Going from an import DC2 to this, words cannot describe the disappointment in me
Thats exactly the point isnt it?
2001 Honda Insight Mk1 - The OG hybrid now joined by a CRZ
- Thread starter Jonnycoupe
- Start date
Thats exactly the point isnt it?
Just sold it
Got a Tial 38mm external wastegate and some RC550cc injectors to get rid of now.
Instantanious MPG.
Nah just a Rover K-series will do the job.
NiMh. There are 120 1.2v Panasonic autograde D cells in 20 rows. 6.5Ah each cell. Will assist the engine at 100A and regen to charge at 50A. Most 9 year old good packs are left with capacity of around 5.5Ah. The IMA system only actually uses 4Ah, so empty is really 20% State of Charge and full is 80%. Going okay so far, sucked up behind a lorry and did 106 MPG over 4 miles 
The new Insight only carry over part is the battery pack and the NiMH was well understood from the Honda EV+ project.
1997 typical range of 100miles.
2005 EV+ also was the first FCX with a fuel cell pack
The new Insight only carry over part is the battery pack and the NiMH was well understood from the Honda EV+ project.
1997 typical range of 100miles.
2005 EV+ also was the first FCX with a fuel cell pack
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That said, you can get 9AH D cells, so if you wanted you could upgrade your capacity by 50% or so. They're around a fiver each so £600 is a fair whack... At least it will last longer than Li Ion.
What sort of charge rate will they deal with? Im not too worried about the battery at the moment but nice to have some options. The car would be a bit slow without assist!
One of the Insight guys has a 40Ah lithium pack in his.
Im just gonna do a few things with shutting assist off manually so i dont rape the battery going up hills which means forced regen on the cruise and kills lean burn, also gonna do a mod to force the auto stop for downhill sections. Shame you cant decouple the engine from the motor to remove the pumping losses, the new IMA car actually close all the valves so theres effectively no pumping losses just a big air spring.
Havent really cained it at all tbh yet. Driving at 80 on the runs to work then slowing down like I would normally got me a trip average of 63 so Ive slowed down a bit now to get the lean burn working.
Current tank is 380 miles in and just under half left and thats sitting on 71 MPG average. It updates every minute so you really see how painful cold starts are, with the assist and the light car it takes a while for the engine to warm up aswell. Might look into a block heater to avoid that and keep the engine lasting as long as I can.
Its a light car with a little engine so I cant imagibe the MPG ever getting into single figures. You cant actually drop below 50MPG in fifth, as you give it more throttle the assist just increases to provide the acceleration demand.
Current tank is 380 miles in and just under half left and thats sitting on 71 MPG average. It updates every minute so you really see how painful cold starts are, with the assist and the light car it takes a while for the engine to warm up aswell. Might look into a block heater to avoid that and keep the engine lasting as long as I can.
Its a light car with a little engine so I cant imagibe the MPG ever getting into single figures. You cant actually drop below 50MPG in fifth, as you give it more throttle the assist just increases to provide the acceleration demand.
The combustion event with the sort of AFR would melt most engine. Insight drops to 25:1, although the new A-VTEC lumps potentially will run 65:1 as they have a very well controlled air fuel stratification and a small bowl in the piston for very local ''bang' with a good boundary layer formed to protect the piston surface from these temperatures.
From the Design SAE paper
Only problem with that is the NOx produced is very high, so its stored in a rather expensive material cat until the engine reenters rich or stoich running (the car will enter short periods of a richer mix whilst cruising aswell) to purge the cat. Other larger cars and engines would need a lot bigger cats to capture this NOx so it doesnt really feature on cars yet where they are products sold at a profit the end price would jump massively.
The spark plugs are amusing how they are indexed to match the head, so you buy a A,B,C or D plug so when they are torqued the gap faces the inlet valves. Anal
The battery is there to be used tho...
Oh yeah, the MIMA stuff looks good where you control it manually when you have an appreciation for the terrain so you can soon optimise your commute to improve MPG by 10-15%. I know there are slight inclines where I could do with a touch more electric assist to maintain speed but in lean burn (100+MPG) but my only option is more throttle, a push on a joystick to up the assist would be far better option.
Problem now is triple figure MPG gets a bit addictive
70MPG last tank and 73 MPG this one so far (300miles in and still over half a tank)
Getting the hang of lean burn and getting the most out of the assist and it certainly seems easy to sit in the lean burn window with the warmer weather.
Great stuff
Getting the hang of lean burn and getting the most out of the assist and it certainly seems easy to sit in the lean burn window with the warmer weather.
Great stuff
Did my best journey so far yesterday from work with a nice sunny day and me not in a rush. 35miles @ 89.7 MPG 
The braking regen is from the motor that does the assist. Infact at idle the IMA is continually assisting and regeneration to smooth that little 3 cylinder out (no balancer shafts - too much friction)
You can't really brake fast as you can only charge at 50A (7.2KW!) where as discharge is 100A, so really its best to brake slow so you convert as much Kinetic energy into electricity rather than heat, its only about 65% efficient though. Of course best is to not slow down at all Best really to try keeping battery as full as possible so you dont have forced regen during cruise, minimal load on the engine then for lean burn where you can sit at 120MPG at 55-60 mph. Unless of course you know theres a big down hill to charge then 5th gear never seems to let the car go below 50MPG just varies the assist to suit the demand on the engine so you can use plenty of battery to climb prior to any downhills to minimise fuel burn.
Its quirky for sure!
You can't really brake fast as you can only charge at 50A (7.2KW!) where as discharge is 100A, so really its best to brake slow so you convert as much Kinetic energy into electricity rather than heat, its only about 65% efficient though. Of course best is to not slow down at all
Best really to try keeping battery as full as possible so you dont have forced regen during cruise, minimal load on the engine then for lean burn where you can sit at 120MPG at 55-60 mph. Unless of course you know theres a big down hill to charge then 5th gear never seems to let the car go below 50MPG just varies the assist to suit the demand on the engine so you can use plenty of battery to climb prior to any downhills to minimise fuel burn. Its quirky for sure!
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Talk about sucking any fun from driving
Sounds awfully tedious to drive.
Why?
You wouldn't know any different from any other car, well other than being way quicker in the real world than other 1.0 petrols. Just if you're a geek like me who knows a bit about hybrids then you can appreciate the extra stuff to get the most out the car.
Im pushing towards 100% capability of the car on the way to work, who else can do that ?!
Teg was about 10% lol
[TW]Fox;13601677 said:
Update :
£700
Nickel Metal Hydride D-cells from Panasonic EV.
Probably not? The current draw in the big issue.
They are spot welded in a line of 6, essentially a 7.2V module, then 20 of those are strung together in series with bolted end caps.
Ive got my eye on some Sanyos that now need 'disposing' (Ford Fusion Pack) and they take 100A charge so could take advantage of that.
But even now that would be a new car and this is OCUK, we dont buy new cars
I like the CR-Z, I took one out on testdrive on launch week and have had one on the emission circuit for competitor NVH benchmarking however the rear seats are two small to make it my main car and it would be a few years before I'd consider one out of warranty sub £10k ready for a HKS supercharger to 170bhp.
No one better the start the hybrid weight rubbish either. The elegant Honda IMA adds a whole 65kg to the car.
Have you even graduated yet?
Proper engineers car as in the stylists and marketing didn't get in the way of the engineers designing it. Not that it's designed FOR engineers. Tweaks for aero are a bit easier to get through nowadays though as everyone is chasing CO2.
Proper engineers car as in the stylists and marketing didn't get in the way of the engineers designing it. Not that it's designed FOR engineers. Tweaks for aero are a bit easier to get through nowadays though as everyone is chasing CO2.