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It has long been discussed here about adapting the Toyota Prius's hot coolant thermo bottle to the Insight. This will reduce warm-up time and increase MPG especially for those doing mostly city or cold climate driving.
I've recently found a new paper released on the Prius similar to the studies done on our Insights.
601.6Kb .pdf file
http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2001/rpt/121813.pdf
pg. 15 fig. 2.3 diagrams the cooling system with a narrative description.
See my webpage 3 for a better view of this pic if needed. I'll keep it up for a few weeks. If your interest is greater I'd recomend getting the entire .pdf
Glad Honda chose a more elegant design!
It looks like a complex mod which will require some type of control system to be designed to make its operation automatic. Manual control would be relatively simple. I am somewhat concerned of an increased thermal "shock" to the metals. If this hot water is simply "dumped" into the cooling system on a cold engine the thermal expansion stresses will be greater than the normal slower warm-up time. Perhaps the 3 way valve that Toyota uses restricts flow to help limit this concern.
Dimensions are probably also a concern. The only available space for something that would approach the size of a 3 liter thermos bottle is to modify the battery tray and limit 12v battery size to a Hawker instead of the standard replacement Civic battery.
Can anybody get these dimensions and the size and location of the plumbing connections?
And finally cost is probably the limiting factor. It sure looks like it will be expensive! And I haven't had the time to call a local dealer (and brace myself for the shock <VBG>).
Will anybody else follow up on this?
Better ICE thermal management in cold weather is the trick for MPG improvement in our Insights. I recently monitored my ECT while in a slow and go Interstate jam-up. In mid 40F ambient the ICE chilled to 180F while slow and go from 5-35 MPH. I wasn't even sitting in auto stop except twice for only a few seconds.
Some type of automatic air flow control in front of the radiator would be the key. Basically be able to totally block flow until warm-up has occurred, incrementally open / close to regulate chilling in low fuel consumption conditions, and open fully when air flow over the condenser for A/C operation is needed.
Still looking for that perfect item to do the job.
Perhaps the biggest problem in acomplishing a complex mod is to remember that cost is always a consideration except in NG discussions and dreams.
<VBG>
HTH!
I've recently found a new paper released on the Prius similar to the studies done on our Insights.
601.6Kb .pdf file
http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2001/rpt/121813.pdf
pg. 15 fig. 2.3 diagrams the cooling system with a narrative description.

See my webpage 3 for a better view of this pic if needed. I'll keep it up for a few weeks. If your interest is greater I'd recomend getting the entire .pdf
Glad Honda chose a more elegant design!
It looks like a complex mod which will require some type of control system to be designed to make its operation automatic. Manual control would be relatively simple. I am somewhat concerned of an increased thermal "shock" to the metals. If this hot water is simply "dumped" into the cooling system on a cold engine the thermal expansion stresses will be greater than the normal slower warm-up time. Perhaps the 3 way valve that Toyota uses restricts flow to help limit this concern.
Dimensions are probably also a concern. The only available space for something that would approach the size of a 3 liter thermos bottle is to modify the battery tray and limit 12v battery size to a Hawker instead of the standard replacement Civic battery.
Can anybody get these dimensions and the size and location of the plumbing connections?
And finally cost is probably the limiting factor. It sure looks like it will be expensive! And I haven't had the time to call a local dealer (and brace myself for the shock <VBG>).
Will anybody else follow up on this?
Better ICE thermal management in cold weather is the trick for MPG improvement in our Insights. I recently monitored my ECT while in a slow and go Interstate jam-up. In mid 40F ambient the ICE chilled to 180F while slow and go from 5-35 MPH. I wasn't even sitting in auto stop except twice for only a few seconds.
Some type of automatic air flow control in front of the radiator would be the key. Basically be able to totally block flow until warm-up has occurred, incrementally open / close to regulate chilling in low fuel consumption conditions, and open fully when air flow over the condenser for A/C operation is needed.
Still looking for that perfect item to do the job.
Perhaps the biggest problem in acomplishing a complex mod is to remember that cost is always a consideration except in NG discussions and dreams.
<VBG>
HTH!