outer front of the hood panel. If you can get the latch and hood rod adjusted properly, then you might need to adjust the two rubber bumpers to make the hood "pop" up a little when you pull the release lever.

regards
Mech

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Formula413

I'm sure you've already made some attempt(s) at correcting the hood, but it's probably a good place to invest some time and energy, the aero gain might even be as much as you picked up from the grill block.

Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be as important as one might think. Thanks to a close encounter of the Bambi kind, I've been driving around without a hood for the last several months. Still getting 73 mpg on the current tank (about 500 miles into it), which isn't bad considering that this spring has been pretty cold & wet.

[discovery]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Still getting 73 mpg on the current tank (about 500 miles into it), which isn't bad considering that this spring has been pretty cold & wet.

It is oddly, just imagine putting on the hood you can get well over 73mpg or may be 100mpg why not?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by discovery

It is oddly, just imagine putting on the hood you can get well over 73mpg or may be 100mpg why not?

No, I can't. I guess I didn't write clearly: the 73 mpg I'm getting without the hood is almost exactly what I was getting when driving the same places in similar weather with the hood.

As for why I don't put it on, first I have to find a salvage place that has one, and will ship it for a reasonable price.

[RobertSmalls]

The car's software has a number of quirks that come together to make it hard to use the energy in the battery without being a bit of a leadfoot. I can get a small boost in mpg, but it's at the expense of an unjustified amount of electricity. Therefore, I've only been charging once a week or so, whenever my SoC gets low.

I finished assembling my MIMA_L + FAS board today, and I'll install it tomorrow and see what it can do. It doesn't give manual control of regen; just assist. If it can also turn off the "zero bars" of background charging, it may be all I need for a few mpg (or a few mph) bump, and a boost to drivability.



I've done signal wires in white, power in red, and ground in black. There's a few cold shuts, and I think I need a new tip after just one board, but all in all, I'm happy.

That's my joystick potentiometer on the left. How am I meant to mount that? The four posts at the corners don't line up with the holes in a PCB.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

As for why I don't put it on, first I have to find a salvage place that has one, and will ship it for a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, the salvage availablility of Insight hoods is nil. That's why I was thinking about making my own carbon fiber hood, instead of trying to take the dents and creases out of my silver hood. Of course, that would require that I have a straight hood to use as a mold.

[Funny]

Nice work on the board. Just 'dead bug' the pot and have it put where you can easily adjust it. Good luck.

[RobertSmalls]

Well, I powered up the board, and within seconds, it began to give off smoke. The voltage regulator (hiding underneath the ribbon cable in the above picture) got extremely hot, so something was drawing lots of power. I measured the resistance from the +5V rail to ground - 120 Ohms. That's no good, but I couldn't find a dead short.

So I threw the MIMA toggle switch to "off". The only powered part of the board was the kill switch portion. Measured 11kOhm from +5V to ground, powered it up, and it began to smoke after about ten seconds.

I guess I need a smaller fuse. Also, why would I want to install this homemade fireboard under my dash somewhere? I'm tempted to throw it out, but maybe I should see if I can fix it first.

[RobertSmalls]

Okay, that was a stupid mistake on my part. The smoking component turned out to be the voltage regulator, because I had reversed the input polarity. :P Hook red to red and black to black, and the voltage regulator works fine. No smoke coming out of other components, either. Still, I need to find a much smaller fuse. A 1A fuse can pass up to 13.8W, which I think could create a problem in the enclosed location where I want to mount this thing.

The board powers up, doesn't cause a Check Engine Light, and nothing else yet. I ran out of daylight before I could start calibrating the board. I hope it works!

[texanidiot25]

Always carry a fireextinguisher

Have you guys tried calling LKQ for a hood? I've always found them to have fair prices (or even cheaper than some local yards) and if they don't have it at their local yard, they'll ship it from another for free usually.