Warm air intake
 

I put a warm Air intake... fully insulated the tubing from near the exhaust manifold all the way to the intake manifold. I even insulated the filter housing so the warm air isn't cooled along the way to the intake. This has made the warm air intake much more effective than without being insulated and my mpg's have gone up significantly for winter mpg's. I'm getting much closer to Summer MPG's! Typical Winter economy was 44mpg and Summer was 54MPG.
Now my Winter has been around 48-50MPG since mod with insulation.
BTW, I used insulation that is high temp... used for insulating your home water heater. Have R value of 7 I believe and 250 degree rating. As long as you keep it 6" away from the exhaust manifold, you are golden.

That's impressive! Got any pics of your setup? :thumbup:

I haven't figured out how to put pics in here... I emailed the contact email with zero response about a week ago.

Look in my album that's in my profile. I have a pic there if you have access to it.

Have you seen this thread yet? http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...der-18279.html

I use Photobucket, even though they keep making the interface more cumbersome.

Oh wow, that's a lot more insulation than I imagined. Ever have any issues with it coming loose, or pinking from having such warm intake air?

Here's another tip for later: if you right-click on your picture in the gallery and choose "Copy image address", it'll put a direct link to that picture on your clipboard. You can paste that into a thread reply, add an [IMG] in front and [/IMG] at the end to get this. :thumbup:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ma...2-img-0658.jpg

Nope... I've had it in for a few weeks or so now and it's my daily driver. I don't see any signs of discoloration from the heat. I'm sure if I had it on the exhaust manifold it would be a different story. It is rated at 250 degrees.

Interesting. But do you need to remove it once winter is over?

I will leave it on all year. I may have to pull the tubing away from the exhaust manifold in the Summer, but will cross that bridge when I get there. Depends on how it runs and fuel economy with it taking in that hot air in the Summer.

Have you ever seen the carburettor heating system of some older light aircraft? Since its working principle is similar, that might become a source of inspiration in case you decide to make your WAI adjustable on-the-fly for a better all-year-round operation. Is there any space where you could fit an air-box that would allow you to blend the heated air with a colder airflow?

Possibly... not sure how large an air box would be... I don't mind manually moving the tube.. only takes about 20-30 seconds to move it.

Indeed, but maybe having the chance to trim the air intake temperature on-the-fly and being able to set it in some intermediate positions could increase the overall efficiency improvement. At least for me it sounds worth to try.

Last tank was 50.32 MPG. The WAI with insulation is a hit for Winter driving!

The MPGuino works amazingly well with just putting in the wiki numbers.

Ok. Now that I effectively have proven on my own vehicle that a WAI works very noticeably well in the Winter, will it also help in the Summer? Anyone know this from testing?

At some point the hotter air stream might become advantageous, but then if it gets too hot you'd need to run richer in order to avoid pre-ignition.

Well, today I just put a permanent grill block on my Green Bean. It's quite simple, but yet effective. I cut out a 2.5" X 6" rectangle and put a flap that I can open and close with a very strong fishing line that runs through some eyelets and into my cabin space next to my fuel cut off switch. It's held on the top by HVAC Silver aluminum tape (about 3 layers for durability) and at the bottom by 3 mangets. The string pulls it away at the bottom when I pull on it. It takes a bit of force, but not too bad when the car is not moving, but much easier when moving down the road. At 50 mph it still held closed on it's own, so I'd say I have the correct number of magnets to do the job. :) Gravity will close it at a stop if I let up on the string, which is held by a hook on the interior.This should help with warm ups a bit more. I also just put LED lights for the exterior lights except for the headlights. I'll order the LED headlights today. Planning on Alternator belt delete and using a flexible 100 watt solar panel on the roof this summer.

What charge controller were you going to use?

I plan on buying a kit that includes the controller that's made for charging a car battery.

Most of those kit charge controllers are junk, the solar power generation marker has been flooded with imitation junk from China that doesn't work right.

Any suggestions on a 100 watt flexible panel and charger?

I got some led lights cheap off eBay for my s10 a few days ago!!���� I was thinking of taking the alternator from my engine to the driveline so that it only produces power when moving, I figured going that route would reduce overall resistance on the motor will not having to worry about solar chargers or battery banks!! The only problem I have now is if I remove my alternator right now I have no way to get a belt to the water pump cause everything else is off! ����

interesting idea... not sure it will be worth the effort as it seems like a very, very small gain. It would be pretty cool if you could have the alternator not load the engine while accelerating. Not sure if modern cars use technology like that, but seems like a good idea.

I found the leds for pretty cheap, like about $20-30 for all but the headlights. I was thinking of putting a speed controlled power setup to turn the alternator on at about 25mph so that it has the vehicles momentum powering it more than the engine. Like I said though I will not have anything on the engine once I remove the alternator, because I'll be running the water pump and fan on a electric motor!!

Good luck...your alternator isn't going to make much, if any, power at only a few hundred RPM.

At least to me, an alternator delete doesn't sound like a good idea at all. Anyway, IIRC some newer cars have "intelligent" alternators that only provide charge once the battery reaches a low charge or when the car is decelerating so they might be somewhat analogue to regenerative braking.

In my s10 the gearing to the wheels is 3.73, so it will spin about 865 rpm at 20mph! Now if I gear it 2-1 it will spin the alternator to over 1600 rpm before I have it activated!!

P.s. I just looked at my driveline, and a spot near the transmission is about 4.5 inches and the alternator pulley is about 2.25 inches so I might be able to mount it and just put a belt on in the end!?!

Would a workaround with a motorcycle stator be totally out of question? Well, since it wouldn't require a belt or a gear drive, presumably there will be fewer drag added to the driveline. If you eventually decide to go that way, making an enclosure similar to a brake drum for the stator and fit it between the transmission and the driveshaft like it was done with those older trucks with a transmission-mounted parking brake would be the way to go. Roughly maintenance-free too.

That would take quite a bit more to get it working!! All I got to do to get the alternator working is to bolt it in place and put a belt on and it's finished!! Using a stator would require some more alterations than I'm willing to do right now! But it would be better in the long run!!

As long as it isn't slipping, a modern, multi-ribbed serpentine belt is supposed to be about 98% efficient. There's not a lot to be gain by direct drive, and you'd lose your pulley ratio.

Magician, you asked "Any suggestions on a 100 watt flexible panel and charger?" Maybe you are asking about a 100 watt flex panel and regulator as the panel acts as the charger?

I have a Suzuki Swift which I think is called a Geo Metro in your part of the world(?) My mates and I converted it to electric back in 2011. Since then I have been doing improvements to it to improve it's "fuel economy". One of my modifications to it was exactly what you are proposing.

In an EV we have a DC to DC converter which pulls power from the main battery bank, reduces it to 12v dc and feeds it into the auxillary battery. This replaces the alternator.

I bought a 90watt panel and a 30amp regulator. Panel is glued/bonded to the roof and feeds into the regulator on the dashboard. The DC to DC converter also feeds into the regulator and can be turned on/off with a switch on the dashboard.

I also replaced all lights except the headlights with LEDs to reduce the draw on the aux battery.

I do 95% of my driving with only the panel running the aux battery. I don't have air con in the car which I think would drain the aux battery faster than the panel could replace the power.

I did keep figures to establish the effect (if any) and it appears that it reduces power draw on the main battery bank by between 3% and 7%.

Regards
Paul

that's a lot more insulation

Interesting idea. I'd like to see you have success with it!
I personally am going to delete my alternator belt, but keep it with me in case it's ever needed for a long evening trip or maybe in winter when not much sunlight. Most of my commutes are between 6 and 20 miles... so I would not have much drain on my battery. Using a flexible 100W solar panel on my roof should easily top it off most days. I already have LED running lights and will replace my headlights soon. My old school car doesn't have much current draw while running. In fact, I almost always roll start my car. I'll be running some tests without the belt soon just to see how much drain it does on the battery before I invest in the solar panel and controller. I will likely go to a marine battery with more capacity as well, although I honestly don't think I'll need to based on calculations of the draw that my car has while running not using the lights. Night-time driving may warrant the Marine battery.

The grill block with little door that I can open and close from in the car and warm air intake are very, very effective. probably one of the biggest gains I've gotten in mpg's. Huge gains that I'm doing cartwheels over :)

Have you never even considered to adapt a stator out of some 4-cyl motorcycle? That would enable you to replace both the alternator and the distributor, thus reducing overall drag to the engine while ensuring a steady source of current for the basic functions such as ignition, injection and lighting.


That already sounds like a good excuse to go with a stator.

Might not be a bad idea, but I think my car will have such a low load that solar charging is a pretty good option. I'm also looking at pulling the two front seats out and using an aluminum ladder to fabricate replacement seats that weigh a mere fraction of what the stock seats weigh. I think the two seats weigh around 70 lbs and the 2 aluminum seats should weigh under 15 lbs combined. I have an idea on how to make them adjustable for the distance from the dash. That would be trimming off roughly 55 lbs. I want to trim weight, but not lose functionality. I'll likely get this project done in the next 30-60 days and more to come.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ma...8-img-0839.jpg

Solar charging is not bad at all, but the main advantages of a motorcycle-type stator are getting rid of the distributor while also retaining an alternative source of electric power for both the fuel injection and the ignition. That's overall simpler while it still takes less power from the engine than both the alternator and distributor would do. So, why would you rather keep the distributor instead of adapting a motorcycle-type stator?

probably because I know the distributor works very reliably and likely is a very, very small load on the engine. As for the Alternator, I'll remove the belt and solar charge. Seems like a lot of work to go the stator route and to figure out how to make it work as effectively as the distributor. But... I like your thinking outside the box!

So does a stator :D


Since a stator usually spins at the same RPM of the crankshaft, while a distributor goes twice slower since its timing follows the camshaft, that might become challenging to some extent. I have already seen a VW Beetle with a stator mounted in the original location of the accessory drive pulley for the alternator (it had been also upgraded to a thermostatically-controlled electric fan).