I heard from a local Acura dealer that the '03 MDX would come with 280 horsepower. That would give the MDX 10 additional horsepower over the current class leaders Envoy/Bravada/Trailblazer. Can anyone confrim this?
The 3.8 liter info has come from multiple sources, so I'm inclined to give better than even odds it will happen. If it does, another 20-30 hp shouldn't be a problem, especially with a Type-S style setup on the head/cam/intake manifold.
Hell, a 3.2 Type-S with header/exhaust will make nearly 290 hp crank, so the 3.8 shouldn't have any issues.
Gas Mileage. That's what Honda is all about lately. Funny how Honda is now the greenest automotive manufacturer on Earth and its partner (Isuzu) is one of the shittiest. The current Odyssey with the MDX motor gets 33 mpg (Canada) on the highway. I don't know what the MDX gets but I can assume it's similar. Do you really see Honda being able to increase HP+Torque while also increasing fuel efficiency? Take a look at your EPA guide and compare the '01 Odyssey to the '02. In Canada, you still pay no fuel excise tax and the gas mileage has stayed exactly the same. They have added 30HP!! Explain how you will see more power and better gas mileage now that the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, and exhaust system have all been tweaked? Honestly, I don't see it happening as much as I'd like it to.
3.8? wow that will be a news for me since honda always stick to small displacement engine the max they will go is 3.5 RL MDX but since 3.2 can produce 260HP(from 225hHP) with no sweat I guess 3.5 can make a little bit more power like 240+35-40HP with a little modification like the CL/TL type S well thats what honda best at make vehicle that save gas but with good power.
My brother that is. He's already got one on order so I hope to be able to check it out whenever it arrives. The Pilot fits him really well with his 3 kids, active lifestyle, road trip taking, etc...
Whenever I gripe about Honda making all these trucks, I just remind myself that they need to sell to people like my brother. This way, Honda will have money to make cars like the NSX, S2000, Type-Rs, and Type-Ss of the world. :-)
Engine tuning get's progressively harder as displacement grows. You simply cannot get as much out of the engine as say small displacement unless you are willing to pay king's ransom.
As history shows Honda is extremely tight lip about future products. I don't see reason why they would tell others what their plans are unless it's for marketing purpose.
The MDX already has a 5 speed automatic and last time I checked, Honda measured their power at the flywheel, not the wheels. I'm not seeing 280 Horse in the new MDX.
We will see when the vehicle arrives how close your relationship is with Honda. They will NOT get 33 MPG on the highway with a 3.8L Have you not recently heard that EPA standards are going to become more stringent even for Honda? What's ridiculous about this is that Honda has some of the greenest cars and every manufacturer will have to make them a fixed percentage better than they already are. This is a far more daunting task for Honda given that they have done much to increase fuel efficiency already. The only way I can see it happening now is with IMA which is the way GM is heading with its hybrid trucks.
Add VTC to exhaust side will improve fuel efficiency. Adding a extra gear to the transmission can help. Integrated Motor Assist can help like you said. There is so much things Honda can do but the real question is at what cost.
First of all, light trucks don't face anywhere near the regulations that cars do and recent regulation to change that has largely been shot down by the Big 3.
Second, Honda's trucks, etc. get better gas mileage than the similarly sized competition.
Third, high hp, high torque engines can actually get really excellent mileage because you can gear them way up. A 3.8 liter J-series V6 won't have much more internal friction than a 3.5. In a carry over body style it won't need to produce any more hp to maintain a particular cruising speed. From an engine perspective, fuel mileage is largely a factor of internal friction and volumetric efficiency. With a slightly taller 5th gear I wouldn't see a 3.8 liter MDX losing more than 1 mpg or so on the freeway and a little more in town.
I have no qualms with Honda making light trucks. Some people really need them (like I do :) ) and Honda is making enviromentally-friendly and aesthetically-friendly SUVs such as the MDX and the Pilot with higher fuel economy and higher performance than the competition. As long as Honda doesn't go around making Excursions and Sequoias, I'm happy.
Last edited by Power Of Dreams on 09-10-2003 00:29
Not really. You will not see a 3.8 in the next MDX. If you look into what Honda did with the Insight, you will notice how dramatic the effect of wind resistance is on a vehicle. The friction within the engine is something that plays a role but certainly not nearly so much as wind resistance does. Honda will not increase the MDX's displacement to 3.8L.
Perfect exmaple LS6 found on Z06. It get's better fuel consumption than NSX while carrying 2.5L more displacement. Not to mention out powering C32B unit by a wide margin.
Aerodynamic is important but weight plays a major role as well. The less weight you carry the less harder engine has to work to get it going. MDX can fit a 3.8L without adjustment. All in all everything is relative to each other.
That's because the 0.5 6th gear ratio and the 1-4 gear bypass on the vette. Those little gimmicks to increase EPA mileage has been on the vette for over 10 years.
How can you even begin to compare those two engines. Have you any idea how much more air an NSX flows per litre? Here at my dealership, we spent $20 dollars canadian flogging an S2000 for about half an hour. At the end of the day, there was an empty tank and 86KM on it. Volumetric efficiency on Honda engines are far beyond what GM, Ford and Chrysler have to offer. Even if it is an LS6 motor. Please try to understand that a 2 litre engine at 10000 RPM will flow a comparable amount of air to a 4 litre engine at 5000RPM. Have you even considered the drag coefficient of the Vette? It's incurs considerably less drag than a massive SUV like the Pilot or the MDX. Consider the amount of air that needs to be displaced at 100kph.
The volumetric efficiency is part of hp/litre equation. The more air (oxygen) into going into combustion chamber the more power will result. Small displacement engine's only solution (other than F/I) to it's disadvantage. By the way J series engine are nowhere tuned to the level of C32B.
I was talking about bigger displacement and more power doesn't result in worse fuel consumption.
P.S You guys drive wild I average about 300 km on my tank.
you really think honda is going to put out a 3.8L in the 03 MDX!!! I am pretty sure that it will still be the 3.5L engine with newer engine control techonolgy added to it.
Why not? The MDX is an Acura product selling into a premium market. Gas mileage related costs (with premium unleaded) are not as important there as it with the Honda line that must compete (mostly with regular unleaded) in more cost sensitive market segments. So even if the MDX 3.8 were to drop one or two mpg it wouldn't be a deal killer.
Besides, the 3.8 V6 has been rumored for quite a while. It has also been rumored for the next gen Odyssey. And with the Pilot coming in on line with a 3.5, the MDX must adhere to its premium slot and move upwards in power.
It is not that getting 280 HP out of 3.5 liter would be a big deal for Honda. The question is, why would they do it? Remember, the 3.5/V6 in MDX is based on the 3.2 liter Type-S engine design but with lower compression, down from 10.5 to 10.0 and more emphasis on developing maximum power at lower revs (3.5 liter V6 unleashes its 240 horses at 5250 rpm). To get 80 HP per liter, the 3.5 liter V6 would have to rev to atleast 6000 rpm (like it is in CL/TL Type-S), something that may not be what engineers would like to do with a 'truck' engine (although, the GM 4.2 liter I6 as well as Nissan's 3.5 liter V6 rev to 6000 rpm to get their maximum power).
Don't forget, Honda's new 3.5 liter V6 DOHC iVTEC showcased with DNX is rated at 300 HP.
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