Daily Driver mods

mcol

New Member
I have a 92 Acura Integra that I am using to commute about 600 miles a week. One of the things I want to do to it is put on an after market intake what are your recommendations. Also are they any other things I should or could do to this car to help it run better and maybee eek out a few more MPG's? Also I need new tires on in got any recommendations?
Thanks
 

Spoon-Eg6

New Member
intake header and a nice exhaust system(doesn't mean go with a 4inch fart cannon) (you can get a greddy sp exhaust for those da and they are quiet and great improvement over stock) will do good for mpg lose a few pounds here and there. Don't carry too much stuff in your trunk less weight = more mpg also set tire pressure to 32 to 34psi depending on where you live. also some people say power neo fuel atomiser is good for getting a few mpg. what size rims are you riding on?
 

Samurai_Blue

Yolo Whippin'
intake header and a nice exhaust system(doesn't mean go with a 4inch fart cannon) (you can get a greddy sp exhaust for those da and they are quiet and great improvement over stock) will do good for mpg lose a few pounds here and there. Don't carry too much stuff in your trunk less weight = more mpg also set tire pressure to 32 to 34psi depending on where you live. also some people say power neo fuel atomiser is good for getting a few mpg. what size rims are you riding on?
wrong set it to what honda says and run a oem size wheel and no intake exhaust and header will not give you any more mpg in your vehicle.

No... you are repeating bad info based on confusion between volumetric efficiency and fuel efficiency. Volumetric efficiency is a measurement of the engine's ability to get as much air into the combustion chamber as is physically possible. At your highest volumetric efficiency, you are also at max torque and this happens to be when your engine consumes the MOST fuel.

Very quickly I will say that on poorly designed cars like US domestic vehicles, changing the intake and exhaust can slightly improve fuel economy. But on our Hondas it does not.

If you get yourself a real time fuel efficiency gauge, you learn very quickly that your car does not get that average 32 mpg all the time that you're driving. When you're taking off from a stop, gas mileage drops to around 10 mpg. When you're cruising, your mpg might be 45 or 50. When you left off the gas in gear to coast down, your gas mileage will be infinite for as long as your RPM's are above around 1500. Knowing this you can begin to understand how certain things might improve your mileage.

Taking off from a stop there is little you can do to increase your potential fuel economy. The displacement of the engine is set from the factory, and Honda has already given us the lowest displacement you can have (while maximizing power output) and still have a good driving experience. If you live in a hilly area, then a turbo or some basic N/A mods will increase your mileage. But most people will never see any gain. The reason your mileage increases is simple; you take less time getting up to cruising speed... less time at heavy throttle where the fuel map goes overly rich to protect the engine from the heavy load.

To maintain a cruising speed requires as little as 10 horsepower! The engine simply has to overcome the wind drag, friction of the tires, and the accessories running off the crank pulley. Wind drag becomes a big issue above 50 mph. No performance mod will improve mileage here, because if you get more air into the engine, you simply back off the throttle. Keep in mind that the throttle limits air flow into the engine. Don't think that engine mods improve air flow at all times... it only improves air flow at WOT and at high RPM. At medium to low RPM, the engine is only capable of drawing in a limited amount of air and the stock intake pipe is sufficient. (It's possible that the turbo restriction in the exhaust actually improves mileage but I have not personally tested this).

Under deceleration fuel cut off, there's nothing yo can do to improve mileage beyond infinite. You simply want to maintain this state as long as possible by downshifting when appropriate to keep the RPM's above 1500 keeping in mind that the lower gears increase engine braking. No performance mod affects this state.

To improve your fuel economy you don't waste your money on engine mods. They will NEVER pay themselves off. Adjust your driving technique and keep up with maintenance. If you can cheaply improve aerodynamics by removing the spoiler and mudflaps, covering under-body gaps like the one opposite the muffler, and installing a front lip, do so. If you have a programmable ECU for performance reasons, target the area of the fuel and ignition maps where you are at cruising load and RPM and lean the mixture while advancing the timing. There is little chance of blowing your engine under light load, and I've found that Honda engines can go to 16:1 AFR pretty easily with the right timing (lean mixtures burn slower and need the spark to ignite the mixture sooner).
 
Last edited:

mcol

New Member
Thanks for the info thus far. The MPG's arent my biggest concern right now I'm getting good milage but any more would be nice. I have the stock 14 inch tires on. The main reason I am curious about intakes is I would like to have a washable filter to save on buying a filter every couple of months.
 

BigMac88

Fat guy in a little 'teg
Just buy a K&N drop-in filter. They're washable, made for stock applications, and will last 1,000,000+ miles. Yeah, they're a pricier than other filters but they're the best.
 

JDMxDB8

Raceline USA
Get a tune up and add some bolt-ons. Don't smash it too much and you'll have decent MPGs. My DB8 consistently got 30+ city/highway MPGs. I had an AEM SRI, DC Sports header, and A'PEXi WS2 cat-back exhaust.

What kind of tires are you looking for? Summer or all-season?
 


Last edited:
wrong set it to what honda says and run a oem size wheel and no intake exhaust and header will not give you any more mpg in your vehicle.
Nice job man almost nobody realizes this stuff lol the only thing h,i,e gives you is a cooler sounding car. The car isn"t automatically going to change the cam timing and air/fuel ratio to gain the benefits of these add ons. well played sir :)
 
Top