S4 E7. New project car ! Will it run??? What will it take to get this rare car running again? 

I'm thinking this car is gonna end up with a 30cc Ryobi weed wacker engine.

"You can find similar cars for under a grand" *checks local pricing and cries.

Had the Assistant Manager at our local O’Murray’s tell me that single $2.99 clamp was worse deal than set of two clamps for $7.99.

So between the two, the projects will be known hence forth as "The Twinsights"... :P

@4:32 This reminds me of the Alternative Fuel Experiments I conducted when I was a little kid back in the late 19 and 50s. The experiments were to see if I could release heat energy stored in various petroleum products that were in my old man's garage using THE POWER OF THE SUN ... combined with a magnifying glass. The results were such an astounding success that I decided to switch from petroleum products to whatever else I could find. Things were going good until I started experimenting with acetone. The ignition was immediate ... and powerful. This caused me to jump back a little and knock over the can of acetone. Then my Father came running out of the house, put out my experiment and started throwing a lot of rapid fire questions at me about my sanity and if I was really trying to set the garage on fire. After a lot of yelling, a stout thrashing (1950s child rearing was much different than it is today) and banishment to my room I ceased my experiments ... until about 20 years ago when I discovered that diesel engines would run on old motor oil.

I didn’t know that multimeter talked…I thought you were messing with us at first

Ah... Sunday morning. Sunshine, relaxed breakfast, fresh, hot coffee, and a new video from Robot Cantina.

Battery colab with Aging Wheels?

When I was a kid, I used to watch saturday morning cartoons. As an adult, I watch sunday morning youtube. 😎

I will miss that little car! hope you enjoy the new project!

Mine ran 180 volts at full charge. There are 20 sticks of 6 D cell batteries, 120 D cells total that run from 1.2 volts to 1.5 volts each for 180 at optimum charge.

Robot Cantina, now with high voltage electric shocks!!!! 🤣

It's insane how many auto parts stores don't stock rubber fuel line anymore! Seriously. If they do, it's usually extremely short lengths for insane prices. I buy mine online in bulk so I have it on hand. This video also gave me a great idea for rust proofing steel brake/fuel lines I repair. After cutting back the line, I'll slide heat shrink tubing over it, then flare and add the fitting or connection, then add silicone lube and heat shrink the tube over the exposed steel area. Just like protecting wiring connections! Using big enough heat shrink or two different sized pieces you could even cover and rust proof the entire junction.

Dang, I started to see double there at the end, great show again Thanx! 🎉

Jimbo continues to knock it out of the park every episode!! Love it, Jimbo!! Keep up the good work! You're doing the kind of projects I want to do.

Just when I thought this channel couldn’t get any more weird you go up and do something like this… and make it 100% better 🎉

To solve the alternator issue, you can get a motorcycle 3 phase voltage regulator and connect the 3 phase input to the motor cables and the output to the battery. Choose a regulator from a motorcycle with a very high redline RPM so it can withstand the voltage generated by the motor.

Jimbo's town must mow be the one with the highest number of Honda Insights per citizen.

I do this type of diagnosis and repair all the time nowadays - have become the finisher for many people trying to revive projects, yet somehow you still make it entertaining. Pretty exciting seeing anything back on the road!

I had a bone stock base model 04 Civic 1.7L 5 speed, I absolutely LOVED that car and did my level best to drive it into the ground. I did not succeed. It got rear-ended, I drove it home after the accident and my insurance totaled it. If Honda still made that car I'd buy one without hesitation.

As I recall the battery pack was very simple. 100 and some "D" cell nicklel-hydride wired in series.

Another great Sunday. This channel is always great with my first cup of coffee.

Surprised how well that engine started and sounded after sitting so long!! Love the content, as I’ve never had to dig into my 260k 2000 model, it still gets over 60mpg driving 70-80mph!

I'm glad you have put the new project car on hold. This gives me time to convince you to try burning wood gas! There is a LOT of info on this on the disc I sent you ... and PLENTY of examples of gasifiers on RU-vid ... in the form of old WW2 vintage Volvo (and other) trucks. Some of the information I sent was put together by FEMA, you know ... THE GOVERNMENT ... so you KNOW it's OK to do!

This is so awesome you got this car Jimbo. I bought an 03 Civic Hybrid 5 speed for $800 and ive got it running pretty well. I trickle charged the 12v for a whole day and it seems to have eliminated all but an airbag and o2 sensor codes. I have to do a little rust repair but im gonna have it on the road soon. Looking forward to this season,its gonna be excellent

Brilliant! I like the Insight. This car has a Citroën like appeal to me. I’m looking forward to more Honda adventures. Thanks for this story and see you soon… 🇺🇸🥰🇩🇪

Another excellent video Jimbo. It's great to see how well those old vehicles old up after all this time. And that K swap was beautiful! I'm impressed you managed to do all of that work inside 16 hours. I guess that's what years of experience brings.

Man ive been looking for a dead one for years with a 5 speed. I love these cars like i love geo metros 😂

Hi Jimbo, it's a Honda, it's a keeper. Without the hybrid it still works (with the hack) and so you're in good shape. Thanks for this one as well. Cheers 👍💪✌

I had no idea you could make so much horsepower with that 4 cyl engine. 500hp in that light little car would be fun! Thanks for another great installment.

MPJA - another favorite tinkerer's paradise! Keep up the good work!

Ahh yes, the irish auto parts place. "Old Oily"

another spaceship in the shed jimbo!!! NICE

I am one to endeavor in obscure engine swaps. I built a kit with a single barrel holley and an aircooled volkswagen distributor to run a honda f23 out of an old accord i had. I stuffed that thing into my 94 geo metro. I have about 4200 miles on the swap so far. Custom axles, mounts, pretty much everything. Paired with its 5 speed transmission, this car is a rocket ship! I had it tuned at 43mpg average last year, but ran into a carb problem i havent sorted out yet that averages me around 34 right now. I wired the vtec solenoid to a microswitch and a relay, and that really gets this puppy moving. I might revive my adolescent youtube channel with it one day.

Im kinda impressed with the robust engineering in these. It actually works even when entire sections of the drive train sitting on the floor. Also 400 hp with the battery pack stripped out has got to feel like a rocket.

I always loved this little car. There's a guy right near my house that has one parked for the last few years. I might try to buy it from him. The aluminum chassis makes this thing a diamond in the rough.

Another cool project. Keeping it for a shop runner sounds good. If anything cut it up and make a ute out of her. That'll spark the purist.

Excellent, what a good find, loved the k swap too!

I have a buddy who bought his insight used from someone and replaced the batteries (and a few other things). That was over 15 years ago. He still uses it as his daily driver.

I thought the other chain was "Never Any Parts Available", at least there is competition for the title from O'Rarely and OughttaKnown.

Great video! Nice new car 😊 “...never know till you try.” 😂 I’ll be looking forward to the hybrid delete 👍

Hi Robot. I should have said that long ago: I had this silly challenge when I was younger of making as much distance as possible with a stock old 206 peugeot with a 1.4l HDI motor. I did 1300km with 45liters of fuel. For conversion that's like 68 mpg, the car already had 125 000km on it at the time (or 77 700 miles) the tires were over inflated and it was a company car so no backseat. The car was from 2003 maybe I was a bit reckless at times to brake as little as possible and accelerating slowly.

It might be nice to replace all the electronics in the cabin with a simple bridge rectifier and regulator under the hood to both make some more room and get rid of the high voltage stuff.

A little marvels mystery oil goes a long way on todays fuels... So cool...project insite #2...sweet! Love it! OOH...cray cray idea...I wonder if the NiMH batteries could be swapped out for supercaps...have the first ever SUPER insite (with superman symbol on the hood too boot) Keep em coming!!!!

Auto parts stores can't do anything without their computer telling them what to do. It's sad. I went to 2 different ones you mentioned and was looking for a muffler with a 2 1/4 inch inlet/outlet. I was making a custom exhaust. Do they have mufflers? Sure, but they can't find it without year, make, and model. I keep telling them, it doesn't matter what make a model is, I just need any muffler with the right sized inlet/outlets, but they still can't do their job without the computer telling them what box to pick.

Really appreciate the electrical education 👍

I guess you're officially one of the Insight collectors now! I saved 4 Insights from being junked. Three fixables in silver and one crashed parts car in blue. One was $300, one was $100, and two were free. I've been driving one since the Summer of 2019, mostly without the hybrid battery. 63.4 MPG average. A few trips of around 100 MPG with all the hypermiling tricks. All you need to charge the 12v battery is a 3-phase bridge rectifier, filter capacitors (steal from MDM), and the DC/DC converter. Ideally fuses too! Charging will cut off above 4000 RPM and at a low idle speed. The DC/DC can be modified to increase the high RPM cutoff.

and heck, having the mostly functional unmodded car gives a good FoR to get the gauge-panel in the diesel-powered car working via a custom adapter module

These cars must be super efficient and light if converted to EV. A Leaf power module in the front might fit with the distribution block relocated.

My husband and I enjoy your videos!

How certain are you that the hybrid battery is beyond hope? After I let my first-gen Insight sit too long during the pandemic, the car wouldn't recognize the IMA battery. So I took it out and manually reconditioned each of the twenty 6-cell NiMH Battery sticks with a couple four-port RC car chargers. Discharge, charge, watch cell temps with an infrared camera, trickle-charge the ones that were imbalanced, couple more discharge-charge cycles, then charged the sticks to equal voltage and put them back in the pack. Once I had the pack back in the car, it was happy again! Seems to give as good or better capacity compared to when I got the car six years ago.

If you decide to ditch the high voltage battery, a first gen civic hybrid 5 speed will bolt up with very minor modification and the moderately shorter gearing does a great job of making up for the lack of ima torque without hurting economy too bad. I've been running around with mine set up that way for probably about 40k miles now and it still gets 55+ mpg at 70+ miles an hour in the summer.

400+hp into a such lightweight car OMFG 😮

Don’t get me started on parts store workers these days! We have a Napa in our tiny town that was ran for decades by a couple brothers and they knew their shit without even looking in a parts computer. Then sadly one brother died and the other retired now we got young kids looking up parts they’ve never heard of for vehicles they know nothing about. I buy a lot of stuff off eBay these days 🤣

A gen 3 LS ECU can run a 90 degree V twin and an inline 4. Free software (Universal Patcher) and a $50 cable (OBDLink SX). Weld the $30 trigger wheel to the CVT driver pulley. A third party harness can be had for $80. Disable VTD, range switch, clutch switch, column lock. Set per cylinder volume, injector flow rate, disable MAF for speed density mode. Can disable all DTCs you don't care about. Goat Rope Garage's HPTuner videos are helpful; just take what he says and apply to same values/tables in Universal Patcher.

I like that ending sequence w/ the twins. nice update too, excited to see more of the baby blower

That seems to be exactly what my fuel pump problem is, but a year later after I put a hotwire on the relay plug, to cause the fuel pump to work continuously with the key on, I'm still not getting around to finding the fault in the wire, which I think is not very easy to reach, but I have a spare fuel pump in the glove box, and thank you kindly for sharing your great experiments and experiences.

Jimbo has a new project car. Awesome 👍

Digging the dialup modem, hilarious

Another great video and a nice car, always makes for a good Sunday morning. Thanks for sharing your videos. 👍

As a mechanic, the first time I drove one of these cars in perfect working condition. I was just blown away that it was a manual transmission

I love the Frankenstein insight, but would really love to see this one stay intact. A modern lithium battery swap would be really cool and improves these cars a lot, though that may be a more expensive project than you'd want to take on.

Another awesome installment! I think the headlights look great, the size is perfect. I do think they need to be set out from the grill, especially with the wider stance of the truck.

I chuckle every time the Lonewolf 2000 howls.

Nice little car that didn’t take much to get it back on the road. It would be neat to swap it with a little bit bigger diesel that would make it a great daily driver, not that the other one couldn’t be a daily driver. Thanks for the Videos, Jimbo.

Thank you for sharing your Insights.

I enjoy your channel! We have friends that moved to Inman, KS. We visited them this past summer, stayed in Hutch and went to eat at The Barn in Burrton. We visited for a while in Inman the next day and followed them to McPherson and had lunch at Braum's Ice Scream and Dairy Store. I think we passed pretty close to your area when we were in Hutch.

Cool deal bro ... n man that k24 swap insight was rad af n right uo my ally were I have a 400hp forged turbo miata 😅... but yeah cant weight for the stupercharger install jimbo.. peace and love all keep it rad stay safe and build on l8z famz and keep having fun

if all the hybrid system is doing is charging the 12V why not: a) use some diodes and a DC-DC to charge it, saving the weight? OR b) mount a 12V solar panel on the roof or something?

FYI: The voltage on those lines is around 300 volts AC, 3 phase. There's an inverter/motor controller that converts the DC from the battery to AC and vice versa to charge the battery. Edit: NVM. The voltage is actually 144 volts. The 300 volt system came later. My current Honda hybrid, Acura RLX has the 300 volt system with no "back up starter". The engine can only be started with the 300 volt battery.

Nice little car, I hope it serves you well. And excellent troubleshooting - there are few professional mechanics these days that do it well.

14:57 this is an excellent description of the troubleshooting process for electricals. I'm going to show this to the apprentices!

Nice to see that you have another cheap project car to play with. Sounds like it will make a great butt hauler.

Brave of you to touch such a high powered lawn mower.

I have the granddaughter of this car (08 Civic Hybrid) and I love it. I would love to have an old Insight.

i learned a lot with this video. normally, i enjoy seeing the problems you come across and what you do to get around them, but this episode watching you diagnose that fuel pump so efficiently was a treat for sure and i feel like definitely helped keep my own diagnosing skills sharp.

And even found one the same color! Great video, although felt like my head was dragged through mud in some of the technical bits. Fully expected to see Gnomes or Gremlins jump out of fuel tank or hybrid parts.

Of course, just in case nobody else suggested it...... and you KNEW this was coming.... I see an Insight race in the future! 😁

I know you said the hybrid stuff doesn't interest you, but the lithium battery swap would be a great upgrade.

Thanks for giving us "Insight" on your newest project! I'm looking forward to the new, and current projects!

This is how it starts, "oh hey, what's better than one, but TWO OF COURSE!" Flash forward 3 years and you've changed your name to "The Insight Man" and people are reaching out wanting to sell or give you theirs. Your biggest decision of the day is what color Insight to drive, and your insurance agent has a monthly email with a tally of the number of Insights you want covered. Just be careful

Great to see another insight. Much more expensive in my country.

Something that would be neat is using a rectifier like off a sxs or atv on the 3 ac lines like a stator, to charge the 12v battery. Would eliminate a lot of the electrical junk in the trunk.

The two door Honda insight is such a cool car. We only got them in four door version. The Audi A2 does also have some similar qualities.

Love the new project! One thing occurred to me, and maybe you’ve thought of this already. The Hybrid system continuously trying to charge a dead hybrid battery may put a large load on the engine, possibly affecting your gas mileage quite a lot. Love the content!

Gotta say I enjoy your videos as well as the nods to VGG and the sticker in the other Insight.

Must have been just *crazy* amounts of power, heady I'm sure.. PLUS you got your hep'd-up personality all reel'd back in for the show, well done!

oh boy, jimbo! you got a winner there. dunno what your final plans are with this one but i always thought a neat thing would be gut all the outdated tech and get a megasquirt or other simple standalone ecu and go for light/simple as possible car using stock gas plant.

I have a 2 stroke 540cc engine in a old snowmobile you can have. Just have to come pick it up in northern Michigan. It would be great to see your new Honda as an oil burner.

Hey Jimbo, congratulations on the new acquisition. I love the new insight. If you could maybe build just a small capacity ‘Hybrid battery’ replacement, just enough to get the ECU to feel happy (maybe with an Arduino hack too?) and enough juice for a few city traffic light launches too, then you might manage to get the Honda ECU to run the electric assist motor too. Hell, it might even let you start the engine with it. I do love the idea of updating an old Hybrid. I’m just trying to coax our year 2000!NHW 11 Prius into accepting its (4th time) rebuilt NiMH main traction battery pack (we’ve been using NHW20 cells up to now, although even those are getting a bit sketchy these days) anyway good luck with this 👍🏻 Derek from VGG would love the Lone Wolf 2000 🐺 😅

Glad you have so many back burners.

Nice! It would be fun to get someone like aging wheels to help with the battery and get it going. Just cause.

Look how big that battery pack is, you could fit so much fuel in that volume. Now that would give it long enough legs to stick a serious engine in that doesn’t belong in a Honda.

Spooky !! over here in blighty in my village in sussex , walking to get my m/cycle out of its garage , parked up next to the garages was a lime green one . the first i've ever seen !

Can next project be to clone himself, so he can have multiple projects at same time for more videos each week (you know the community would support this project)

I think getting the the hybrid system to work and combining it with diesel engine (any diesel maybe VAG 1.9tdi?) would be great project Possibly with even better MPG and power results than the original. There were also 1.2 and 1.4 TDIs avalible but not sure if you guys got them in the US

Thanks again! You know, a lithium swap would be interesting....

These cars obviously get better milage overall, but it still impresses me I can manage to get 2.5/3.0 L per 100km in my 8500lb Diesel truck under good conditions.

I'm happy it connected at 57.6. Another fun project. At first I thought, why another project? but this Insight is in great condition, so why not? I'm kinda sad about the Renault in the back of the shop, that was a fun project, but in the end there are projects galore to keep us busy watching and you busy tinkering.

Jimbo, long time fan first time commenter. I had a thought: given your electronics knowledge, could you 'spoof' the OE charging circuit to be friendly to LiPo battery chemistry? You could then build a small pack for a reasonable amount of money and allow the hybrid circuit to work. An alternate fun experiment would be to disable the regen/charging completely and charge the pack separately at home so you can have the boost from the hybrid system without the headaches / hazzard of having the car regen the battery pack.