Hey guys I am a delivery driver and getting 13mpg isnt so fun so i picked this guy up, '90 DX HB.







I drove 42 miles back from buying it and used 1.09 gallons of fuel so pretty much 40mpg. Considering that was all highway i know i can do more. and 60-70% of my driving is zipping around town.

What kinds of mods can you suggest? besides usual tune up.
-ram air / high flow intake
-what to do with exhaust?

i am not concerned about power, emmisions, etc. just mpg and reliability.

 

As far as the stock dpfi setep is concerned there isn't much to be gained mpg wise with that setup its just not efficient a mpfi setup may yeild some gains in fuel mileage just depends what you'd be willing to spend and how board your mechanical knowledge is I'd do some research

 

MPFI might gain you some MPG's IF you can keep your foot out of it. It WILL give you quite a bit more power. At least 15, if not 20hp. THEN add an intake and headers to give you a nice, fun, gas saving daily driver.

 

He may gain 10hp if done properly...intake or exhaust mods on a d15b2 is a waste or time and money there is almost no gains to be had if any...

 

Do what I did to my project, throw an HF tranny in that bitch

EDIT: nevermind, just saw you are going for city MPGs not highway.

 

Just a thought but when i hear gas saving i think of the d15z1 that vtec-e is something to look into i believe.

 

my d15b2 swapped to mpfi gained mpg, I remember being fully loaded and did 750km on a bit more than 3/4 tank of only highway, still don't know how that happened. No mpg gains to be had with header or exhaust. Ironically getting better mpgs costs money so it's up to you to see if it's worth it. Best thing would be to swap to mpfi OBD1 and get a fuel economy tune, or swap in a civic VX d15z1, or just do a full tune up with skinny tires and leave it stock. Changing your tranny fluid to quality synthetic like redline will help too. Driving habits is the most important thing in gaining mpg.

 

keep it stock and drive it, no use in modifying it if you're going to using it as a delivery car. outside of doing mpfi, you'll be spending money with no big gains for mpg/hp

 

i saw that when zooming through threads, while most of what i do is in town i still drive about 2-1/2 hours all highway on the weekends..

hmmm this mpfi is sounding pretty good.
one of my buddies has a 94ish del Sol w/ some mods and said he can get up to 45mpg on highway, i think he has some super lightweight honda rims? anyone know anything about that?

i was sure someone would say "strip it and carbon fiber everything"

 

cf parts weight nearly as much as oem parts. dry carbon or fiberglass is lighter

 

Beware of putting any other brand of tranny fluid in your honda transmission. They are extremely picky about fluids especialy automatics.


Screw the carbon fiber parts, strip out the uneeded interior items if you really want to. By the way stripped interiors suck. If you do it keep the parts.

 

i had a crx that i bought, stripped, found it was more rust than metal and had serious internal engine problems (like 6" dia holes of rust everywhere), washed it out with hose, put it back together, sold it for as much as i had into it, and found it parked on the side of the highway 2 weeks later.

I didnt mind the extra road noise, i will keep the nicer interiors like the door pannels, dash etc. might just strip the back, but dont know if it will be worth it, seems like there are more worth while mods.

what about aerodynamics? like a smooth underbody pan? and lower it?

 

Civic vx wheels are your best bet they're super light next best would be hx wheels

 

Nice find! Nice MR2, as well.

 

Which do you think these are? i googled both they look very similar


Thanks! Its got some front end damage but not too bad. thats why i left the bra on for now. I refuse to deliver in the MR2, when its running again...

 

Those are HX wheels. About 80lbs can be lost with stripping the interior, but most of the weight comes from the spare wheel, jack and tools. If you want to get serious you can remove sound deadening tar, rear and passenger seats, carpets, all plastic trims exept door panels, and keep spare tire and jack/tools, I personally think it's worth it and not only for mpg. As for underpanels, make sure you still have the front one under the bumper, but more important you can cut holes through your rear bumper or add a rear skid plate like the civic vx so the air doesn't get caught in your rear bumper.

Grog: redline MTL has been used successfully for many years by many people including me in honda manual transmission. I found it superior than motul, honda mtf, 10w40 mineral motor oil and gm syncromesh, but that is only based on shifting feel and noise.

 

there isnt much you can do for weight loss on these things is there? what about more on unsprung weight, do you think rear disks would be lighter than my drums?

 

rear disc are heavier.if you want to go lighter, grab a set of HF drum covers to put on the rear

 

You could always do what Sport Compact Car did with that Sentra back in the day.

 

if i was somewhere warmer than spokane washington then heck yes!
also, pizza has to be "enclosed" as to stop people riding mopeds.

 

As mentioned, about 80-100lbs can be removed if you try real hard (carpets, sound deadner, trims, seats) When I delivered pizza I was completely stripped and I removed my passenger seat too, made it easier for me. Just remember that the cost of buying parts to save fuel/money doesn't always make sense, and driving habits will do more than anything.

 

If you are going to daily drive it, I highly recommend the "leave it alone" option.

Take some weight out, throw some exhuast on there but stay away from the motor.

Its too easy to start with the mentality of "well, while I am here taking this part off . . ." I ruined a nice 88 DX like that. Went down the MPFI swap route, then ported/milled the head, then delta cam, etc . . . it was more fun to drive but I had to put 93 in it and averaged worse MPG because I drove it harder.

Sold it to do another project but I really wish I had just kept it stock, it drove perfectly and got 36-38mpg.

 

well since you also said reliable, make sure you have some good tires/air pressure on the car. With the right tires, and air pressure in them, you can increase mpg. Plus it will make the car more reliable on the road.