Pea Shooter Chronicles (first gen honda insight mods)

[dian]

resonance tuning of air and gas mainly shuffles power and torque to certain speeds (secondary and tertiary), so overall output is largely unaffected. anti reversion cones in the exhaust might be different (never tried them).

a.k., you should really get some software for that engine. adjust fuel, spark, time of injection, air/coolant temp. mix, lambda threshhold, detonation sensors, whatever. its fun.

[A.K. Boomer]

Im very happy with the mods im making - for right now im looking for minimally invasive and using my knowledge and skills from what iv learned over the decades of building up race engines and also using my particular brands of efficiency tricks,

You really have to be careful tweaking the stuff your talking about on this car as honda already has it so tweaked that they do burn out fore and aft oxygen sensors much more frequent then regular vehicles and the fore is a broad band that costs about 150 bucks so not cheap, but of course very cheap in comparison to a melted hole in ones piston,

There is a fairly safe area for more gains IF you want to get even more interactive with this car and that's a way to override BOTH the regen/charging and the assist mode with a joystick connected to the IMA computer, in fact there's a guy that sells kits, It does make sense as sometimes I wish I could control it better due to having a view at what's up ahead,,, If I had an upgraded bumblebee battery pack that gives about 25% more amp hours overstock I might consider but only after iv exhausted all my creative efforts on the car...

Im sure iv already made some very positive progress and expect to eventually see the all time average not only increase at a great rate over the summer months but not take such a huge digger come next winter, although WIlly's correct it will go down no matter what, just not at the rate of what i experienced this last winter...

plus --- im just getting started.

[A.K. Boomer]

Not all mods have to be about HP or efficiency gains, one of the toughest things for me to get used to was this lack of center console and no arm rest, look at this pic --- it's a complete wast of space,


So I did find a hack, it's a 6th gen honda civic center console/armrest and while I cannot take credit for coming up with that I can take credit for doing it correctly as in building this bracket to fit it's mounting holes and such,




Also taking my time with the fit as it needs custom blended to the shifter base, (up till 10 pm pounding down a liter of cab. sav.)





And me gots storage now --- that's a big deal in this car as it has next to nothing stock... not even a place to put a mid size fart...

[dian]

thats a weird thing for sure with late model cars. my 89 cherokee had plenty of storage possibilities for maps, napkins, gloves etc., incl. 2 small compartments in the back, my 97 has much less and wifes 2001 has nothing exept a glovebox, thats downsized so that the stuff doesnt want to come out.

[A.K. Boomer]

Guess it depends on the vehicle - this thing sounds like the one you have with just a glove box, that's all I had along with that little tray and some front cup holders, no door panel compartments or anything else, yet have a buddy come by yesterday to show me his late model dodge truck and it had compartments everywhere, must have been a dozen of them...

Anyways --- you change one thing you have to expect to change more,,, I knew it was going to be tight but after I put the center console in the seat back levers would have been wedged between the console and the seat back, Who puts the levers on the inside center of the car anyways ? don't know why they did that but they did,,, here's original ;







here's the black delrin's I made up this morning --- the kinda look like they belong and work good so all's back to normal with function... they are just ball end milled on all four upper sides... and had to drill deep into them on the mount side with a 1/8" endmill, they slipped on - more like a press fit but are not going anywhere...





i'll say this much - they certainly are out of the way... but still easy to get to them when you need to change position.

[A.K. Boomer]

Well turns out I got to test my pre-heat system this winter after all - it's been pretty cold for about a week and the car has definitely seen improvement from what was going on --- it seems about the best comparison I can give is about 5mpg's better then stock in cooler temps, I went from about 57.5 to 62.5 mixed driving and lots of cold starts on enrichment,,, Im sure the temps were not quite as cold as a month or two ago but even if I take a hit down to 60 mpgs it means I will be breaking even or just above with the cars all time average,,, even in the winter months...

that' means the summer months will contribute greatly to getting the average up and keeping it there...



that's the temp of the air intake box after a short trip and it was about 35 degree's out at the time, I do not know yet if I could up the ante with the bi metal adjustment screw or if the system is simply maxed out heat wise due to such long runs with the preheat hoses and the cat only putting out so much and my shield around it only working so well,

I will check into it when I get more time but either way it can be remedied just one will be totally simple and one take more mods...

[A.K. Boomer]

So - along with the pre-heat and all the other upgrades I started attacking the problem of taking long trips with just a two seater and no place to snooze, and this car has been a challenge but finally got it figured out, although cramped once you get in position it's ample room to toss and turn and get comfortable,,, again just for solo long trips, take the passenger seat out - lots of room for a cooler and other stuff and the modified chunk of plywood fits nicely in the back strapped down until you need it... this is the piece I had on the mill last night, I had to make an aluminum plate to attach to it so that the plywood would sit flush with the cars raised beam - that's how tight things are for room you have to try and keep every inch of it....






Installed;



and with my foam raised back insert ;


It's all very high up due to the hybrid battery and stuff in the back, so am going to have to get the front window sun shield and at least a passenger side one otherwise even with tint people will be able to see me sleeping and drooling on my pillow at rest stops and stuff --- I really don't want any of that to go viral....

[A.K. Boomer]

Pics of some of the obstacles i had to work around, the tie down anchor hump on the main beam;




I bent the aluminum plate simply by opening up the jaws of my shop vise to the correct width and whooping up on it with a ball peen hamma,,,



for the leg area, three chunks of housing construction foam - just assembled with 3M spray adhesive and packing tape on the sides ;




again only to be used when parked - and also the plywood fits reverse for storage on top of the foam board and BEHIND the drivers seat - the aluminum fits BEHIND the main beam and the whole plate is strapped down while driving...

[I make chips]

Going through the thread I can't help but remember college days and the guy that had a VW beetle.
He was always bragging how great the mileage was to the point a few of us were sick of hearing it. So weekly we would add a gallon or two to it. He'd rant about the great mileage. Then we'd siphon a gallon or two out of it which drove him nuts. It was great sport for a while until someone ratted us out.

[A.K. Boomer]

Going through the thread I can't help but remember college days and the guy that had a VW beetle.
He was always bragging how great the mileage was to the point a few of us were sick of hearing it. So weekly we would add a gallon or two to it. He'd rant about the great mileage. Then we'd siphon a gallon or two out of it which drove him nuts. It was great sport for a while until someone ratted us out.

That's just plain cruel dude --- with friends like you who needs enemies lol

I bet sometimes he got real quiet --- probably blamed it on a head wind...

[I make chips]

It was most amusing yet traumatic for the guy. It went from 50 odd to 15 ish. He had it tuned up $$ to try to get it back in the 50's when our antics were busted by another friend.

[A.K. Boomer]

This is why I save my old lift struts --- you never know when they might come in handy,,, to depressurize peck at it lightly with a small center drill, even the old ones are loaded with tons of pressure... but when your done and you drain all the oil you have a collapsible unit that you can then modify to your needs for different height adjustments, in this case I just have one hole for sleeping but could indeed have a higher one for raising the plywood section even further for reading or something....

So all that's needed to put the vehicle in solo trip mode is to remove the passenger seat (4 bolts) and then bolt this apparatus in place (two bolts) takes less then 5 minutes, this is the unit in collapse/travel mode out of the way;




Pic of one of the mounts I had to machine and make up ;




here's extended mode with pins in pre-drilled holes at correct height --- you can use a small hole first just to gauge where the inner piston is so that you can then be accurate with drilling your larger hole that will accept the pin...

Note also the pins in the top part that accept the holes in the plywood... they are of course put in after the board is in place - just have them sticking out to show for pic...








It's all pretty high up - nothing I could do about that in this car just is what it is,,, but - if I bring the pooch for trips she picked up a nice spot to hang out while car camping....