Belly Pan Installation, Honda Del Sol

[krousdb]

Began with four 2' x 8' pieces of coroplast (corrugated plastic) 4mm thick.


1. Jack up one side of car and place one sheet underneath.



2. Slide edge of coroplast between black moulding flange and floorboard. Secure with three screws through moulding flange



3. Slide forward until you have enough coroplast to attach to front lip.



4. Cut reliefs into coroplast for clearance around A-arms. Attach to front lip with screws. Duct tape not required but it helps to smooth things out.



5. Bend up and secure coroplast with screws to complete the wheelwell treatment. This helps keep turbulence from wheel well from getting between the bellypan and floorboard. Trim around exhaust system leaving at least 1" clearance between coroplast and any exhaust component.



6. Repeat steps 1-5 on the other side.



7. Install coroplast on drivers side rear. Forward end slides between front coroplast piece and floorboard. Rear attaches to rear lip. Secure with screws.



8. Install coroplast on passenger side rear. Leftward end slides between drivers side rear coroplast piece and floorboard. Rear attaches to rear lip. Secure with screws. Trim around exhaust system leaving at least 1" clearance between coroplast and any exhaust component.


Cut reliefs for suspension parts.





9. Complete passenger side rear wheel well treatment. Trim around exhaust system leaving at least 1" clearance between coroplast and any exhaust component.



10. Complete driver side rear wheel well treatment.



11. Paint all coroplast flat black. Not yet completed.



Complete! Don't forget to put your tires back on before removing lowering car. Tighten lugnuts.

Enough coroplst left over for wheel skirts and grille block. To be documented in subsequent DIY's.

[SVOboy]

Wow, you so crazy. Brave to be under there with just that jack and a jackstand, woo-ee.

Are you going to make the little lips that sit in front of the front wheels and push air out of the way?

[MetroMPG]

awesome! can't wait to see some new FE numbers. i just know you've gone out to try it - what did you learn??

and did you cut an access flap for oil changes?

instead of being lazy and sitting on my butt this afternoon, i should really get out there and keep working on my own trays.

[philmcneal]

WOW dan amazing, give us the numbers when your car goes live.

[Matt Timion]

Nice work. I was just thinking about how you have the advantage of so many hills in your area so you can coast more often than the rest of us. The funny thing is that you have more hills than I do, and I live in the freaking mountains.

Anyway, I think this will give you at LEAST a 1-2mpg boost during your commute, which is more than worth it.

[thisisntjared]

wow great work!! and i am inspired!

if you every feel like hacking at your rear bumper, removing a few inches off the bottom, then having the tray arch up for the missing few inches will help reduce the vehicles wake.

anyway, i cant wait for the results!!

[Compaq888]

I guess my car can't be called ducky anymore. My new setup is better than my old one and doesn't include any duct tape.

I can go hardcore too but then I would be getting 30mpg and you would be getting 60mpg. I'd be the only one looking stupid.

[SVOboy]

Why was it called ducky in the first place?

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

and did you cut an access flap for oil changes?

Nope. I run my Mobil One for 12-15k miles. I will uninstall the belly pan for my safety inspection next January. I will do the oil change at that time before I reinstall the pan. Or maybe I will have to do it what SVOBoy helps me install my tranny this summer. (Hint, Hint)

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

awesome! can't wait to see some new FE numbers. i just know you've gone out to try it - what did you learn??

Metro knows me quite well

The first thing that I noticed was, OMG, my car is soooo quiet! I think that a combination less turbulence and the insulative qualities of Coroplast made a very noticeable difference in road noise.

I took a 30 mile RT to get black spray paint and the NGK V Power plugs at Pep Boys as Autozone doesn't carry it. This course yields very similar FE to my daily commute. On one downhill section, I usually start it with engine off at 20 MPH and reach a max speed of 55MPH then coast down to 30-35 before another downhill. Normally I have to bump start to keep speed up (40 MPH zone with cars behind me) before reaching the second downhill and then engine off again. Today my max speed was 62MPH and I made it to the second hill at 35 MPH without restarting. Wooot!

The FE for the 30 mile trip was 62.1 MPG, a new personal best. My previous bersonal best was 61.4 with a 10 MPH tailwind. Whats even more impressive was that I had a 15MPH west wind and 53F. Since the route is generally N-S I never had the benefit of a tailwind and was always fighting the crosswind. I'm actually looking forward to work on Monday!

Current Tank: 91 miles, 61.0 MPG :P

Oh, I forgot to mention that at the beginning of this tank I have been using an SVOboy custom ECU with FE enhanced settings. Not sure what the impact has been since temps have been warmer also. I know, I am changing too much at once to get an idea of the impact of each mod. Later this summer when temps stabilize I will start disabling each mod, one at a time in the attempt to measure any difference.

Woooooot!

[Compaq888]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Why was it called ducky in the first place?

Because I had a huge sheet of metal that was held by duct tape that kept falling off.

Now I use 4 screws, 8 nuts and 8 washers. The whole setup could be taken off the car in 10 min. I drilled no holes.

[SVOboy]

Very impressive numbers, Dan, I am quite jealous.

I am still wondering about the afrs a bit, I think I might've overshot the sweet spot and it needs a little bit of fine tuning (actual tuning would be best) to get it to where it's getting the most bang for the blah blah.

Anywho, I'll have to do this soon, but I worry about reaching the engine since I'm always tinkering.

[philmcneal]

man... all the big FE mods are DIY.... and it reduces car noise too man!!!

[SVOboy]

DIY owns, y0. And dan is particularly talented. Expect a DIY side gapping and indexing article later in the day also, w00t. Then Danny gets the remaining washers to do his.

[krousdb]

Fo Sheezy! Already gots the plugs. The indexing DIY will be quite timely.

What gap will you use?

[SVOboy]

I'm just leaving them the stock gap because that's what they usually say, or so I think.

DIY will be up tonight, I just finished, I only needed one washer so I'll send you the rest on monday and you can superMID test it. You could test indexing then do sidegapping and test that too in combination, how cool would that be?

[krousdb]

What is sidegapping?

[SVOboy]

<a href=http://www.gassavers.org/forum_topic/modifying_your_spark_plugs.html target=_blank>My Original Thread</a>

What what.

[thisisntjared]

where do you get coroplast like home depot or lowes? if so where inside?

the sound deadening alone sells me. but 1-3mpg makes me want to get this done by the end of the week. ive already stuffed some of my interior panels with home insulation just to cut down on white noise. with this stuff underneath it will be amazing.

[krousdb]

I visited 5 different Lowes / Home Depots and nobody knew what i was talking about. Metro says that the Canadian Home Depots carry it for $12 per 4x8 sheet. I ended up buying it at a sign making shop as it is most commonly used for making signs. Expect to pay $20 per 4x8 sheet. I bought 2 sheets and had the guy cut into 2x8 pieces, mainly so I could get them home in the Prius.

[XFi]

Struck out at Lowe's and Home Depot in my area too.

[SVOboy]

I'm going to hit up home depot tomorrow when I go looking for halogen shop lights and see what they have. Then on to autozone to turn in a job application and spend my hard earned gift card on some stuff to make a push button start for the CRX.

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

I'm going to hit up home depot tomorrow when I go looking for halogen shop lights and see what they have. Then on to autozone to turn in a job application and spend my hard earned gift card on some stuff to make a push button start for the CRX.

Oooh, ooooh! I have an industrial pushbutton, rated for AC 120V, 30A I think. It should work for your application. I will send it for free if you want it. The button is gray and 1" in diameter. Lemme know.

[SVOboy]

I have no idea if 120V will work, I think I need 12v since it'll be car powered, but I'm not sure, anyone know!!?!?!?

[krousdb]

A switch is a switch is a switch. Switches are rated by thier ability to extinguish an arc when the switch is opened. DC is more difficult to extinguish than AC because DC has no zero crossing like AC does. But 120V AC is 10 times the DC rating so you should have no problem. I am a mechanical engineer so I may be off base here, I know just enough abouot electricity to be dangerous. I would be happy to hear from and electrical engineer to set me straight.

[SVOboy]

I talked to drdisco about this and he said blah blah it'll work, so w00t.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by krousdb

Metro says that the Canadian Home Depots carry it for $12 per 4x8 sheet. I ended up buying it at a sign making shop as it is most commonly used for making signs. Expect to pay $20 per 4x8 sheet. I bought 2 sheets and had the guy cut into 2x8 pieces, mainly so I could get them home in the Prius.

i said $12? sorry - must have been hallucinating.

i paid $19 CDN for my 4x8 sheet this week, which in a feat of creative engineering, i managed to securely attatch to the roof of the blackfly (roof racks) to get it home. got lots of stares. looked pretty funny.

(i once carried a 16 foot hobie cat hull on the roof too, but that's another story. little cars carrying big things are inherently amusing.)

well krousdb, you inspired me to get off my butt this afternoon, and i finished the hardest part of my belly pan - the front portion.

the main difference is i'm going to mock it up entirely in cardboard & duct tape first so i can do a relatively easy & accurate before/after experiment - i'll just pull the trays off on the side of the road between runs. unfortunately, this means i won't be able to do A-B-A.

look for something in the next week or 2 - just waiting for good testing weather (calm). afterwards i'll document the coroplast tray installation as well.

[krousdb]

Cant wait to see some pics.

There is aa old red metro in the parking lot at work. Every once in awhile I go over and stare ate it thinking, I could kick some A** in that. I get some wierd looks, yes.

[basjoos]

Krousdb, how are you handling engine cooling now that you have both the grill blocked so no air can enter from the front and the Coroplast sheet covering up the openings at the bottom of the engine compartment so no air can waft up from below? How is the air getting moved across your radiator and the heat removed from your engine compartment?

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by basjoos

Krousdb, how are you handling engine cooling now that you have both the grill blocked so no air can enter from the front and the Coroplast sheet covering up the openings at the bottom of the engine compartment so no air can waft up from below? How is the air getting moved across your radiator and the heat removed from your engine compartment?

Actually, I'm not doing anything special except for monitoring the temp gauge. With the 192F thermostat, grille block and belly pan, the engine gets to operating temp much quicker. But there is no change in max temp on my gauge. As it gets warmer outside that may change and I am prepared to alter the grille block on the passenger side to provide air to the radiator. There is plenty of room for hot air to flow out of the engine compartment around the exhaust pipe where I left clearance so the corolpast won't melt.

[Compaq888]

a couple of questions...

1. If coroplast touches the exaust components will it melt?

2. Does Coroplast rip easy?

3. Does it bend easy?