Acura Integra Owner Wants Better MPG
 

I drive a 1990 Acura Integra GS with a B20B 2.0L high compression Japanese domestic market CR-V engine in it.

Here is some information about my car:
Current Mileage: 127,248 and halfway between 1-2/10ths*
Original estimated EPA Fuel Mileage for 1990 Acura Integra GS (5-speed)** 24/28/25 mpg (City/Highway/Combined)
Revised estimated EPA Fuel Mileage for 1990 Acura Integra GS (5-speed)** 21/26/23 (City/Highway/Combined)
Fuel Capacity: 13.2 gallons

*Chassis mileage, the engine has approximately 70,000-80,000 miles on it.
**This is the listed EPA fuel mileage for a stock 1990 Acura Integra GS five-speed with a 1.8L B18A1. Please note that my Integra has had the stock engine swapped for a high compression JDM B20B.

I joined an Insight forum to find information about driving to save gas and Guillermo told me about this forum, which, since I don't drive an Insight, is better suited to my needs.

I look forward to learning a lot and hope to contribute a little now and then.

Sounds interesting. What ECU is running it? Is it converted to OBD1?

High compression will help your mpg but it may also require higher octane. It's a trade-off I'd be willing to make.

Agreed. VE is worth it:thumbup:

Yes, I believe it is converted to OBD1.

Well, I don't have any knocking, so it seems 87 octane is good for now.

How are you, SH? I talked to you a few times on H-T about stealth alarm installs.

Small world.

Well my DA has a bad tranny and I'm having a hard time working out some bugs with the Coil on plug conversion on my Civic. :mad:

I just moved and got a two car garage :D

But it's full of boxes and crap :mad:

Some day soon I hope to have a two car garage. One for my DD and one for my project car.

If I'm lucky, the DD will be a Honda Insight and the project car will be my DA.

Right now I have to borrow my parents garage whenever I want to work on anything, which is okay since they're in the same town I am but it's going to be a PITA when I swap out my blown stock struts for new ones in a few weeks.


Back on topic:
So far I've been driving using methods I've read about to conserve fuel on this tank alone. Soon I should be able to post what my average MPG was on this tank and then try to improve on that.

Now that I've found this forum, I have a lot of reading to do!

Heh, that happened to me too, went from a 1000 sq ft house with basement to 1400 sqft with same size basement and garage and somehow there's no room for anything and the garage is stuffed with crap.

Ha same here.

Just a little update, I'm at half a tank, according to the gas gauge in my Integra and the trip meter is at 172.6 miles. The tank holds 13.2 gallons, so half is approximately 6.6 gallons.

172.6miles/6.6gallons=26.15mpg

This is just an estimate, of course, since I can't tell exactly how many gallons I've used until I fill up again but 26.15mpg is better than the revised highway EPA estimate and I have a 2.0L engine, rather than the stock 1.8L.

I'm pretty happy with this result but I'm by no means satisfied. I know I'm not doing everything I can do to conserve gas. Ultimately, I'd like to get 32mpg per tank.

I've found the biggest change for me is not actually changing the way I drive but changing the way I think. Thinking about driving efficiently, accelerating slowly, driving the speed limit... these things have sort of calmed down the way I drive. I'm not driving nearly as aggressively now that I'm concentrating on saving gas and I find myself less likely to engage in the "road-ragey" behavior I was more prone to in the past when I was zipping around like Speed Racer.

Here's a tip that actually seems to work: Start posting your gaslogs. When you're actively doing it where everyone can see, you're more liable to do what you said - think about your driving - and that alone will help increase a couple of MPG. Keep us posted!