450 Engine Mod

[LexLuthor]

I was wondering if anyone had modified their 450's engine to make it more powerful. I live in Santa Clarita and the hills are hell to go up in my smart. Any advice?

[lebikerboy]

I assume you're talking about the 450 .7 litre gasser?

[Leroy]

If you want more power just do the basics. Change the exhaust, TIK pipe, delip the intake, put a K&N air filter. That will get you about 8 horses. For more power chip the ECU.

Leroy

[LexLuthor]

Roughly, how much would all that be?

[Leroy]

The exhaust you can have an exhaust shop make one up for less the $300 or buy one from England for about $800. The cat is built in the exhaust. The TIK pipe is about $70.00 air filter is about $35.00. Deliping is a do it yourself job that takes about 15 minutes to do.

Leroy

[cfreidma]

My 'new' 2005 passion first mileage tracking calculated at 37.5 city driving. Aside from hypermiling, is there anything I can do to undo whatever unnecessary conversions that G&k did to decrease the gas mileage.
Putting it differently, is there anything I can do to increase the gas mileage on this car?

By the way the car went through emmissions tests on Saturday and barely registered emmissions.

[Leroy]

There is nothing that you can change what G&K put on the car to help the gas mileage. The reprograming helps more then harms the mileage. But you can change the oil in the transmission with Amsoil that seams to get a little better gas mileage. Check to see if your car has an added on cat. This might lower the gas mileage but it is there to keep the our air clean. Try shifting manualy instead of the auto mode this will help you get better gas mileage.

Leroy

[micromachine]

there's a ton you can do to get more power out of these little cars! last dyno on mine has it at 102 bhp.

on mine:

air box out, pipercross cold air induction kit in
janspeed intercooler pipes with forge dump valve
oil catch tank
forge tik pipe
roadster turbo
4.0 bar fpr
remap by flying tiger
janspeed stealth exhaust
s-mann oil cooler
spin-on oil adapter with additional plate for oil temp/pressure monitored thru mdc bord computer.

I added all of this at about 10K mileage. Car now has 42K on it and have not experience a single problem, no oil loss, nothing. well worth it in my book! this little smart moves and averages about 42mpg and that's with my lead foot.

[briansmart]

I like your mods, micromachine, however I'm partial to the Forge inercooler hoses as they are a four-ply silicone, jsut like the Forge TIK pipe.

I do need to add a catch tank though. I am trying to find a better documented howto of the process. I find actual pictures of a decent quality help me so much more than what I have seen so far. Or maybe I have not looked in the right place yet?

Also, at what RPM are you shifting gears?

[briansmart]

cfreidma, as far as your emissions test, make sure they did it properly. On mine, the guys couldn't find the obd ii port. Its to the left of the steering wheel. Also, you may need a new gas cap. That tends to be the part that fails the most on 450 emissions tests.

if the gas cap seal has gone (or is going) bad, that can also cause you to get a lower mpg as the gas can evaporate.

I agree with shifting it yourself instead or letting it shift automatically. I've found that around 3500 is the sweet spot for my car.

Also, make sure you have the proper oil for your region, that the air filter is clean, tires are properly inflated, etc. If you're running the A/C and doing a lot of hard accelerating up hills, that can cut gas mileage too.