2 Cylinder Metro? - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

dentprone · 09-02-2008, 07:51 PM

Hi all,

I just picked up my first Metro, soon to be followed by 2 more next week. This one is a '94 2 door manual that has spent it's entire life in Central FL, so it is absolutely rust-free. I got it fairly cheap because #3 rod bearing is gone, and has scored the crank badly. I will be swapping a good engine into it from an ugly, but clean '91, and handing it over to my wife for her commute. I plan on using the '91 as a test vehicle. OK.....I'll get to the point now. I am kicking around the idea of removing the piston and rod from the damaged motor, and putting it back together, using only 2 cylinders. I would then install this motor in the test car. I think I will have to weld up the oiling port in the crank on #3 journal, and there will be other issues, I'm sure. Any thoughts, comments, ridicule, or bets appreciated.

Frank Lee · 09-02-2008, 07:56 PM

Starting with a 3 cyl? I predict it'll shake like crazy and you won't enjoy running it. However, if it was a 4 and you pulled 2 out, I think it would work.

bbjsw10 · 09-02-2008, 09:41 PM

I wouldn't do it. By removing the rod/piston you are throwing the whole assembly out of balance you could end up destroying more in the end. And the last time I looked Metro parts keep going up and up in price. I would not take the chance, they are great little cars.

dentprone · 09-02-2008, 09:54 PM

True......I hadn't thought of the balance issue. It looks like the crank will be fine after I have it turned, just something that had crossed my mind. I truly appreciate the replies.

Will · 09-02-2008, 10:35 PM

I would have the crank fixed. A Metro will not run well on two cyliners. When I bought mine number two was out. I was running on one and three. The motor ran real bad. It shook violently and had no power at all. It was all I could do to get it home, and I only got 34 MPG doing it. The 34MPG was due to the motor still sending fuel to the down cyliner, but the motor was horribly off balanced.

If you want to mess around with two cylinder motors I would look at motorcycles

Bicycle Bob · 09-02-2008, 11:39 PM

I'll second the notion of starting with a 4-cyl crank and cam to make a two-banger. I'd only do it if I was going to do some serious streamlining to reduce the power needed on the highway. A 3-cyl with an extra-mild cam and tall gears would probably be my preference for reduced power, though.
I used to prefer even numbers of cylinders except on radials, but now I realize that the inline 3 only stops one piston at a time, while fours stop all four at once.

Johnny Mullet · 09-03-2008, 11:41 PM

My Metro was purchased with a dead cylinder also. It ran really bad, but still got 35MPG

dentprone · 09-03-2008, 11:47 PM

I have nixed the two-cylinder idea, pulled the motor today and found most of #3 piston skirt in the pan. Cylinder looks good, though.....the only concern now is that I have minor scoring in the cam bores. I'll have to see just how bad it really is. Thank you all for your input...probably stopped me from doing something stupid.

Kaneda · 09-04-2008, 12:13 AM

i fear the worst in cutting a cylinder from the mix... engineers said there should be three... they built -tested-retested with three... you were built with two feet(i hope) what would happen if we discarded one?

either way i wish you the best of luck.

rmay635703 · 09-04-2008, 01:21 AM

If the motor ends up being toast or too expensive to fix and you have a reasonable machine shop nearby find a running but junked Japanese mini truck like you see on the side of the road as OFF ROAD/FARM USE with a 660cc 2 cylinder get a flexplate adapter, mount it up and off you go, albeit probably not very quickly.

Good Luck