S3 E46. MPG ? We test the fuel economy on the 719 cc diesel powered Honda insight
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Season 3 Episode 46. Jimbo installs a heater in the Honda Insight so he can drive it on the cold and barren roads in rural Kansas. With a heater installed Jimbo takes the car out to test the fuel economy. How may miles will this car go on a gallon of fuel.... tune in and find out.
Hi Ya folks! Beware of a GIVEAWAY SCAM. This channel is NOT doing a Giveaway and we are NOT asking for personal information. If you get a message asking for info, please ignore it.
Jimbo
Robot Cantina
207 S. Sedgwick Ave
P.O. Box 28
Haven KS, 67543
Right off the bat the fuel economy is suffering from a lack of racing stickers on the windows, but 67 is nothing to sneeze at ❤🎉
The VGG sticker is guaranteed to take away 2 or 3 mph ; ) , whatever you do don't put a PBG, Roadkill or Zip ties and Bias plies sticker on it.
Yes I noticed it to. Very fitting for this style of shade tree engineering
@@justinak3051you got that right..Vinwiki and Clitus McFartland too
he's also missing go fast stripes
He's probably waiting till it's supercharged to add the racing stickers.
"It's not my problem, that's how engineering is done". That is a true statement if you ever worked on a vehicle.
I recently ventured from working on mostly just road going vehicles, to doing some off road equipment work, mini ex, tractors, etc. it seems to apply there, even a little on the older equipment 😂
LOL...exactly !
Haha, agreed 😅
As an engineer, I can confirm that many engineers forget about how there work is actually being physically applied. 😭😂
I really love the engineer who put the oil filter on the back of my 2.0 Zetec engine block right above the exhaust. That took some extra thought.
Merry Christmas
Jimbo wants a super unique daily, and we love him for it.
Saturn wagon lean burn
In fact, they DO put electric heaters in cars. My diesel truck has an aux. electric heater (from the factory) built into the HVAC system to provide some heat while the diesel engine is warming up.
On my diesel Jetta, they put glow plugs in the cooling system, to help the engine warm up faster.
I don't know why, but I have been waiting and waiting to see you fix the transmission in the Renault. The fact that that thing does not go into reverse bugs the crap out of me.
a scrap starter motor and a little controller would do the trick. I've seen it on some racecars
Still 11mpg short of a Lupo 3L. You should probably block off the stock brake ducts with some cardboard as well. They're not of much use when you aren't completely hooning the thing and they add a lot of drag. When you get the belly pan on, you can also cover the entire exhaust tunnel to get a completely flat floor. The exhaust shouldn't get hot enough to cause any problems when you do that (I've seen people do this to VW 1.9 TDI's with no issues so). Drag is the biggest source of resistance past 35ish mph, so lowering drag, especially with an engine as weak as this, should increase acceleration past that point by a decent margin.
I owned a bare to the bone Lupo 3L as my first car and I hated that thing lol. No power steering, no ac and slow as a snail. The fuel economy was great tho
@@Boerkie1990 No power steering? No offence but if you miss power steering in those, you probably need the excercise not having it gives you 😀
Merry Christmas to you all and God bless our Jimbo for all the effort he puts into entertaining us with his one of a kind projects!!!
Merry Christmas and God Bless everyone!
8:00 These are cooling fan for server, it can pull lots of currunt. Normal small power speed control can't handle that.
If you want to control these type of fans, use "PWM fan governor speed control knob" ,find out the PWM wire from the fan and connect it to control speed.
The fans are two wire brushless. From what I understand not all brushless motors can tolerate PWM. ... In order to avoid blowing up more fans, I ended up using a series of diodes to drop the voltage to the fans ... it works. Actually if you go back to the video where I show the heater while driving the car you can see the diode matrix hanging under the heater.
@@robotcantina8957Oh~!Now I see 8:45
Because 8:20 these are Delta server fan and I saw that two wire on the edge of the fan motor are cutted off(Pulse Generater for speed detect and PWM for control speed),so I suggest that use PWM wire can be more controllable.😅
Not all fans in this form factor are intended for servers either. They have fans with different ratings as well for operating in harsher environments, IP ratings, dust proof, water proof, ETC. The variety out there is actually pretty neat.
Having driven a Dakota with a busted heater core across the Midwest in December, I can affirm that heat is a good thing. Merry Christmas!
It surely would have been a great drive if it had been a Kubota powered Dakota.
That's already a better country song than I have heard in the last 20 years
If you ever drove an old Maverick or Comet with the inline 6, it didn't matter if the heater core was broken or not. You didn't have heat.
@@photogravityI was thinking the same thing!
YEP ! The smallest and most meaningless things in life usually give us the most satisfaction.
Here we have a perfect example.
A car that should have been scrapped and melted years ago, powered by a concoction of parts not intended for a road vehicle have come together to make a very entertaining series.
Thanks, Jimbo and RC Support Team for all the entertainment !
I couldn't agree more...
I am so glad I found this channel. It is so enjoyable and entertaining. Thank you, Jimbo, and have a wonderful Xmas and a great New Year!!!
I’ve been out of the car scene for a few years but I love this channel for keeping me educated on the science behind MPG and HP.
Interesting bit of random data. My daily driver is a 2006 Diesel VW Jetta. This car contains an electric grid heater in the HVAC system, known as the aux heater, that'll warm the cabin up in cold winter days before the very small diesel engine can ever possibly start to produce warm water. Took me a few years to realize said heater wasn't working, but once I figured that out and fixed it (cold solder joints on some SMD resistors, easily reflowed with a hot air work station) this car now has the best thing I've ever experienced in my life. Warm air almost immediately from the HVAC and heated leather seats. I'm absolutely in love with my Jetta.
I love how chill and knowledgeable Jimbo's presenatation style is. Great relief from everyday stress.
Merry Chrysler Jimbo! I was expecting the upper 60's for mpg and I can't wait to see the supercharger added to it!
Merry Christmas Jimbo and Everyone!
Your simple explanations using first principle engineering to explain things is the sign of someone who seriously knows their stuff.
I saw that VGG sticker. That guy's sense of humor is wired directly to my funny bone
I love this channel. Here in Germany experimenting on an old car would NEVER be allowed. Keep up the good work!
Owww. Terrible evil place. We’re going that way quickly too because this country has also rejecting our biblical foundation.
Thanks! 👍
@@bobirving6052 Ohhhh, don't go there buddy. Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
I used to live in the US and I miss the freedom of development and a Harbor Freight store 20 minutes away.
But you have the Autobahn hunting clubs and hostel
I used to have to completely block off the radiator on my Saturn in the winter time if it was ever gonna blow anything you could call heat. Gotta love the weather up here In Hoth 🤣
No you didn't
@@martydeeks1891 ya, I did. I owned 3 of them things and my brother and dad both had one as well and they were all the same, you had to put a piece of cardboard over the whole rad or they just would not build any heat.
Takes me back to the 40s and 50s when cars did not come with heaters. It was a dealer installed kit that sat right where you put yours. My old 1954 Buick had a rear heater core as well as a fan and switch for it.
Use some coroplast to completely block off the lower opening in the bumper cover. Helps aero and excess cooling of the radiator.
Hmm. I feel like we've been there before.
Merry Christmas!
No need to rush. I'm perfectly happy watching this series for another year.
I agree, don't want him to flameout.
I had a secondary heater like that on my 1987 Suzuki samurai with a soft top. It worked amazing and actually made it drivable in Minnesota winters.
Maybe a set of manual shutters in front of the radiator like an old Soviet car.
Rolls Royce in the 1930s used shutters that formed the grille in front of the radiator that were thermostatically controlled. With the engine below the correct temperature the shutters overlapped each other blocking the air flow, and if the temperature rose above the correct temperature the shutters moved to be edgeways-on to the air flow so that it was unobstructed.
Thanks for the inspiration, overland diesel is building adapters for the kubota 03. i got a V2203 im about to put in a 85 Toyota pickup. It is just nice to see some of the random odd projects you do. i look forward to them every sunday
What an awesome project!
Very cool!
My v2203 has 4600 hrs on it
My goodness, you've invented the first personalized passanger side testicle heater. You better paten that before someone steals you idea😁
Yes. Merry Christmas and happy new year. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thumbs up for "store bought vomit"...well, thumbs up in general but that phrase made me chuckle.
This man hit almost the same fuel economy as the hyper-optimized VW Lupo 3L with backyard engineering and Amazon parts. Not to mention it's still NA!!!
Bravo sir. Been watching your shenanigans for a while now, and I look forward to seeing what else you do in the future!
At those speeds the stock gasoline first-gen Insight will easily do over 70mpg. :) It's still the most highway-efficient non-plug-in car ever sold in the U.S., 23 years later.
I'm hoping further tuning and such will let the diesel show off its greater hypothetical efficiency. There are lots of variables that might reduce that.
The vice grip garage sticker in the engine bay if very fitting for your style of engineering
When the video started I said to myself 70mpg, 67 is great, I would imagine that boost and the belly pan might get it up to 70mpg, I think boost would help because it would accelerate quicker and then it could transition to light throttle sooner. I wonder if a tall narrow E load rated tire that can take 80psi would help mpg? Less rolling resistance and lower rpms at cruising mph.
Also, the law of unintended consequences may result (gnome effect?), such as reduced radiator airflow after belly pan install.
Will be neat to see.
I have a first-gen Insight and, reading forums dedicated to the car, not even the super-obsessive efficiency nerds have yet found a tire that can beat the efficiency of the stock tires that were made specifically for the car. I recall reading people have tried spare tires and I think even airplane tires. Jimbo can try of course but I'd recommend he not bother if it's already got the OEM tires on there.
@@IstasPumaNevadacool I had so idea, I should probably lurk the hypermiling forums .ore often.
Merry Christmas Team Jimbo! :D
LOVE the VGG decal. Since I found you and Derick I don't know what's on TV anymore. Can't wait for next Sunday. Merry Christmas!
That unsolved mysteries update really brought me back lol. That was one of my grandmother's favorite shows!
Allways a pleasure to see you work.i would love to do something similar but my old companions of poverty stupidity and ignorance (which have served me well up to now) are the great barrier that I find so hard to get over .have a great Xmas to Jimbo and all watching 👍
Lol, great comment.
Jason, yet another legend donating very fun and useful item to Jimbo and the Channel! Thanks from a fan you practically drove by on your trip, and Merry Christmas!
Big turbo will be a great muffler 😂😂😂
The 300 mpg vehicle used steam from the exhaust to reinject into the engine, so far as I recall. There was a crush order against, them. It was a production car, I believe.
Watching you pour fuming acid with no gloves and holding the jug in the gluggy orientation was more excitement than I was bargaining for!
Wow! You are dedicated, uploading on christmas eve!
You: "What does this Honda insight and the Renault have in common"
Me: There both owned by a crazy yet inventive youtuber.
LOL... yeah.. that too
We love our Jimbo. Only project I've followed from beginning to end on TH-cam! Merry Christmas!
Really? I watch DISPITE Jimbo............ Just kidding "J Dog". :D
The Jimbo Cult, haha. Love it
@@stromxtc2033 We're not a cult. We just worship at the feet of greatness........ And there might be a little bit of chanting in praise of Jimbo the almighty gnome lord.......BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE US A CULT ! :D
Wow, the Insight has been hanging around for three years, how time flies. I can hardly wait for the stupidcharger to be installed. With the streamlining you should get much better mileage. We'll see. Keep the videos coming.
67 mpg thats amazing. I knew the insight had good aerodynamic characteristics and a light weight aluminum chassis but I didn't think is would have been that much better than the Saturn. Once you get the belly pan and supercharger on maybe you can hit 70. Merry Christmas and a happy new year🎉
Cruising at 55 to 60mph on flat roads, a stock first-gen Insight can easily get over 70mpg and that's on gasoline. I once drove mine ~90 miles at ~37mph in ideal conditions (summer gas, dry and warm, no winds, pretty level road with no traffic) and averaged 108mpg.
It's still the most highway-efficient non-plug-in vehicle ever sold in the U.S., 23 years after its release. I would really like Honda to just re-make the first-gen Insight, maybe with slightly updated tech. That could convince me to buy a new car for the first time ever.
I used to own a Smart ForTwo diesel, and your fuel mileage is better than I ever got. I love this content, please keep it up. Some day I hope I get to see your project in person.
Gotta love this way to start a sunday.... I see this up, immediately get the coffee pot going, grab a muffin and enjoy..... Looking forward to getting to the boosted portion next!!
Absolutely loving this project! The fuel economy run and data was really interesting! Gotta love the Vice Grip Garage VGG sticker! Fellow Derek fan! He would approve of what you are doing!
Those diesel heaters are amazing. If you haven't set yours up yet, I suggest you do. Super cool unit.
Yahoo, 67 MPG! Last video I guessed 45 or 50 so I grossly underestimated how much of a slippery fish the insight is aerodynamically. Thank you for the video.
A stock one will get over 70mpg at the speeds used in this test, and that's on gasoline. Honda really pulled out most of the stops to make it efficient. (And ended up selling it at a loss, sadly. It was only really meant to be a test platform for exploring new techs.)
Holy Cow..... this Honda is a genuine sleeper!....who wouldda ever thunk it?.....
Excellent work as always! Merry Christmas Jimbo and crew. I appreciate you all every week when I get the notification of a new video
A new episode on a Saturday! Christmas came early! Thanks Jimbo!
Wow! And that's without the belly pan, I think we could see a huge jump in mpg with it. This is the only channel on TH-cam that I'm excited for every week. Merry Christmas Jimbo and thank you for all the Edutainment you give us all
I'm hoping the diesel blows the stock Insight out of the water once Jimbo has it dialed in, but it will be tough. Honda really went all-out on the gasoline engine, and it would generally get over 70mpg in the speeds used in this test. Plus it's winter, which I suspect might not help (but I'm not sure if winter affects diesel mpg as much as gasoline mpg).
Everytime I see one of your videos it makes me realize how lazy I am and what I did not accomplish on my own projects....lol 😢
Thank you for sharing your gift of ingenuity and comedy to the world!
My '70 VW had a big hose wrapped around the exhaust manifold. A scoop next to the engine cooling fan drove "hot" engine air over the exhaust pipe and into the dash board. It took a half an hour to make it kinda "warm" in the car. But it was free heat. And Merry Christmas.
I love these videos you produce @robotcantina8957
I myself like fuel efficient vehicles. Drove Ford Festiva and Fiesta. The Ford Festiva I got roughly 47MPG in town and highway some times almost 56MPG.
Speed has never mattered to me. So seeing your experiments is nifty :D
Plus having a fuel efficient vehicle helps with saving money as I have never had much.
Personally on the Fiesta I really wish I could change up the configuration on the car so I could get it to go more than 40MPG.
Merry Christmas, excellent video as always. You reminded me of an experiment I did that is quite useful: I hooked a Chinese diesel heaters exhaust pipe to a large steam radiator that was exhausted to the outside through 3/4" pipe (actually 2 different ones over 3 winters) and it recovers a large amount of heat for cooking, heating water, and just extra heat like a heat battery of sorts. I also hooked several gasoline generators to it and it works in the same way with the benefit of silencing the exhaust nearly completely. That brings me to the point: I wonder if you could duct exhaust from a generator or diesel heater to that $60 heater core blower unit you showed, it seems like it would work to recover extra heat-it would be fun to try at least. Anyway, thank you for all the great videos, they're all excellent.
Early Robot-Cantina?
Best. Christmas. Gift. Ever!!!!!
Merry christmas and happy holidays Jimbo!
Same to you!
Enjoyed the video. You really must love what you do on your channel. You make the process of modifying the drive train of cars seem so easy. lol Thanks for sharing your fun with us. Phil
I have a diesel Smart car. It does about 80 mpg at 56mph and is fast enough to keep up with motorway traffic 70mph all day long. It is a turbo charged 3 cylinder with a 5 speed auto box. It is fun to drive an accelerates quite rapidly because it is lightweight.😊
I’m not sure how effective it would be in this application but I’d suggest maybe installing a hot water valve to help the engine heat up. It essentially just bipasses or blocks the heater core from getting coolant flow to help the engine get and stay warm.
Again idk how much this would help in this application as the only time I really still see them is in Toyota’s for some reason
Most older cars used heater core valves. I know older Hondas did it too. When you turn the heater off it blocks flow to the core more to prevent excess heat load in the cabin (as the hot heater core does dump heat even when no air is being blown over it) rather than to help heat the engine up faster.
no modern car needs it because aluminum blocks and better designed thermostat loops makes them easy to warm up.
JIMBO! Merry Christmas!
Thank you for the fantastic family friendly education and entertainment!
You are the BEST!
Also - in the 'newer' vehicles, I've heard Tesla is installing heat-pumps rather than resistance heating units.
Merry Christmas and thanks for another interesting and cool video.
Can't wait to see what the new year brings.
Have been on a binge to catch up with these, and it is worth it!
In Germany we had several cars that do that kind of fuel economy figures from stock! For example the Audi A2, the VW Lupo/Up or the Renault Clio. I don't understand why such cars aren't built anymore...
Jimbo, your diagrams of the fuel tank were really well done and made is so even somebody unfamiliar with fuel tanks and economy could understand. Well done!
Always a good Sunday when there is a new upload from Jimbo! Merry Christmas!
67?!? i might aswell toss 2 of these into my next car for double the fuel economy!
hahaha.
what an amazing series. i never would've thought if you kept speeds reasonable that such low HP and such high MPG could be possible.
You come up with the smartest way to do the dumbest things. Love it. Merry Christmas!
The MPG on this is even more impressive when I remember that a US gallon is a lot smaller than our Imperial gallon which if my memory serves me correctly is 4.75 litres.
US Gallon = 3.73L, Imperial Gallon = 4.54L. 😊
Wow!!
Ok, I need to revisit some of the mpg numbers I got from England.
The U.K. gallon is pretty much exactly 20% bigger than the U.S. gallon, so just multiply whatever mpg figures you hear by 1.2 to get U.K. mpg. :) At least our miles are the same.
In absolutely ideal conditions at 37mph, I got my first-gen Insight to average 108mpg (US) over ~90 miles.
Love the Vice Grip Garage sticker under the hood!
Years ago, I had a friend who had old VW bug, but needed heater for the car. I recommended an aftermarket stand-alone 12V rear window defroster just plugged into cigarette lighter.
I put a larger version of the same box in a Cabin I built to carry passangers on the back of a 1992 Pisten Bully snowcat, worked realy well.
I guessed 65 mpg. Only 2 mpg off. Great work so far on the diesel Insight, or the Dieselsight
BRO that unsolved mysteries slide..... Priceless!
I had a friend in high school who would run a little electic heater in their car on a timer overnight, and it would get the interior nice and warm for the morning and it would stay warm long enough to get to school.
Watched this on Xmas day in Australia. I’m a big fan of your builds. Even more so than the big performance builders. I just think this is more entertaining because it’s practical.
Christmas eve coffee and Cantina, cant ask for much more!
Merry Christmas, Jimbo! Do the Gnomes celebrate? Tell em happy holidays for me!
Nadolig Llawen 🏴 Jimbo and your family too! Thanks for everything that you submit to our entertainment, every week!
Interesting project. I have one of these. Stock powertrain and everything. My best has been 83.3mpg on a 208 mile summer drive. Getting into the 60mpgs is pretty easy when the car is running well.
There are flow metres that you can use to detect fuel economy.
You can also make one out of an old electric fuel pump.
Remove the motor and replace it with a tone ring for a Hall effect sensor.
Or if you’ve got a really good brushless fuel pump you can count the pulses from the controller
Thank you brother for your consistency with the videos. Your videos are always what a look forward to on Sundays before a nap. Merry Christmas to you and yours too! May He keep you and bless you through out your life. He’s already blessed you by living in Gods country USA! Plus you are greatly talented with a huge fan base you reach weekly. Much love and keep wrenching!
Merry Xmas! I guessed just over 60mph and yes, I very much appreciate the metric units. Here's to a good 2024 to you and yours. :)
Regarding your overcooling of the engine, you may want to add a thermostat for the cabin heater that only opens once the engine is sufficiently warm.
A thermostat block for an oil coiler with replaceable themo elements to dial the temperature may suit, I know Mishimoto makes those.
I rode in Hummers in the military, so I got used to the heater blasting my crotch while my driver froze. Better than the private stuck up in the turret with the 50 caliber machine gun I guess.
Thank you for being you. Merry Christmas Robot cantina!
Merry Christmas to you, Jimbo and your loved ones as well!!!
I love this channel and these videos! I am always looking forward to seeing the next one. In this world filled with millionaires, and cars with 1,000+ hp, numbers are not impressive anymore. Who cares anymore if a car in town can do 200mph and gets 8mpg and costs $2 million? That's not interesting. However, what is really interesting and impressive is what could be done with less and someone could afford it. Keep up the great work!
Merry Christmas keep up the good work jimbo.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays Jimbo! Thank you for the video so close to Christmas. Best wishes for you and yours from Oklahoma.
today is my birthday i am very thankful to have a new Robot Cantina video 🎉
not sure if I missed it before or what..... but VGG sticker on the shock tower is fuuunnny and fitting
Lol, i see the Vice Grip Garage sticker on the strut tower. I bet Derrick would love to put a small block in that.
I am glad you mentioned subscribing because although I have been subscribed for at least 2 years I just had to subscribe again. I assume You Tube does this from time to time to make sure people are actually watching the videos or more likely to save money by making creators lose views when their followers don't notice they were un subbed. Tis the season I guess so I am going to go check the rest of my subscriptions and make sure they are all still current. Happy holidays.
Love to see the VGG sticker in there. Turns out all the YTers I watch seem to be fans of other YTers I watch or like.
For the cold, you could wear a heated jacket running on Li-ion batteries, Milwaukee has a whole range of them. Heated gloves if you're really cold.
The Insight is already turning into a winner and it isn't even finished yet. Good work and merry Christmas.
We'll see. The stock gasoline first-gen Insight can already get over 70mpg at those speeds. I'm hoping the diesel blows that out of the water once Jimbo's got everything dialed in, but Honda did a _really_ good job and will be hard to beat by a lot.
@@IstasPumaNevada Honda did a good job, but they did it with a multi-million dollar budget and an army of engineers. Jimbo's working with a refrigerator truck motor, pizza money, duct tape, and whole lot of chewing gum. If he exceeds their numbers by any margin, he's winning.
Merry Christmas from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺