So everyone here seems to want to build turbo setups, swap out engines, I/H/E, but I have a whole complete other train of thought. What can I do to increase my gas milage, seriously. Their was an HF motor in a civic right? Stands for High Fuel if I am not mistaken, came with out the vetec and was like 62hp right? What did they do different there?

I have a 96 EX, I get 30 city with an occasional trip into the vetec and 35 on the hwy. The car is BONE stock under the hood, with all my mods being in wheels, tires, suspension, interior and exterior. If I get a CAI or SRI is it goign to bump me up at all honestly? I know in all my other vehicles I have owned adding a CAI just gave me more power and less gas milage. Do you think if I do a I/H/E I can get into the 40's?

 

I don't know about that. I don't see how a CAI would hurt you unless you start beating up on it because you like the way your car sounds..

Just do the basics bro:

Use fuel injector cleaner: You'd be surprised how much that helped me.
Keep the airfilter clean: If you have a disposable one, change it as you change the oil in your car, or pick up a K&N one and clean it regularly.
Keep your tires inflated: Mine say to keep them at 30psi, but I run them around 32-35 psi, it runs a little bumpy sometimes but I'd rather a sore *** then a sore wallet.
Keep it light: don't keep unnecessary **** in your car. The more weight you're carrying the more you're car has to work, resulting in lower MPGs..

All I can think of. If you find other ways to get higher MPGS please post them.

 

I have a theory and don't know if it is true or not and mabye I will test it but would running your car on Neutral when you can help with gas milage? I have a manual transmission and if I know that theres a stop sign at the end of the street and I have enough velocity i put it on neutral, or if I am going down a hill or going pretty fast on a highway etc. I would assume this helps since the engine isnt working as hard as when its idle (on neutral).

 

Your engine is still spinning, no matter what gear position it is in. I would use the engines power to coast you along a little more if i was you. I may be wrong with that too, i haven;t tested it.

As for better gas mileage:

Do a full tune-up which means:

-Plugs,Wires cap and rotor
-PCV valve
-Fuel filter
-clean out your throttle body and passages
-Clean out your IACV
-Change your air filter
-Change your tranny fluid

I would also seafoam the car before changing the spark plugs as well. Put it in your fuel tank to clean out the fuel system, put it in your crankcase to flush the engine, and suck some in through the vacuum line to clean out the combustion chamber. There is hundreds of threads concerning seafoam, even one in the DIY forum under drivetrain modifications.

To aid in your increase you can always make your car inhale and exhale better by putting in a nice intake and exhaust to get air going in and through your engine. Just be careful not to exploit the newfound power because it will actually cause a decrease in mileage. Just drive it carefully and don't overaccelerate or overbrake. this will give you a couple MPG's alone. It's no fun, but good gas mileage has it's own bragging rights as well.

 

I have done the basic tune-up stuff, first thing i did when I bought the car. Plugs, wires, cap/rotor, fuel treatment, changed out the oil to a semi synthetic high milage, and did bilstein oil flush(its where they hook it up to the machine and flush the engine through a micron filter setup), and changed out the tranny fluid to redline. Filter is brand new, and as I said it is a very stock setup. All the maintance is just fine, car runs great.....except for a really annoying tick/tap(I think its a loose heat shroud or something).

I am more interested in the line of the HF motor, what did they do to get 45mpg and there is a thread on this site that has everyone posting their gas milages and the one guy said he gets 60+. Ok I know we have been down the road with gas pump issues, how far you top off the car and all that. I am wondering how do I de-tune the car? How can I get more mpg, and I don't care about losing power. I have enough power with my two gas hungry beasts.

 

The HX version did have a different engine which was a VTEC optimized for mileage, they called it the VTEC-E for Economy. I don't know if it was much better mileage than a non-VTEC DX other than having the potential for occasional more power with VTEC. You shoud never wind the engine out until the VTEC kicks in if you're trying to save gas.

Driving techniques help a lot. There are the "hypermilers" who are quite frankly, nuts and dangerous to others. But if you do a few basic things like never press the gas pedal to the floor(*), unless you have to to avoid being dangerous to others, and generally look ahead and anticipate the traffic so you're not constantly accelerating and braking.

You should coast to stop signs and red lights IN GEAR. When the engine is being forced to turn faster than idle speed and the gas pedal is not pressed at all, the ECU will shut off all fuel to the injectors. If you put the transmission in neutral the engine will go to a normal idle mode which means it is burning gas.

That is unless you "hypermile" it and turn off the ignition and coast to the stop in neutral. The car can roll farther this way without using any gas. But it is dangerous, because your power steering (if equipped) will cut out, and the power brakes will work once or twice, and then give out. Rolling down the road in neutral, whether the engine is on or off, is also illegal in many states.

(*)Note that a "high performance" intake offers less restriction of the air going into the engine. This is exactly NOT what you want, because the engine isn't very efficient with the throttle wide open, and if you go beyond stock wide open by de-restricting the intake, even less so. For the same reason, changing the air filter won't help your mileage, though stores that sell air filters like to say that it will. It does on old carbuerator cars, but fuel injected cars compensate for a clogged air filter and keep the mixture proper.

 

I never really understood how braking too much can cause you to lose gas mileage. Anyone care to explain this? Haha.

 

When you brake hard you are effectively stopping the power produced by the engine. When you drive real hard and brake hard, you are using alot of gas to propel the vehicle and then not using the power produced by the engine to it's fullest potential. Use the throttle deliberately and when you are coming up to a stop sign or light, coast for as long as possible to make use of the gas you just burned to propel the car. It's only a small amount but it definitely add up over time.

 

I've never been a believer that cold air intakes add gas milage. I mean. The reason why intakes work is because the sensor feels the extra air coming in, so it gives the engine more fuel.

Plus people like putting their foot down with intakes 'cuz of the pretty purrrr

 

well air intakes wont hurt or help MPG much if any... main reason why milage goes down is people pedal the motor alot more to hear that sweet sound it makes.LOL i did it myself when i got mine.... milage droped about 4mpg....

if you got a manual than puting it in nuetral and coasting will give ya better milage but if you got a automatic then you could be hurting the tranny by puting it in nuetral and coasting.

and braking its simple... you stay on the gas pedal longer and then move from gas to brake pedal... but if you see a red light and let off the gas to coast to it then you dont have to do as much braking because your car is coasting and slowing down.
the longer your RPMs are up higher the less MPG your gonna get! common sense if ya think about it....

drive slower, accelerate slower get better milage...
drive faster, accelerate faster get worse milage.