1996 Geo Metro - Project Log
 

I picked it up today for $1500. It “seems” like a good deal because other Geo’s in the LA/OC/SD area were selling for $2500-3000K.

Pros:
1) Looks like previous owner installed a new brake master cylinder
2) Looks like previous owner installed new distributor cap and spark plug wires
3) No rust on the “suspension arm forks”
4) No rust on the wheel wells
5) SGii shows I achieved 53mpg on the drive home, AND I WASN’T EVEN TRYING.
6) Engine “seems” to run okay, It shakes a lot, but from what im reading, the 3 cylinder is not “naturally smooth.”
7) No Grinds in the transmission.
8) Coolant was nice green color
9) Engine oil was fresh (so I cant tell if it was milky or not)
10) No crusty oil deposits on the oil filler cap (see #9).
11) Body seams look straight, no obvious signs of accidents
12) Title is "clean"


Cons:
1) Craigslist advertised 167K miles, but when I looked at it today, the ODO had 187K miles….might have been a typo.
2) Rust on the muffler only, but it could just be a cheap ass muffler
3) Chipping/fading clear coat (as expected)
4) “Dashboard Cancer”
5) Sagging headliner
6) Air vents “flaps” have disintegrated
7) Battery is dead, I had to jump start it to drive home. It’s “possible” the alternator is bad….(another FREE ecomod).
8) Crack on the windshield

Short Term Plans
1) Basic maintenance (seafoam treatment, oil change, transmission oil change, coolant flush, new spark plugs, new air filter)
2) Work out all of the “gremlins” (try to locate and remove all squeaks, squeals, and rattles)
3) Dynamat the interior to reduce NVH
4) Remove back seat
5) Replace steering wheel (it’s disintegrating)
6) Replace Windshield

Long Term Planned ecomods
1) Make a new SGII custom mount on the steering wheel column
2) Cover up the passenger side mirror hole with a “delete plate”
3) Driver side mirror delete
4) Kill Switch
5) Almost OEM Grill Blocks
6) Smooth Under belly tray
7) Rear Diffuser
8) Almost OEM Rear Wheel Skirts
9) Almost OEM Partial Kaamback
10) Deep Cycle Battery

The 1.0 liter, 3 cylinder darling of Ecomodder….
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...122_100328.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...122_100020.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...122_100226.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...122_100154.jpg

It even comes with a free ecomod
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...122_100028.jpg

Filled up the tank last night to start a baseline mpg and to calibrate the SGii. Something strange happened.

The needle was on empty. The pump only filled up 4.5 gallons, but the metro is supposed to have a 10.6 gallon tank. So I kept filling, but the pump kept stopping. Sure enough, when I pulled the pump out, a bunch of gas overflowed out of the gas tank.

Is the fuel gauge on geos that inaccurate? Or could there be something wrong?

My gas gauge is pretty accurate. I think there is a decent amount of gas left when you hit E, but thats not that abnormal. I'd look into it being some other issue.

I highly recommend basic maintenance and going over things like the EGR passages, making sure your heat blows hot (no plugged heater core), making sure the lines to your throttle body aren't plugged up, cleaning out and/or replacing the PCV valve, shifter linkage bushings, and the obvious wear items like plugs, distributor cap, etc.

I'd also highly recommend a compression test. These cars tend to be neglected by their thrifty owners and it isn't super uncommon for the engine to be rebuilt by the mileage you have already. My engine is a hair under 130k miles and it is down to 130 psi per cylinder (195 is the spec I believe). I'm really curious how much efficiency I'm loosing due to that.

Cool new project!!!

Thanks for the advice!

I picked up a bunch of stuff at O'reilly's today. Some maintenance, some ecomodding.

1) New spark plugs
2) New air filter
3) a bunch of new light bulbs
4) 5w-30 castrol synthetic
5) seafoam
6) new wipers
7) rust remover (small patches here and there, I want to stop them from spreading)
8) Carb cleaner for EGR and PCV Valves. (Check engine light came on last night for EGR)
9) Headliner adhesive spray

10) Compression tester so I'll find out what kind of shape it's in. If the compression is really low, what do you think should my next steps be? Other Geo Metro forums suggest rebuilding the head. There is a member/mechanic that specializes in Geo's and offer's "head rebuilding" for $250. Not a bad deal.

Ecomods:
1) Deep Cycle battery

**Updates: I did a short fillup to get my SGII calibrated (I know i should've waited for a full tank but I was too excited to see preliminary results), and I got 58 MPG! I wasn't even hypermiling that hard, just basic P+G and DFCO. Also impressive because I was stuck in Los Angeles Traffic for half of the time with stop and go driving.

Nice list!

Depending how your compression test pans out determines what you need to do. For me, my compression was at ~130 per cylinder. Adding oil bumped that up to about 155 if I recall correctly. That means my piston rings are worn out. If oil doesn't change the results you likely need head work done. Neither is really hard nor expensive on the Metro. I think my parts are going to total about $120, haha.

Get used to the awesome mileage. That may be a little on the high side, but it is downright hard to get bad mileage in this car IMO. Today it was 28F out. My block heater had my engine at about 115F when I got in which meant zero high idle. My 7 mile commute to work got me 61 mpg according to my SG. Pretty ridiculous. I P&G and EOC of course.

Another thing I'd highly recommend is a vacuum gauge. I find it very helpful while driving the Metro. The SG just doesn't do as good of a job as the nice analog gauge does for showing you accurate manifold vacuum.

Here is the reason I installed mine: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ive-30423.html

Cool project. I'm going to watch your build and see if I can swipe some of your non-engine mods.

Thanks for the tip! I think i've got a vacuum gauge lying around from my old del sol project.

Yes, I've noticed the Geo doesn't glide very well, hopefully some aero mods will help. I found it hilarious though that I can still achieve 40 instant mpg while climbing slight inclines.

Do you have a list of parts for your head work?

I mainly want to replace rings, but that means disassembling basically everything. Here is what I'm planning on getting:

piston rings
head bolts
front and rear crank seals
head gasket set (includes nearly every engine gasket and seal)
timing belt and tensioner (cause its an extra $30)
thermostat

Off of rockauto the price for all that is $113 plus shipping.


I do plan on doing a bunch of maintenance that I've found the geo guys say is good to do including:

cleaning the oil pump - apparently it gets gunked up over time
clean hydraulic lifters
clean EGR passages
clean coolant passages in the throttle body
inspect and lap the valves
inspect crank bearing clearance


I'm also debating getting fancy and doing some ceramic coating of the pistons and combustion chamber along with applying dry film lubricant to various parts of the engine to reduce friction losses. I'm still not 100% decided on this yet. The kit is basically another $100, and so essentially doubling the rebuild price. :)

I found an oil leak near the passenger side lower control arm. The area of the engine near the lower control arm looks clean, perhaps the previous owner forgot to clean the control arm before selling it to me?

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...7_130148_1.jpg

I'll give it a good clean with engine degreaser to see how bad the leak is.

Deep cycle battery I bought is too big for the engine bay. Might need to mount it in the trunk. Luckily I still have the battery box and long battery cables from my battery relocation project on my old del sol. I'll just have to find a place in the hatch to bolt down the battery box. However, since the Geo is a hatchback, would this move be unwise?