I'm gonna fix my ex but good...

[oneinchsidehop]

this ex that is.


Where do I start? From what I've gleaned while here I think there are 2 categories: things that always apply (tire pressure and slow down) and things that sometimes apply (warm air induction works for satruns, but not for everyone)

So, where to start? My budget is shot after buying it, Christmas is coming and I have 3 kids... you get the idea. Low buck rules.

Here's the initial list, critique at will:
tire pressure right now 18psi (really, it is) up to 50psi (sidewall max +20%)
grill block
block heater (it'll probably be the dipstick kind)
injector kill switch?

What else works on VTECs?

I don't think I can afford a scan gauge for a while, has does anyone have data on highway cruising speed and FE, shift points, engine off vs engine on coasting?

[UfoTofU]

I'm originally from Vermont. St. Johnsbury area.

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by UfoTofU

I'm originally from Vermont. St. Johnsbury area.

Just down the road from here, glad to see the area represented! 'course I think I'd have moved someplace warm rather than Maine...

If we have other people in the area it sure would be fun to do some mileage runs in the spring.

[BIBI]

Cruising 55mph is a good speed, 60 can do it also. I did look in your planned mod and saw a block heater. Since you are in the north part of the US, and winter is already there, you should get one as soon as possible and get a timer to set up your block heater for about 2 hours before you leave (3 if its really cold...). Winter is bad for MPG so a block heater is a good way to avoid idling in the morning, and also to get the car warm in half the time.

Its also cheap and easy to install, and its cheap on electricity, I read somewhere that letting your car plug for 3 months of 30 days, at 10 hours a day, coast about 25 dollars (Quebec electricity price, so maybe 50 for you in the US), but still you aint gonna use it all winter long, and definitely not 10 hours a night, so you can split the 50 box by 5 (10/2...), no more than 10 dollars a season.

[Mr Incredible]

My list for newly purchase vehicles:

Brakes, tires, oil change, tranny fluid change, wipers, lights/signals, plugs/wires, distr cap & rotor, coolant.

Air in the tires and change your habits is a given in the first 30 minutes. After that my considerations are safety/safety/safety.

[BIBI]

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

My list for newly purchase vehicles:

Brakes, tires, oil change, tranny fluid change, wipers, lights/signals, plugs/wires, distr cap & rotor, coolant.

Air in the tires and change your habits is a given in the first 30 minutes. After that my considerations are safety/safety/safety.

Driving safe usually mean good FE.

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

My list for newly purchase vehicles:

Brakes, tires, oil change, tranny fluid change, wipers, lights/signals, plugs/wires, distr cap & rotor, coolant.

Air in the tires and change your habits is a given in the first 30 minutes. After that my considerations are safety/safety/safety.

brakes- check
tires- check (even though they would fit in at a tractor pull... snow tires)
oil change -recommendations?
tranny fluid-recommendations?
wipers- check
lights/signals- check
plugs/wires-recommendations?
cap/rotor-recommendations?
coolant-recommendations?

We're on the same page I think, just wondering about specifics. Oil (5w30? Synthetic? Brand?) and tranny lube seem to come under the lighter is better heading, just looking for specifics related to this car, same with spark plugs. It seems every manufacturer claims a million percent improvement...

I've been searching the posts but I'm having trouble figuring out which things work for which engine/car and which things are just general.

[ajohnmeyer]

Cant go wrong with the OEM (NGK) plugs, I doubt you're going to see a significant increase in FE with any of the "super ubotainium triple 5000" sparkplugs over the OEM plugs. Plus even if you buy them from the dealer they should be cheaper.

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by BIBI

Cruising 55mph is a good speed, 60 can do it also. I did look in your planned mod and saw a block heater. Since you are in the north part of the US, and winter is already there, you should get one as soon as possible and get a timer to set up your block heater for about 2 hours before you leave (3 if its really cold...). Winter is bad for MPG so a block heater is a good way to avoid idling in the morning, and also to get the car warm in half the time.

Its also cheap and easy to install, and its cheap on electricity, I read somewhere that letting your car plug for 3 months of 30 days, at 10 hours a day, coast about 25 dollars (Quebec electricity price, so maybe 50 for you in the US), but still you aint gonna use it all winter long, and definitely not 10 hours a night, so you can split the 50 box by 5 (10/2...), no more than 10 dollars a season.

Funny, we get our electricity from Quebec, but it's cheaper here... thank God for small favors.

I thought I'd get a recirculating heater (aftermarket but there is none listed for hondas... do hondas have an odd sized lower radiator hose?)
I've notice that the block heaters all have 3 prong plugs, and the timers 2 prong... is it safe to use a ground lift adapter?

I think your right about the 55mph, any slower than that and the engine seems to labor, it just seems to like higher revs than I'm used to, especially with hills thrown in.

[ajohnmeyer]

Looks like you have a D16Y8, soo...
(as if this needs to be said) keep it out of VTEC (5300rpm cut-in)

Also, if you could get it cheaply, a 4-2-1 aftermarket header could help you out a bit. It'll have a lot less mass than your stock header, therefore it will heat up your engine bay a lot faster, if you want to do a WAI this could help. The other benifit is that just putting on a 4-2-1 header should give you a FE bump.

You can generally find cheapo headers on ebay, but check your local boneyard for riced-out hondas first. Also craigslist or freecycle would be good places to check.

[Mr Incredible]

Except for a very few instances, I've had very good service out of standard parts & fluids from the parts store. I try not to buy the cheapest, but can't justify buying the most expensive.




oil change - The biggest issue is to simply change your oil & filter regularly. There are those that go as long as they can possibly go to "save the planet." I go 5k miles to "save my engine." I don't know what your particular vehicle calls for, but a regular conventional oil is sufficient in the proper weight for 3k to 5k mile change intervals. Don't buy Fram oil filters if you can, and change your filter each oil change.

I feel good using high mileage oil in two of our cars, Motorcraft in the V10 truck, Pennzoil Platinum in the 98 Z28, and I currently have PP in the CRX oil pan and gearbox. Super-Duper oil is more of an OCD in my opinion, and with 5 cars to do it's out of the question.

As for sythetic oil fuel savings, I once managed to put 10k miles each on Mobil1 5w-30 and Quaker State 5w-30 in the same vehicle. The MPG difference was less than 1/10th mpg between the two, plus this was back when there was no quibbling over whether M1 was a true synthetic. I don't believe synthetic oils provide enough of a difference in mpgs as to make their increased cost worth it. You'd get more return by keeping your air filter clean and using a thinner oil in the weight of your choice.

tranny fluid-For my 5-sp CRX it's 10w-30 Pennzoil Platinum. It's the older oil that really is a synthetic oil. I have a few quarts still laying around. Others will give other examples, but I haven't had experience with them so can't say one way or the other.

plugs/wires-I have NGK plugs and some wires I got at the parts store.

cap/rotor-Parts store replacements.

coolant-Mine's good as I got it (it was from Rapid City and was recently done), but I'll use some name brand from Wally-Mart in a 50/50 mix when I flush it next year.


$.02

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by ajohnmeyer

Looks like you have a D16Y8, soo...
(as if this needs to be said) keep it out of VTEC (5300rpm cut-in)

Also, if you could get it cheaply, a 4-2-1 aftermarket header could help you out a bit. It'll have a lot less mass than your stock header, therefore it will heat up your engine bay a lot faster, if you want to do a WAI this could help. The other benifit is that just putting on a 4-2-1 header should give you a FE bump.

You can generally find cheapo headers on ebay, but check your local boneyard for riced-out hondas first. Also craigslist or freecycle would be good places to check.

Oh but that 5300-7000 burst feels sooooooo good... ok, I know. Not FE.
I've read that headers on D16y8 perform MUCH better with inlet mods (the "whale penis" from another thread. Does this improve FE or just enhance the joy of VTEC?

[oneinchsidehop]

To sum up:

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

1. I try not to buy the cheapest, but can't justify buying the most expensive.
2.The biggest issue is to simply change your oil & filter regularly.
3. regular conventional oil is sufficient in the proper weight for 3k to 5k mile change intervals. Don't buy Fram oil filters if you can, and change your filter each oil change.
4. I don't believe synthetic oils provide enough of a difference in mpgs as to make their increased cost worth it.
5. tranny fluid[color=#ff0000]-For my 5-sp CRX it's 10w-30 Pennzoil Platinum.
plugs/wires-I have NGK plugs and some wires I got at the parts store.

6. cap/rotor-Parts store replacements.

7. coolant Mine's good as I got it (it was from Rapid City and was recently done), but I'll use some name brand from Wally-Mart in a 50/50 mix when I flush it next year.

Now that's some usefull stuff. Any opinions on engine heaters?

[ajohnmeyer]

both, depending on how you drive it.

Drive in a "spirited" fashion and spend much time in the VTEC-happy-zone and it'll give a nice little performance boost.

Drive for FE and it'll give you a nice FE boost.

[Mr Incredible]

I see that you're in a COLD region. An addendum to the oil question is that you might wish to use a synthetic oil for the lower cold pumpability this winter. Getting oil moving quicker is better.

On the other hand, the thinnest 5w-30s I know if are Castrol Syntec (thinnest and a "synthetic") and Havoline Deposit Shield (only slightly less thin than C-Syn but thinner than any other synthetic of the 5w-30s. Of course, Havoline DS is the cheaper of the two.


Personally, I don't use engine heaters. My F250SD has a battery warmer, but it may only get down to -10* here, and then only for a couple of days. Not too bad.

[BIBI]

Originally Posted by oneinchsidehop

Funny, we get our electricity from Quebec, but it's cheaper here... thank God for small favors.

I thought I'd get a recirculating heater (aftermarket but there is none listed for hondas... do hondas have an odd sized lower radiator hose?)
I've notice that the block heaters all have 3 prong plugs, and the timers 2 prong... is it safe to use a ground lift adapter?

I think your right about the 55mph, any slower than that and the engine seems to labor, it just seems to like higher revs than I'm used to, especially with hills thrown in.

Hum, I don't know about that, how much cents you pay a KW?

[oneinchsidehop]

Originally Posted by BIBI

Hum, I don't know about that, how much cents you pay a KW?

$0.00408/kwh, USD of course which is pretty weak against the Canadian dollar from what I hear lately.

Better question, how much are you paying for gas. The border is only 2mi from work, plus Quebec'rs are more polite.

[BIBI]

Originally Posted by oneinchsidehop

$0.00408/kwh, USD of course which is pretty weak against the Canadian dollar from what I hear lately.

Better question, how much are you paying for gas. The border is only 2mi from work, plus Quebec'rs are more polite.

We pay 1.16 a liter, but I'm in Quebec city, in Montreal, its less expansive, so 1.16 liter is 4.38$ a gallon, but we have to pay an EXTRA taxe of 25 cents per liter, so 95 cents add on each gallon, so without the taxe, we are at 3.50 around, so that is not that high.

So I think you better to gas from your side of the boders.