turbo for better mpg

[AndrzejM]

I think if you want to cut pumping looses on the highway it's better to use ram air intake than install turbo, and way way cheaper!

[Firestarter]

You can tune a turbo to run off any aki fuel.just at the cost of performance. My wrx's manual says it will work with 87 but may knock and lose power.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Unless you get the turbo for free, you will never recoup the cost. Plus you have the added cost of having to run premium, and the extra wear on the engine that will necessitate rebuilding it sooner (or scrapping it).

If you want a fun project and a car that goes faster, get the turbo. If you think the project can be considered "green" while saving some green in the long run, think again.

I've thought about a turbo for my TSX, but the relative lack of aftermarket support and scarce examples of successful builds has all but killed my enthusiasm. If I had a car that has lots of support for turbo builds, such as a Civic, I would be tempted to build it just to see if I can realize fuel savings and quantify those savings for communities such as this. I'd never recoup the cost, but then again, hobbies rarely ever do.

If 40mpg is the goal, you need to spin your engine slower at 55mph. 2,500 RPM is quite high. Start thinking final gear change, etc.

[Firestarter]

Originally Posted by AndrzejM

I think if you want to cut pumping looses on the highway it's better to use ram air intake than install turbo, and way way cheaper!

Or use an electric brush less supercharger that is charged with regenerative braking

[Jakins]

^that would be one way to do it. Once again it would take 843 years to pay for itself though haha. But it would be a very fun fuel efficien car. Basically if you have a turbo civic you will be getting like 2 times the gas milage as some of the other cars you would be playing with but as soon as you hit boost that will all change real quick.

[scivicblu83]

turbo+civic engine+fuel vapor technology+aero body=



Fuel Vapor Technology – 3 Wheels – 180hp – 92mpg

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Firestarter

Or use an electric brush less supercharger that is charged with regenerative braking

BMW was involved in a project targetting the usage of an electric starter motor bolted to turbochargers to make them "fill-up" faster.

[jm283611]

thanks for all the replies, part of the thought behind the turbo with the taller gear ratios when I go up one of these west Virginia hills, the load will cause the turbo to spool and add just enough fuel and air to do the job at hand, rather than jumping down a gear, I wish I could find a smaller motor, I know the d series motors goes down to 1.3l but thats not in the US, actually they have a 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7, if I'm gonna go through the effort of a swap, I don't see dropping to a 1.5 making much of a difference, plus my motor only has 178k miles on it, gears are definitely in the plans, for spring, I'd like to swap in a cx trans, my tires I went to a narrower profile, it has 14" steel rims, I guess I should look for some moon disks, I'd like to know how much the aero mods improve, I'm not looking at aero civic territory, but maybe just a grill block, and an air dam

[baldlobo]

go down to the LPT section of this page.

AutoZine Technical School - Engine

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by jm283611

thanks for all the replies, part of the thought behind the turbo with the taller gear ratios when I go up one of these west Virginia hills, the load will cause the turbo to spool and add just enough fuel and air to do the job at hand, rather than jumping down a gear, I wish I could find a smaller motor, I know the d series motors goes down to 1.3l but thats not in the US, actually they have a 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7, if I'm gonna go through the effort of a swap, I don't see dropping to a 1.5 making much of a difference, plus my motor only has 178k miles on it, gears are definitely in the plans, for spring, I'd like to swap in a cx trans, my tires I went to a narrower profile, it has 14" steel rims, I guess I should look for some moon disks, I'd like to know how much the aero mods improve, I'm not looking at aero civic territory, but maybe just a grill block, and an air dam

Yea, you're already at 1.6L which is pretty small, 1.5 won't be worth the effort unless you need a new motor for some reason, and your gears aren't that bad. Your car profile says it's manual transmission, so I'd just work on driving technique and some light aeromodding, unless gear swapping is really easy and cheap. 2500rpm at 55...I'm jealous! I'm turning 3000, with a 1.8 too For my car at least, 5th gear swap isn't very popular because the 11% rev reduction doesn't add up to fuel savings that quickly and it costs 230 in parts to do alone. Swapping to a 6 speed makes a little more sense because at least you have improved acceleration and more choice of gears for around town. Don't worry about the hills, if you need to go down a gear just be sure to keep the load relatively high. You might discover that you don't need more power at all to stay in top gear! Ideally we'd all have super tall gears and forced induction but that costs money, so we just have to accept the loss of power.

65mph is honestly pretty fast already and you're using A/C, I think your gas mileage is quite respectable. I always go 50 if I can get away with driving that slow.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Ideally we'd all have super tall gears and forced induction but that costs money, so we just have to accept the loss of power.

I'm in at least $1000 deep for my turbo install.
A diff gear swap would run about $300 to $500 for me.
And this is with me doing about 97% of the work my self.
It costs money to have good fuel economy and power to do stuff.