[sixpackdan]

Howdy all,

I've been hanging out and reading a lot. I happened on a 93 metro for 180 bucks. No rust ran great but hit hard in the back. No mods other than trying to fix the body. I'm an old hot rodder with to many cars. But driving my 03 ram to work was killing me at 13 mpg. Sooo I jumped on the little metro when gas shot up again. Then I find an Xfi up in Santa fe NM (I'm in albuquerque) for 1250 bucks with a blown clutch. At the SAME time the original owner sees how far I had progressed on the rear-ended car and wanted it back since his truck was eating him out of house and home. I told him 800 bucks IF I buy the one in S/F which I did for 1000. The Xfi is in beautiful condition. No dents to speak of and zero rust. Fired right up. As I was looking at it I figured out the clutch was not blown. The jam nut and bolt had fallen out under the dash and the clutch actuating rod on the trans was loose. So he had no petal to disengage the clutch. Trailered it home and had it on the road in 10 min! The car had HUGE 14 inch custom wheel and tires.

So now I'm hooked and want to see how far I can push this car. My goal I think is reasonable. I would like to see 60 mpg with out ....um... I think its called pulse glide? Just basically careful driving and aero mods. First thing I did was to take off the fatty 14s and put on a set of factory 13 steelys with 155 80 13 tires and full stainless moon caps. I then blocked off 2/3s of the grill and blocked the big gap between the bumper and the hood. Full tune up with synthetic oil. Installed a tire pressure monitor system. I have it set at 303 kpa rear and 310 front or about 44 and 45 psi. The monitor for it, I built a steel bracket off of the base of the dome light and the 90 degree arm puts it in perfect view. I'm using the kpa because the graduations are much finer than psi. Installed an inside antenna and pulled/capped the original one. Installed two 7 inch monitors on the dash. The right one has replaced the right hand mirror and the left will replace the left when I get to it. Pulled the right wiper but what I really want to do is build an extension off of the back of the hood to direct the air flow over the wipers, like and extended cowl. I still have not built head light covers but I will and I'm thinking about an NACA air duct for cold ram air into the air cleaner. I'm open to ALL suggestions for mods. As I've said I'm an old hot rodder and mods in no way shape or form bother me. In fact I love a good challenge, within reason. I'm thinking lower spoiler and/or belly pan, lowering the car, side skirts, rear wheel well skirts, roof extension off the back. Any thing else? Like I said I'm open to any ideas. My first tank on the Xfi was 48 mpg (us). Not bad when you consider we are at 6000 feet. Now with all my current mods I would like to see a sizeable jump.

I do have concerns on the engine, once it warms up it idles rough (normal?) It just doesn't feel as smooth as the first one I had while going down the road. I did find an article about the egr causing problems I'm wondering if I shouldn't pull it and make sure its clean. Its a 94 so I'm guessing even though its OBDII the mileage scanner wont work? I would also like to get a tach that works with the 3 cyl.

Let me know what you all think!

Dan
dan-du-man or sixpackdan