s I should really properly introduce myself. For those of you that don't know me, which is most I suspect, my name's Lee and I hail from northern California. I work as a DBA for a local oil company and spend most of my time trying to stay out of tro
 

Well, I guess I should really properly introduce myself. For those of you that don't know me, which is most I suspect, my name's Lee and I hail from northern California. I work as a DBA for a local oil company and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble.

For most of my automotive life, about 10 years now, the last thing on my mind was increasing my mileage. Until recently, I had strictly been a hard core racer at heart (I don't plan to give it up yet!). I've done about everything from checking the air pressure in my tires to rebuilding my engine and about EVERYTHING in between. I've also spent my fair share of time behind the wheel (SCCA, NASA, CSCC), as well as being a mechanic for my regional SOLO II CPS champion.

One good thing about coming from a racing background is that I know a good deal of tricks when it comes to freeing up horsepower and reducing drag and weight. These areas can all be applied to increasing your MPG, where normally you are trying to eek out those last few HP, you can now gain efficiency.

Now if anyone ever has an automotive question, feel free to ask, and don't worry if you think it sounds trivial or lame, I have 4 sisters who all go to me for automotive advice, so I've about heard it all.

Thanks Matt for inviting me over to your site, I hope in the years to come I have plenty to learn as well as bring to the table.

-Lee

Welcome
 

Welcome to the site, Lee. By the way, do you have a specialization in imports or domestics? We have a wide range of cars in the "Gassavers Garage", but most are Honda/Acura. Right now we're trying to figure out exhaust diameter, backpressure, and muffler style for best economy (mostly in Hondas). Large, free-flowing exhausts probably won't help because of the requirement for some backpressure. Any experience in this area?

RH77

My biggest specialty is in
 

My biggest specialty is in Honda / Acura... but I've owned my fair share of classic Mustangs as well.

As far as exhaust diameter, backpressure and muffler style. I can help you out with that probably. I'm assuming that most everyone here is dealing with NA motors (not turbocharged) to start with. What you would want to do to obtain the greatest gains from exhaust is to have the least amount of backpressure while keeping the port velocity at the right speed. People often get confused about this, too big is bad because of the low port velocity, not the lack of backpressure.

If there isn't one already, we should probably start a thread on this subject.

Thread
 

We could resurrect this thread:

https://www.gassavers.org/forum_topic...l_economy.html

RH77

we have had some
 

we have had some backpressure talk.

theard 1

thread 2


(EDIT: looks like i am slow again)

Re: we have had some
 

I'm usually the one that takes forever getting the wording right, and fall short of the quote. Wow. :-)

RH77

I replied to this
 

I replied to this thread:

https://www.gassavers.org/forum_topic...l_economy.html

Sorry bout the novel.

Re: I replied to this
 

I thouroughly enjoyed your "novel." It sometimes takes a few extra words to explain things right and so it can be understood.

Thanks again for the kudos,
 

Thanks again for the kudos, thank god it made some sense considering the time of day I wrote it. =)

Its rather interesting to me that almost every thing I've learned about making an engine produce more horsepower and be used to increase its mileage. For instance:

Throttle body:

Power: Make it bigger for less pumping losses at greater CFM.

Mileage: Make it smaller so the throttle plate is at a lesser angle of attack and thus reducing pumping losses.

Cam Gears:

Power: Move the power band up for more horsepower.

Mileage: Move it down to increase efficiency at cruising RPM.

I would be interested to see the results on a non-VTEC engine with adjustable cam gears. I'm not sure how dramatic of a change you would see on a VTEC engine, but I bet there are a few MPG to be found in a non-VTEC one.

How much are cam gears for a
 

How much are cam gears for a d series?

What's the smallest tb to be used, the 40mm cx, vx, hf?

Cam gear should be about
 

Cam gear should be about $50-60 shipped.

I think the CX/VX/HF TB's (the are all the same size... I was using a VX one on my HF engine before because I liked the cleaner look of the throttle body mounted MAP sensor) are around 40mm... damn small, I'll bust out my caliper when I get home and measure it.

I do know the other TB sizes off the top of my head:

D15/16 = 55-56mm
b18a / first gen b16a = 58mm
second gen b16a / b16b / b18b / b18c1 = 60mm
b18c5 = 62mm

If the CX/VX/HF one is really 40mm... that's a HUGE difference in area... as its Pi * Radius squared...

40mm diameter = 12.6 cm2
60mm diameter = 28.3 cm2

That's a cross sectional increase of 224%!!!

It is hugely different, yep.
 

It is hugely different, yep. I have a d15b7 tb I'm going to use now until I can get all the cx stuff. The ports don't match well otherwise so I'll try and go all cx head/im/tb soon and get rid of the 56mm b7 stuff.

I'm not sure, but is the CX
 

I'm not sure, but is the CX head the same casting as the HF?

I believe so.
 

I believe so.

I wonder if the cams are
 

I wonder if the cams are ground any differently. If I had one of each I could get them profiled. And on that subject, how bout a custom mileage grind?

MetroMPG has mentioned
 

MetroMPG has mentioned someone who does custom cam grinds for metros that has an mpg set up.