Honestly what kind of Mileage gains are people getting from one of these systems? Is it worth it? I've been thinking about upgrading for the simple fact that it would be a lot easier to change my air filter and it cleans up the engine compartment.

 

I've got a few questions along this line, what are the mileage or time limits on the airfilters for these and how much of a gain or lose with dirty filters, and how much is the cost of replacement compared to the factory filter?
K&N used to claim better performance and mileage as it got dirty, but cleaning was required with their oil. How do the filters in these after market filter systems fair?

 

<<<< Never saw either one of them posted..
but , a dyno chart looks like this.. This is from a 3.5 V6 Nissan vehicle..

 

Mileage figures with an aftermarket intake are "relative" to how the car is driven.

Example; your stock HHR is nothing to talk about at a stoplight, so chances are that you rarely if ever "punch it." Conversly, you probably get pretty goodmileage figures too.

Phase II: You bolt on a CGS Intake. First thing most people do is take it out somewhere and see what it will do (usually flooring it!). That's not going to make for very good mileage figures (although the power increase is impressive). Also, now that there's a little mor under the hood, some folks are apt to "punch it" from stoplights to see if they can skunk another vehicle. Again - mileage will go down.

On the other hand, if you are driving conservatively (i.e., witha "light foot" trying to get good mileage), you can experience a 2-3mpg increase with the CGS system.

My stock HHR was getting 28-30mpg highway. With the IMCO T-924 installed, it went up to 32mpg. Once I installed the CGS, that number jumped to 34mpg (again - we're talking with a light throttle foot - I don't drive that way daily!). Coming back from Vegas a couple weeks ago using the Dyno Tabs, I was getting 36mpg, which is the best I've seen in my HHR.

All these mileage "tests" are done by resetting the DIC at highway speed and running for 5-miles. The 5-mile average is what we use as a baseline for every highway mileage test. You need to have a fairly straight and level stretch of road to perform this type of test, and getting caught in traffic nulls the whole thing. Basically you want to see how steady you can run without accelerating or decellerating.

Hope it helps,

 

When one or many, start installing after market products..
to the engine ,... you get more flow.... the ECM can't fully fulfill its need , due to more air and fuel requirements..

What happens is the vehicle starts to lean out... Lean out causes higher MPG.. also cause the valves to burn because there getting hotter, your plugs will not have not a light brown color to them.. they'll be more white, the exhaust tip won't have a lightly coat of black to it.. it will be more cleaner looking.



class dismiss...

 

I take it the T-924 is a muffler? Does it make the car really loud? I've never been a fan of loud 4 bangers. Now I love the V8 sound. Anybody ever put a flowmaster on an HHR? What size pipe does the HHR run?

 

I drive fast but with a light foot if that makes any sence. Meaning I drive about 65mph everwhere and dont execlerate very hard.

I have a 5 speed 2.2 and I get 29.9 average. This is a true average. By that I mean that I drive to and from work in city and on the highway. About 10HWY and 8City.

I just wanted to know if it is actually worth changing out. I've done it to other vehicles I've had and it changed the sound of the engine. I liked it.

 

The HHR is an OBDII type vehicle - it's computer measures exhaust gas output from both before and after the cat. Any leanness is automatically compensated for to prevent detonation. If things were ever to get out of hand, the timing will automatically retard to prevent spark knock. Talk to any GM mechanic worth his salt and that's what he'll tell you.

Here are the stock AC Delco plugs after 5k miles, this picure was taken minutes after completing several 1/4-mile runs as we were testing different spark plugs for performance increases. (*BTW: Autolite's (APP 5263 Double Platinums), won out - a bit more power, and reduced throttle hesitation.)

StockPlugs5kMiles.jpg?t=1164241004

No lean indication here. My stainless exhaust tip regularly has "black" I wipe off also. Our dyno guy (West Coast Vipers) told me that at 100mph and wide open throttle, the HHR is still running rich (according to the A/F measurement on the dyno). That's why we started testing filters to come up with the Outlaw = dyno master told us if we could find a way to get more air into the engine, it would continue to make more power (until the injectors max out). After trying several different types, we found a winner - and that is the "Outlaw" we sell.

If you are running your "1 heat range cooler" plugs - you might want to pull and check them; they could be running too cold. There's no reason to change heat ranges on any "street" HHR that runs a GM computer (even with a flash tune). Once you strip the computer off and build a race engine, that's a different story.

Hope it helps,

 

Don't waste your $$ putting a Flowmaster on the HHR. We've already tried it here - not enough backpressure. Do a search for "IMCO 924" on this site and you should turn up plenty of threads - it is the top performing muffler we've found for the HHR. We sell them on our site (you can click my sig to get there.)

The IMCO provides a nice mellow "throaty" tone - unlike the "ricer" mufflers more prevalent today. If you want that V8 sound, it's the closest you'll get with a 4-banger.

Hope it helps,

 

Heres some more information.. the HHR is a CANOBD II, The CAN format will be soon the standard usage..

I usually work with a dyno/ ECM tuner , not just a dyno only person.. I've had motorcycles, my G35 car tune (now HHR).... used all the same principle setups (mods) with excellant results, due to the tuning of the CORRECTED ADJUSTED air/fuel mixture after the mods... They all reccomend colder range plugs, ECM upgrade to adjust the air/fuel mixture.. The car manufactures can only limit the amount of adjustment to the standard parts used on the vehicles.
From Vance and Hines (motorcycles, Technosquare ECM tuning, Wester's
garage tuning...) go figure...

there always availble to give information about tuning and mods...