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I have a 97 civic hx that had a busted block and bad trans when I bought it.I was going to drag race this car but decided to make a daily driver. swapped in d15 dual vtec motor and had already bought a civic ex 5 speed LSD trans the gearing is killing my Fe averaged between 46-47mpg. I am inflating tires to max side wall, fas, not letting idle at stops and coasting to stops, and major changes to driving style. Recently added upper grill block and removed power steering belt. I do not use a/c but I do have some extra weight do to stereo.I am planning on getting a Scan GaugeII. Was shooting for 60-70mpg.
thanks for any help
James

James, you seem to be a bit handy when it comes to the transmission...Gearing would be a priority of mods list. Knowing your commute/terrain (every incline and decline) and slowing down even more (when possible) should add a few more miles per gallon.

Investing in a SG would top it all off for a nice increase...My V6 AT combo is @ 2000 revs/min @ 61mph, so not the greatest gearing. The SG will assist in finding that sweet spot.

one other tip my car loves...if I'm not accelerating, I'm coasting...(ICE-off)

Keeping the rpm low is key, as you've found. The only time I ever exceed 2000 rpm is when I move past 50 mph - that's 2000 in 5th gear. I'm usually running in the 1200-1600 rpm range, or 0 rpm.

Reading the replies shows definitely turning to many rpm, 55 mph at 2500 rpm. I still have the Hx final drive and I found a final drive from a Civic VX looks like a swap in the future and hope to get a SG soon. Thanks for the help.

Build a FAS switch - it will give you a much better picture of your actual FE. I do not know how quickly Hondas restart their ECU, but it is very helpful for my SVT which takes a couple of seconds. If you FAS as much as I do that is pretty significant!

cpeter38 I assume the FAS switch is a kill switch, but how do you connect it?

cpeter38 I assume the FAS switch is a kill switch, but how do you connect it?

There are two ways to do it.
1. If your wiring is set up like my Focus, there is one, easy to find, positive feed that branches out and connects to all 4 injectors. Connect a momentary off switch in the path and activate it to kill the engine. There are some nice additional things you can connect like a capacitor, diode, and resistor to dissipate the stored energy from the coils.

2. If your wiring is set up like my SVT, the single positive feed to the 6 injectors is buried inside the main wiring harness. I wasn't going to go fishing for it. I found that when you connect the positive and negative signal leads from the crank position sensor, you instantly kill fuel. I've never seen this concept from anyone else, but it DOES work like a charm.

If you are interested in more detail, I wrote up the info on how to do the Focus mod. If you want to know about the SVT mod, tell me and I will write it up.

Mine should be like the Focus so I will look up the info on the focus mod.
Thank you for the help

Mine should be like the Focus so I will look up the info on the focus mod.
Thank you for the help

You may want to ask B72 about the other (capacitor, resistor and diode) parts of the mod. It should be trivial to add those parts at the switch and it may provide a benefit.

I did a write-up on my FAS switch. Lengthy but includes a lot of precautions. DO a search, as a I am a bit lazy to do one at the moment :o

I'm at 60 mph / 2500 rpm with my DX trans. The HX or especially the VX would definitely help - I think the VX would drop it to 2000 at 60.

cpeter38 and JusBringIt I checked the threads their was good information in those threads I my have to try one on my car after I get the SG.

I think I will have to get the VX final drive gears and rebuild one of the trans that I have setting around the shop. I just installed the MSD 6AL ignition i had lying around see if it does anything if it does it will be minimal.

cpeter38 and JusBringIt I checked the threads their was good information in those threads I my have to try one on my car after I get the SG.

I think I will have to get the VX final drive gears and rebuild one of the trans that I have setting around the shop. I just installed the MSD 6AL ignition i had lying around see if it does anything if it does it will be minimal.

:D I would like community payback for our info :D - would you please write up your MSD results?

TYIA!!

P.S. I am glad the information is useful!!

I will post results of the before and after MSD with factory spark plug gap then show results with spark plug gap recommended by MSD. It will take alittle time because a don't have a SG.:( I have to get one soon.

You said you just disconnected the power steering belt? I had an 82 Prelude with no power steering, so would my Civic essentially start driving like that, and have less parasitic loss?

I'm assuming that's what someone might do it for..........

yes, that's the idea.