Going to a non-hybrid Civic, based on what others are getting in my area, would drop my MPG about 25-30% all things equal. Most of the performance mods suggested on here to make the hybrid performance match the non-hybrid would keep the mileage fairly close to the same still. While my commute is not at all condusive to getting good mileage in a hybrid, it's worse for non-hybrids that recover nothing going over the hills.

As far as reserve power being wasteful, that does not need to be the case in a hybrid, as that is the purpose of the eelectric motor. If that motor were somewhat larger, both MPG and power would be greatly improved, however, such a change is well beyond the scope of an at-home performance mod. The main efficiecny drawback in mine comes in with long sustained hill climbing where the batteries becomes depleted, and the motor actually becomes an extra load on the engine. Despite this, the Hybrid actually does average slightly better than the non-hybrid, but it could be better than it is. This is why I feel a slightly larger engine would be a plus -- note, the HCH 2 has actualy done exactly this, it manages to keep RPMs lower at highway speeds, and I believe this has contributed to its overall mileage improvement compared to the first generation.

I completely disagree with the logic that if one desires to keep up with the flow of traffic that they should not have bought a hybrid -- you are essentially saying the hybrids should be limited to a small minority of drivers, and if people aren't going to explicitly drive them well under the average speed on the road, they should just screw all the efficiency improvements of a hybrid, and drive a standard car.

 

I made no such statement, it's the power mongers that propogate that misnomer because they're trying to justify their power greed by passing it off as a safety issue. I don't have any trouble at all keeping up with traffic in my HCH. I commute at 75-80 mph for 160 miles a day through city and highway traffic, and I don't find it underpowered at all. I don't drive below normal speeds, and I have no trouble getting up to speed for on-ramps. I drive my HCH like a regular car for the most part, I do not hypermile, and I find it a totally sufficient car for my needs. Unless you want to race it around, there's plenty of power to get you around, and even enough to floor it when you need to. That extra boost from the IMA is exactly what it needs for peak poweer needs, and the rest of the time the 1.3l is perfectly adequate, so I think the car is perfect as is.

 

It was not 15 MPG it was 15% increase.

I have a dyno sheet to prove the HP increase but no way of proving the MPG increase except to say that it went from an average of 22 MPG to an average of 26 MPG and as high as 31.2 MPG.

Unfortunately, there is very little that can be done to prove my claims but it is no different than believing everyone who contributes to the database on this very site. You can either take my word for it as you would any of the hybrid owners or tell me I am full of crap. No skin off my nose either way.

 

Sorry, I think I knew you had said 15% but I just typed it wrong. How much hp did you gain? Have you heard of this kind of improvement for others or do you think you experienced a freak of nature?

And nothing personal to you because I have no idea how you came to your figures, but I just have a habit of not believing people's mileage claims unless they have it documented over time. When I was shopping for a truck for my business I asked a lot of people and heard all kinds of outrageous claims. I chalked it up mostly to people wanting to feel good about their truck so they'd quote me the highest freak tank they ever got rather than a true average, which I found most people don't really track over time. They remember some figure they calculated once or the one that impressed them the most and convince themselves that's their average. The real mileage database makes that harder to decieve yourself on because the data is all there telling the truth.

 

This is an interesting and lively debate which has been stirred up, much like disturbing a hornets nest! One question. Are there any ladies taking this modification route, or is it an exclusively male thing? (The old hunter-gatherer at work). Certainly from personal observation on the road it would seem to be the latter. Do the Police have any statistics I wonder?

 

I wouldn't call it a hunter-gather thing as in macho, but more of a tinkerer type of mode like an engineer. Guys seem to be bit by the bug. But more to the point the extention of hybrid technology to more and more user niches is a good not a bad thing. As the number of vehicles expand, you'll see more and more effort go into mproving the technology. I think an earlier poster had it right, there are more than one reason why people by hybrids. If hybrid technology only directed itself at the extreme fuel miser segment of the market it wouldn't be sustainable.

Norris

 

The economy in my Lincoln LS was calculated the standard "old fashioned" way over a 1.5 year period of time in which the car was driven from 27,000 miles to 62,000 miles.

I swapped the intake at 36,000 miles. When I initially installed it, I was getting anywhere from 20 to 24 MPG over the life of a tank. Upon installation (driving style had not changed) I was getting anywhere between 23 to 29 MPG over the life of a tank.

At 60,000 miles it was time to clean the filter as it was dipping down into the low 20's again (same as with the paper filter). Upon cleaning, I was back into the mid to high 20's.

Now, the 3.9 L ford V8 is prone to take intake modifications very well and react with good results. It could very well be a fluke for this engine in particular but how do we know the 1.3 in the Civic will not react well to intake modifications unless someone tries.

 

A LOT of people tinker with cars as a hobby. I think hybrids offer a new frontier to tinker with. What some people do to their regular Civics I find just rediculous, but you know if that floats their boat then so be it.

If I'm not mistaken, Bill Wilson is planning to (or has) modified his electrical system for his Prius I. However he seems to know a LOT about electrical systems. Given there's a lethal (or darn near close to it) amount of electricity flowing through the car, folks ought to proceed with caution. Other electrical experts have modified their Prius for plug-in use (battery mod) and get 100+ mpg IIRC.

 

Tyler-why did the FE improve?
The dirty filter analogy is pretty good. I have an answer . A filter can get so dirty that the intake resistance will be so much that you can't get adequate flow even with the Throttle plate completely open.When this happens you will go too rich.
Of course, there are other problems with having a dirty filter. If you have to open the Throttle plate very wide, but are flowing a small amount of air you will have very low velocity just downstream of the TP. If mixing the fuel and air depends on having a high vel just downstream of the TP then it will hinder the mixing and you won't get as good a burn.Now, this depends on where the fuel is sprayed into the air flow.The closer you get to the actual port, then the flow vel just downstream of the becomes less important. This is the only way that a low resistance filter could improve part throttle FE; if a particular motorFI combo was extremely sensitive to vel of flow at the TP, then you might be able to notice a very,very slight improvement in FE with a lower resistance airfilter that would allow smaller TP openings.
Auto engineers aren't stupid. They don't leave 10-15% FE that could be so easily obtained on the table.They might leave some FE on the table because of noise regs(mainly exhausts-but really tiny amounts), or very high costs(carbon fiber for wt loss is very expensive).A simple filter change CAI- it just won't be missed.Thanks.Charlie
PS-K&N had some problems recently with the filter oil "killing" the air flow sensors.

 

I haven't done any mods to my car (I'm pretty clueless), but I'm interested in it.