cobb

Guys, thanks for any help, advice, etc. I learned that my geo metro can benefit from advance of the cam gear to lower the power band to shift early. I assumed this is only for older cars without any VVT, but seems adjustible gears exist for newer cars with this technology.

What I am facing a brick wall is to find anything about the honda fit or insight. Both cars use the same 1.3l sohc engine and want to squeeze every mpg I can out of the car. So far best today has been 79mpg, worse 44. The car is rather gutless and it would be great if I can do this and it works.

So, anyone adjusted the cam in the scion? Hondas are interchangable, right like scions of the same size regardless of cars? So if I can get an adjustible cam gear for a fit, just bolt it on, adjust it, rotate by hand and take it for a test drive listening for pings like I did with the metro?

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

It's called VTEC. Gutless at low RPMs for MPG, fun at high RPMs. That 1.3L is going to be gutless all around though, simply because it's a 1.3L, not because the cam profile is off. If there's one thing Honda gets right on all their cars, it's the cam profile.

cobb

Seriously? Maybe thats why I cant find anything for the fit?

I am no means an expert, but just compare with other vehicles my honda seems to do like my geo. My geo is a 1.0 3 cylinder and it doesnt come alive til after 5 grand before the cam upgrade. Now its like the xa I had where it comes to life just over 3 grand.

The insight is the same as the metro with power at the upper end. It has a little torque down low and depending on the status of the hybrid battery it will give up to 100 or so ft lbs. If the battery is low it revs to 5 grand and seems to take forever to get to 60 and 40-70 is about a minute.

The dyno sheet for the car, at least from a magazine is an X shape, high tq just off idle and high hp 98 or so at 5 grand. So it just seemed it would improve lower end performance.

Other than that, its hard to get use to changing the oil every 10 thousand miles or when the idiot light turns on.

Thanks.

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, Honda's are very precise when it comes to cam timing. If you were to make your own adjustment on it, you'd freak out the entire car and just about every idiot light known to man would pop on.

The battery actually produces a lot of low end torque, that's why it feels so much more pathetic when the battery is low. If it wasn't for the batteries, that motor wouldn't hit peak TQ until around 3k and it would just feel pathetic everywhere.

The car was designed to get good gas mileage, and that's what it does. Instead of tinkering around with things, I'd just buy another car that was fun to drive.

cobb

Thanks, yeah, I know its an economy car, but we know and see examples here how a scion xa or xb can be modded to put out hundreds of hp. Heck, my geo metro rocks and still gets deceant fuel economy with the cam mod.