96 civic ex with "mini me"

[meangreen]

hello all.

im driving a 1996 honda civic ex. i bought it used around 2000.
it has more than 210,000 miles on it.
the original engine had an oil leak and it bit the bullet about 6-7 years ago. i found a shop that replaced my engine for the lowest price, and at the time i wasnt really into my car very much - too busy being a young 20 year old going out and stuff - and after about a year i checked the block and saw that it had the y7 imprint on it. I looked that up and read the y7 was non- vtech and i was a little upset. i just accepted that loss at the time. In nov (07), I broke my timing belt bent a valve and discovered i had a Y8 (p2-j?) head and i was excited (higher compression!!) I bought a rebuilt y8 head off ebay, did the repair myself and everything is running pretty well right now.

Before my broken timing belt, i had also changed my clutch and flywheel myself, i used a lighter flywheel trying to get a little better milage (was getting around 27 at the time). I also added a cheap ebay short ram air filter intake to see if that would help in my quest... had been using a k&n filter before that. when i repaired the head i got a used dc header and added it to the mix.

i deliver pizza(8years in my civic). milage is kinda important to me. even more so now. gas is more than twice as much as it used to be!

now im back on my stock air box. got a little better milage with it the first time i checked (got 32mpg but still avg around 30).

ive been aware of the vx engine for quite some time. if i had the money i would like to get one and put it into a 4 door civic (a white one).

hmmm.

this week i just got some prelude seats and got them to fit ok in my civ. not a simple bolt in procedure for anyone who doesnt know!

i found this sight today and read some interesting stuff that i wasnt aware of... mainly the over inflation of tires things. ive been trying to keep track of my pressure, but mainly to make sure they were at the recommended level and not under. Now im going to try boosting them maybe up to 40psi or so.

so...

hopefully i will learn even more stuff from this sight!

ive asked about FE stuff on honda-acura.net but nobody their seems interested in FE. I do like HP but for now i m trying to worry about FE.

i want to get some civic HX wheels sometime in the future, i almost bought a set for $150 a couple months ago, but i was about to get married and they werent a priority at the moment.

ramble ramble ramble....

[palemelanesian]

Try some driving techniques. It'll make a huge difference. Look around here for some tips, and also at cleanmpg.com. My DX is stock, except for tire inflation and a Scangauge, and the rest is the "nut behind the wheel".

Try a scangauge and adjust your driving according to what it tells you. It'll pay for itself in short order if you do adjust.

[meangreen]

what milage are you getting?
also, those scanguage things, how are those installed>? do you wire them into your ecu or something?

[palemelanesian]

Scangauge is easy. You just plug it into the diagnostic port under the dash. It's right in front of your left knee. Then you click the buttons on the unit to set engine size and fuel type, and you're rolling. A couple fills will help you calibrate it to your driving, but it's usually within 5% to start with.

See the box in my signature for my mileage.

[MiddleMike]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Scangauge is easy. You just plug it into the diagnostic port under the dash. It's right in front of your left knee. Then you click the buttons on the unit to set engine size and fuel type, and you're rolling. A couple fills will help you calibrate it to your driving, but it's usually within 5% to start with.

See the box in my signature for my mileage.

Would you attribute most of your mileage gains to Scanguage following? I read your garage profile, it's not like you've tricked out the car or anything. Are you driving at uber slow speeds or something? That's just amazing mileage.

[palemelanesian]

Driving style is most of it. Scangauge helps me fine-tune that, although now that I've learned how to drive by it, it's more of a prompt to push it that much farther, than a teacher.

The Pulse & Glide technique is a major factor. My commute is about half 55-limit highway and half 45-limit city. That makes it easy for me to drive semi-slow. I probably average 5mph slower than the normal driver.

This article helps: http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_110216/article.html
Also, this lists most of the other techniques: http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510

[meangreen]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Driving style is most of it. Scangauge helps me fine-tune that, although now that I've learned how to drive by it, it's more of a prompt to push it that much farther, than a teacher.

The Pulse & Glide technique is a major factor. My commute is about half 55-limit highway and half 45-limit city. That makes it easy for me to drive semi-slow. I probably average 5mph slower than the normal driver.

This article helps: http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_110216/article.html
Also, this lists most of the other techniques: http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510

62mpg?! that is amazing. whats your tire pressure? and size of your tires.

[palemelanesian]

175/70/13 on factory steel rims. About 60 psi, max sidewall rating 44. I can't *recommend* doing this, but the results are there. I will recommend using 44 psi.

Seriously, though, it's mostly about having a good route and adjusting driving.

Pulse & Glide is about using the engine at its peak efficiency - ~2000 rpm and 3/4 throttle. See the autospeed article. Pulse in that area, then glide to a lower speed, then pulse back up... Glide in Neutral. (If you care to, you can shut off the engine for the glide. Test on an empty road first! power steering goes, but who needs that? Brakes still work for 3-4 solid pumps. You can bump-start in 5th gear to get power back. You don't have to do this, but it'll take the mileage gains up a notch)

Also, extreme traffic and light anticipation - drive as if you have no brakes. You'll watch much farther ahead and drive more smoothly. Any time you use the brakes, you're throwing away momentum. You burned gas earlier to gain that momentum.

On hills, let the speed drop a bit on the uphill, then gain it back on the downhill.

I've removed my grill block now that summer is here, but it'll go back in come October or so. It makes the engine warm up much faster.

Around town, roll down the windows and don't use AC - it robs your gas mileage.

I recommend against close drafting of trucks, but distant drafting, at about 3 seconds back, will give you good gains while still being safe and legal.

[meangreen]

my ac compressor doesnt work atm, so i removed the belt in nov. but the other stuff i need to learn more about. 60psi? do you have hub cap on the steelies?

[palemelanesian]

Yeah, hub caps. Not the greatest, either. However, I don't think something different will be worth the cost for better mileage - even cheap $15 caps.

Click on my mileage box below and you can see a picture of it.

For tire pressure, I recommend you try using the max printed on the tire - probably 44.