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Well I've been playing around with Scangauge and I've decided on the main gauges I'll have up while driving around.

Intake Air Temp
Coolant Temp
Throttle Position
Average Trip Speed


Some things I've noticed. With my underbody aero panels, Radiator block, Full block of the AC condenser where the radiator is not, the Coolant temp is right at 198 degree Fahrenheit. A bit lower than I want it to be, but not that big a deal. I've made some rubber panel that are easy to put on and take off that will seal up the holes in the wheel well where the front suspension and steering rack makes its way through the engine compartment. I'm thinking that will lower the amount of wind that is making its way into the compartment, increasing temps a bit more.

Now these numbers were taken today, when the outside temps were at 70.... Interesting. I can only imagine what they will be when its averaging 40's outside. Looks like I need to make my radiator block beefier.


Intake air temp. I'm not running a HAI at the moment because I didn't like the way mine was routed (causing some minor chaffing of the high voltage line. My intake air temps were running around 85 with some spikes to 90. Not bad considering that the outside temps were 65-75 today when I was driving around. Anyone have an idea where the drop off point in terms of gain for increase IAT's? I think I read somewhere around 110 - 120. If thats the case then I'm quite sure its probably safe to run a HAI almost year round, at least in my area. Summer I'd have to take it off, but I'm making a functional ram air intake that is super easily installable. I took off the end of the intake and where the end looks like a funky rectangle, I reformed it into almost a circle. I only spent 30 minutes messing with it but I'm sure I could get it much more round with some more time. Basically what this does is makes it super easy to slip on a nice short piece of radiator hose I salvaged for my ram air intake. It has a nice 90 degree bend in it so I can easily put on a hose clamp around it for quick changes of intakes. I still need to find a piece of pre-heater hose that is more appropriately sized for this as right now I'm playing around with a piece of ducting that is 3" in diameter. Too big for my taste but I think it will work. My concern is that it will be too big and allow the air to cool off to quickly before it actually gets into the intake. The piece I modified is more like 2"-2.25" in diameter but its hard to tell since its not perfectly round. I will play more with it in a few days.

If anyone is interested in this let me know and I'll do a write up so there's no confusion on how to do it ;)


TPS: On my trips around time I've found that a reading of 14-15 TPS is getting me around 100 mpg's in 4th and 5th gear depending on speed. I've been trying to pay attention to my pressure on the throttle and trying to drive as I normally have been and I was sitting in the 15-16 range. 14 netted me the same speed as 15 would but with around 20 mpg's higher.

When accelerating I've been trying to keep it at 20-21 and I can't tell much of a difference, yet, in FE between the two but 21 is noticeably better for picking up speed. I think if I had the engine load gauge up, it would be easier to determine which to choose as the lower the load, the better the FE.


What readings are you guys noticing when watching the scangauge when hypermiling? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

For comparison, what's your TPS at no-foot idle? The Prius,
for example, shows 14% at base idle and only goes to about 50%
when you really whomp on it.
.
_H*

The insight reads 9 with my foot off the gas and 90 wide open.

I've decided that I'm going to take of average trip speed as one of my normal gauges.. Not really much point behind it as I'm not using it for anything. Going to switch to engine load to get a better feel for of how things are going while I'm driving.

yep, 9 to 90 is what mine says too. i seem to cruise between 19 and 21 on the freeway. the load gauge tends to be very twitchy. kinda useless for me.

hmmm, well then maybe I'll stick to the average speed for the trip. I got a little notebook to help keep track of each trip. I want to record as much data as I can (IAT, Coolant Temp, average speed, Outside air temp, FE, miles, etc...)

I haven't been on a highway yet since I got the scangauge but 21 sounds about right in order to maintain highway speeds. Maybe I'll take the innerstate to my parents house next time I go. The rural road I normally travel has a speed limit of 55 but I can easily go 45 with no issues since traffic is light. The innerstate has a speed limit of 65 and if you don't go close to that, you'll get ran over if traffic is heavy (which its normally not).

I'm going to read the manual again to see if I can decide on a better gauge to normally put up...
Thanks for the info hafnhaf!

I know this may not be as relevant to the Insight, but I also monitored certain gauges for a while on the HCH-II with rather interesting results, for instance:

LOD:
It is very dependent on the throttle position, and in its dance from 25% to 90% it discloses a few interesting things about the system and behavior thresholds. For example, sustaining an LOD of 50-55% at a steady rate will increase the changes of a hidden regen. On the HCH-II this can be particularly advantageous as it does not register on the instrument cluster as regen but slowly you see the SoC go up. The amazing thing is that this slow trickle while somewhat observable (iFCD), really does not cost much in terms of fuel consumption at all. All in all, I resort to this often in order to avoid the costlier single or multi bar regens.

TPS:
Idle at 12-15 and very sensitive at all other times. I figured I should focus on other readouts instead.

LPH:
Indicates fuel consumption per unit of time (hour) particularly when stopped but not under Auto-stop. For me, this is especially useful when it is too cold and the gas engine runs non-stop. The HCH-II idles at 1.1 L/H when warm and 1.9 L/H when cold. Next I am going to monitor the Prius and maybe that will explain why the Prius is a little more thirsty when driven in extreme cold. Then again, it may just be a displacement thing.

cAI:
Intake temps. I try to keep mine between 0c-40c. "Magic things" happen at -12c, 12c and 22c. Particularly regarding electric functions and other FE impacting behaviors. Grille blocking is customary for me as well.

cWT:
Coolant temps. My target is 40C (with EBH) when starting the car in the morning. This gives me roughly 2-3 minutes before AS starts when a temp of 70C. EV assist and Regen start at 50C. 90C is the optimal upper limit.
AutoStop will be forcefully canceled if cWT temp falls below 70C... so I lower the climate control temp a few notches when the cWT is falling towards the 70C zone.


We've compiled a few more observations but these seem to be the most relevant for me in regards to the preferred values worth monitoring in SG-II.

Cheers;


MSantos

blake, try putting in the horsepower gauge instead of the LOD gauge. its an X-gauge, so you will have to add it to the system. my insight runns at about 13HP down the highway.

Hmmm.... you know thats a good idea for testing. Does it vary based off of load or is the HP static for the given RPM? I know that an engine should produce a set HP for any given RPM point, but thats at WOT. Lower throttle openings should produce lower HP levels and if you can maintain speed at a lower throttle opening, then your HP should be lower.


Could be another tool to test wether or not modifications are having positive effects on FE.

I did notice today while driving home that 14 TPS was not enough to fully maintain speed at 45mph. I would very slowly loose my speed but I was in the 125mpg range while I was there. Almost seems easier to just FAS instead of worrying about getting the TPS just right.

the hp gauge varies with load at any given rpm, but does not seem to swing as far as the LOD gauge. the problem i see with using the gauges for testing mods is that the differences are probably too small to be resolved, especially when you consider the normal variability of any reading like LOD or HP. i think a coast-down test is probably the best way to test a mod.