Hey everyone!

[mtbiker278]

Cool site you guys have here. I've been reading through a whole lot of posts and found more information than I ever thought was available. I particularly enjoyed the acetone testing/ discussion. I can't say that I'd ever use the stuff, but it's an interesting proposal.

Anywho, I'm a recent college grad working in a genetics lab, which has a variety of issues with it. One, I'm still "poor" and gas is expensive in the DC area. Two, I have to drive 30 miles to get to work since I still live at my parents house because I'm "poor". I say "poor" because I'm not really poor, I just can't afford to get out of my house, particularly since I bought a new car. I will say I miss my 2001 civic, but in terms of creature comforts and such the 2006 civic is the best car I've driven. I will conceed if I was smart I'd buy a beat up used CRX or something, but I plan on driving this car into the dirt, which should hopefully last me 200K miles.

I find some of the modifications on your cars to be ingenius. Particularly the WAI, the "catch-can", and lowering your cars for areodynamics. Unfortunately, I'm hesitant to do any of that to my car since it's new (with the exception of maybe lowering it). As of now, I'm getting around 34 MPG on my civic. DC traffic tends to be the main culprit for my loss in fuel economy, plus the whole EPA over estimating. I guess what I'm really looking for is suggestions on how to increase fuel economy without voiding my warranty. So far I've looked at getting the scan gauge to alter my driving style, switching to a better synthetic oil(possibly royal purple which I hear has "Moly" in it), putting on an intake/exhuast(but your results are still out on whether or not this actually helps), and maybe switching to iridium sparkplugs(also inconclusive).

All suggestions are welcome, Thanks

[Compaq888]

just inflate the tires to their max cold pressure. It should be on the sidewall of the tire. Drive the speed limit on the freeway. That together should bump you up a couple of mpg.

[SVOboy]

I will conceed if I was smart I'd buy a beat up used CRX or something, but I plan on driving this car into the dirt, which should hopefully last me 200K miles.

To be honest, I was just complemented at the gas station today because my CRX looked "brand new, did you get it painted or something?"

I wonder how long the new civics last, my body will prolly go for ages with all the engine work I'll be doing,

Did you get a stick ****?

and maybe switching to iridium sparkplugs(also inconclusive).

I don't really see why this would help. Personally I would get v powers and side-gap them. Most honda owners give props to the copper v powers for the best sparkness.

[mtbiker278]

So far I have the psi set to 35 front 33 rear. The stock psi is 32. I suppose I could take it up another couple psi and reduce some rolling resistance. As for going the speed limit, I usually do with the cruise on. However, getting on the beltway (also known as the death loop by some) is usually best done just going with the traffic. Has anyone seen any improvement with royal purple oil, or should I stick with my cheaper valvoline?

[SVOboy]

Personally I'd say stick with the cheap ****, but that's me. You can kick psi up to 50 if you feel like, really no risk. Got any Cd (coefficient of drag) stats on the civic?

[mtbiker278]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Did you get a stick ****?

I ended up getting the auto for two reasons. One, that's all the had on the lot and the sale was for only a couple days. Two, the auto tranny has a lower 5th gear(0.525 compared to the manual 0.727). While I know I'd have fun with the manual, the auto is better for comfort while being stuck in traffic. BTW it's a coupe is anyone wants to know, drops approx. 40lbs over the sedan, plus the rake of the windshield is steeper for better aerodynamics, or so I think.

[SVOboy]

Stick shift, I should've said. I have seen that about the 5th gear, I dunno what's up with that, I think honda is going in the wrong direction with their cars but I dunno.

[mtbiker278]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Got any Cd (coefficient of drag) stats on the civic?

The only stats i could fins were for the hybrid, which is at 0.28Cd. I would assume that the coupe is a little lower because of the windshield, but that's not a definite. The rake on the windshield on the hybrid is 23.9 degrees while the coupe is 21.9. I don't know if this would have much of an impact on drag, but it definitely looks cool.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

Stock v-power ngk spark plugs are suposed to work so well because copper conducts better, next better conductor is silver, platnum isn't all that great, so if you go with platnum just get platnum tips, and copper cores, however a platnum plated distributor cap, and rotor might help because it doesn't oxidize easly, and oxide doesn't conduct.

in my own tests from a few years ago, synthetic oils really did help about 2-3% started at 41mpg then went 15,000 miles averageing 42.2mpg, but mostly I did it because of the garenty that it wouldn't harm my engine if I went 25,000 miles between oil changes, and I kind of like being lazy like that, and the money I saved.

if you want to keep your car really close to stock, replacing your rims with those from a civic VX, HX or Insight would reduce your unsprung weight, and reducing a pound of unsprung weight is suposed to be like reducing 3 pounds of weight in other places on the car, and look for High Proformance tires, as narrow as you can get, the High-proformance tires quite often are lower rolling resistance.

[SVOboy]

if you want to keep your car really close to stock, replacing your rims with those from a civic VX, HX or Insight would reduce your unsprung weight, and reducing a pound of unsprung weight is suposed to be like reducing 3 pounds of weight in other places on the car, and look for High Proformance tires, as narrow as you can get, the High-proformance tires quite often are lower rolling resistance.

I've heard 1:2 pounds, it's really all bull**** though since you can't get the inertia unless you go specific. I know vx rims won't fit, and depending on the model HX and Insight might not, hell, the civics might even be 5 lug now!

Anyway, get LRRs, performance tires are mainly grippy, which is bad. Unless were're thinking about different things?