Went (almost) all out on my 6th gen civic
 

The first thing I did was make a simple HAI/WAI by plugging up the existing intake pipe, cutting a hole in the filter box, and attaching a 3-inch heating duct to the filter box via a 3in-2in PVC conversion. I used PVC cement and aluminum tape. The pvc jutting into the filter box actually prevented the filter from setting all the way in, so I cut the filter away to fit it over the pipe only to discover that opened up slits of direct, unfiltered air. For now I just closed them up with some silicone stuff, but I am going to end up cutting the top of the pipe so I don't have to cut every filter I buy if the WAI ends up working.
http://i40.tinypic.com/14m5lyr.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/iz84g5.jpg

Then the real fun began. I acquired a big sheet of coroplast that juuust fit into the back seat of my car... it was probably 4.5' x 3.5'.. Just shy of being able to make 4 wheel covers. I thought I might have better results by making wheel skirts anyway, so on a whim I did it. The coroplast was free courtesy of a local sign shop - I asked if they had any scrap corrugated plastic, and that I didn't care what was on it, and they just gave it to me. I apologize in advance for the blueness of the images, as I forgot I had my WB manually set for a more warm tungsten setting, not blindingly bright daylight.
http://i42.tinypic.com/jj9ve0.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/b6zqj9.jpg
Any suggestions on this little problem would be appreciated. You can kind of see in the next two images what I did to combat it - I just cut small pieces to plug up the hole, but its still pretty blunt and perpendicular to airflow.
http://i40.tinypic.com/vdgwfb.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/1235xk3.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2m6jzmq.jpg
Hard to see because it was getting a bit dark out, but that's a partial grill block.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2qkhrex.jpg
Mirror delete. I did this and the wiper removal earlier this week. This was actually not that hard. Cut plexiglass to fit the void. The passenger side of the car is noticeably quieter in hwy driving.
http://i40.tinypic.com/25ioihc.jpg
-1 wiper. Tested it on a rainy day and felt comfortable with just one wiper... or should I say it "provided me with reasonable driving vision".
http://i40.tinypic.com/afbhon.jpg
I made sure to look up NY state law on wipers and mirrors:
And interestingly enough:
At least I'm safe on flat ground :D There was absolutely no other mention of coasting, engine on or off, or whether your engine has to be on or off at stop lights.

In summary: Free coroplast!, No wheel covers, wheel skirts, WAI/HAI, partial lower grill block, mirror delete, -1 wiper.

I didn't get much of a chance to test it out, only a little test drive. The IA temperature was certainly higher than normal, and I'm pretty sure I saw an MPG increase, but only time will tell. Stand by for more solid results.

Wow, that's an impressive list of mods. I'm looking forward to seeing your MPG improvement.

If I got a ticket for coasting downhill, I'd pay the fine, and have the ticket framed and mount it on my wall.

Good stuff! I need to look up the NJ laws on mirrors. :D

Way cool! What was your plan for wheel covers, and when do you think you'll do those?

Can't wait to see how it improves your FE.

I can't see if you have a coupe or a 4-door. If the latter, you can make a little fairing that goes on the door, and matches the contour of the fender skirt. On a coupe, most skirts I see would benefit from big overlaps starting at the body side, not the existing flare at the wheelwell itself. You can get a sharp edge on Coroplast with a hair dryer or heat gun and gentle pressure, the better to smooth the transition. That's more rugged than a carved edge.

As soon as I go back to the sign place asking for more coroplast, or if McTimson goes there and ends up with extra. (I saw an ad on craigslist for WTB: coroplast. I replied to the poster and said I was looking too, and that we should let each other know if we find any - that person ended up being ecomodder member McTimson :)).

My plan was either to cut up existing wheel covers and gluing circular coroplast pieces to them, or just attach the coroplast by wires or something... I often go into things with a vague plan and improvise. The pictures were taken at my parents house where there is a garage fully stocked with junk, material, and drawers and drawers of fasteners and parts. Whatever I do has to (at least for the rear wheels) be as flush with the wheel as possible, as you can see in the last picture of the passenger side wheel skirt that wheel cover - that had to come off because it jutted out too much and brushed against the skirt.

Lookin' good!

You should take some pictures of the full car for a better idea of how the skirts look. From those pictures though, it looks real nice.

Wonderboy -

Fantastic work! I know it sounds odd, but your side-view mirror delete looks cooler to me see-through. Even if it's faux, it gives me that nostalgiac "vent-window" look.

CarloSW2

Nice work!

Based on your wheel skirt photos, if I try it I think I'll make the skirts longer by maybe 8-10 inches, so the bottom forward corner ends up further forward. Then maybe the skirts leading corner can hug the molding and the body there.

I did a WAI. There's no tube in mine; it sucks in air heated by the rad and whatever heat comes over from the exhaust system. ScanGauge shows the intake temps are about 30 deg. F above ambient outside temps. Same filter box as on your car.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...tesSmaller.jpg

You'd have to get pretty creative at getting that coroplast to pucker in because that dip between the bottom-most plastic and the side body lasts (at gradually decreasing depth) all the way up to the front wheel well. The only ay to do it that I could think of was to drill into the body which I'm not prepared to do, except for my upper wheel skirt brackets.

What kind of results has it yielded? What exactly is your car? When in your fuel log did you add (subtract I should say) it?


Forgot to thank Bicycle Bob, good suggestion, I didn't know coroplast responded to that. My car is a coupe.

97 Civic HX coupe; lean burn fuel system is oem. Similar to earlier VX system.

I have to say, your wheel skirts are inspiring. You made it look very easy. I hear you about the indent above the side molding. Doubtless someone with body work skills would know how to fill the gap nicely with Bondo and then paint it, but I'm not that person!

As for the WAI - I set that up on 3/7/09. You can see the note in my fuel log at Fuel log: - - EcoModder.com. That's 11 fillups back from the most recent one, so you can count bars on the graph to see the mpg trend after that. That time also includes the spring warmup so some of the credit simply is due to the weather.

One major aim with this car is to keep it in Lean Burn as much as possible; that reduces fuel consumption by about 20-30%. The first fillup with WAI was pretty good, the next two two were not so good but one tank wasn't driven by me (see notes in the fuel log). I've since learned that my car needs a full block on the exhaust (a/c) side of the grill to keep the cat hot, to get max Lean Burn time. I had some CELs with a cat code but none for a little while now; even so, I think the cat is not in the best shape.

I've also learned that in current weather (maybe 80 deg. daytime??) I need to close off the WAI ports and go with the oem intake. IAT is up around 100 deg F. with oem intake and I don't trust it to be OK if hotter. But I still need to keep the cat side of grill blocked.

About the small gaps in the lower leading edge of the rear skirts, I'm with brucepick:

Yes, bondo is your friend. "Blunt" is OK, as long as it's sufficiently rounded (a radius of 1 inch is fine). I forgot to talk to you when I was looking at the skirts at the Green Grand Prix.

About the small gaps in the lower leading edge of the rear skirts, I'm with brucepick:

Yes, bondo is your friend. "Blunt" is OK, as long as it's sufficiently rounded (a radius of about 1 inch is fine to retain attached flow/prevent edge separation). I forgot to talk to you about this when I was looking at the skirts at the Green Grand Prix.

Only 100*F for IAT? I've seen low 140's on hot days sitting in traffic, with only a grille block near where the intake gets its air from. You "should" be fine.

for the wheel skirts

is the corplast adhered to the bottom bar at all?
or is the panel just screwed in on top of the bar


also for the top
is the coroplast screwed in without any metal plate (for rigidity)

The wheel skirts are attached at 3 points - top and each bottom side (fore and aft). They are attached to small aluminum "L" brackets that are attached to the wheel well with small self-tapping screws. The reinforcement aluminum bar at the bottom is there to push the coroplast out into shape, preventing it from brushing against the tires - the wheel covers did not fit under here, so I'm just using raw steelies. (I may later opt for smooth covers). The coroplast does not deliberately attach to that alumnium reinforcement/shaping bar at all - only at the fore and aft attachment points.

An update on the other components: I've seen temperatures in the intake no more than 150, but usually 140F. With all of these modifications, I've seen SIGNIFICANT improvements in FE. Look at my logs, but I think it jumped up from ~42 to ~50, which has reached my goal already - surpassing 50 normal driving.

so just to make certain

the bottom of the coroplast arent glued to the aluminum bar

and

the top of the coroplast (by iteself) are secured to the L bracket

You got it.

Instead of deleting a wiper, you could get lower drag by keeping both wipers in place and constructing a wind deflecter at the base of your hood. Its a quick 20 minute job to construct with sheet metal and pop rivets.

You could make a new set of skirts with an additional area as shown by the red lines in the following pics. They would be fitted to come to a point at the bottom of the V in the side of the body. This should give you a smooth transition to the outer surface of the skirt.