Another METRO Project

[MPGeo]

I like the idea of extending the kammback to the bumper, i don't necessarily understand why the current taillightsights are a problem... What am I missing?

[Ecky]

How fast do you drive? I get ~50mpg at 75mph, and ~100 at 50mph. Speed is king for highway driving.

[freebeard]

I like the idea of extending the kammback to the bumper, i don't necessarily understand why the current taillightsights are a problem... What am I missing?

Another solution might be a clear plastic strip added to the existing taillight. It should reach as far forward as the gas flap door, and would be a dirt catcher. Quoting aerohead:

*a 'tearing edge' can fix the situation,a 1930s invention by Koenig-Fachsenfeld and used today on rear bumper fascias.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post497429

[MPGeo]

Thanks for that post freebeard... I followed that thread a bit. Very interesting and very informative

Originally Posted by Ecky

How fast do you drive? I get ~50mpg at 75mph, and ~100 at 50mph. Speed is king for highway driving.

You can check my fuel log for more specifics, but for the most part most of my driving has been between 65-70mph. I did one full tank on what I considered aggressive ECO driving (at least for me) and I stayed 55 for the most part, 60at most at times (no cruise)... and did not make it to 50mpg on that tank... But I believe there's another reason for my low numbers.

I am 100% sure now that have a fuel leak! I thought I noticed gas smell a few fill-ups ago (I've only done 5), but I only smelt it... on my fourth fill-up I parked over the concrete and was able to physically see a puddle of gas under the car hours later, but didn't see where from. It had stopped. It's apparently a very slow seep of gas, but it's quite a bit. Sat morning I filled up my 5th tank and drove back over the concrete and didn't smell or see no signs of it... but this morning I was able to see sings of where the puddle was and had evaporated. So now I know for sure I have a leak.

I haven't gone under the car to fetch the leak yet, but if I had to guess, I think it's loosing the amount of gas in between the upper portion of filler neck upon fill-up, down to where the filler hose meets the tank... That's my guess. That's quite a bit of gas, and I'm sure the leak is driving my number down quite a bit. I have to get under it and address this problem - I'll wait until next fill up to see if I can pin-point the actual location of the leak because it's already stopped for now.

But I today I was able to make me some templates for the rear-view mirror cover using my parts car and decided to make a temporary cover... Then got a little happy and just pulled my mirror off My passenger side mirror was broken anyways so I just removed it and improvised this cover. Not the nicest cover, or picture, but I'm sure it's better than a useless mirror hanging out into the air flow.

This one is made out of cardboard, layered w/ painted duct tape, and attached to the door via clear box-wrapping tape. I plan to make me a better one some day, but this will have to do until then


I also made me a paper template for the antenna, I'll find some plastics from work and hopefully make me some more permanent covers for the antenna and mirrors. But for now I simply pushed the antenna all the way in to reduce the amount of drag until I remove it.

We'll see how much these 5 changes I did this weekend improve my overall FE.

[MPGeo]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

How about $80 shipped?

I was thinking of purchasing a tach signal converter module that converts from any cylinder # to any tach signal # and add a digital tach along with some other things. I even spoke to the manufacturer, it would have been around the same price... but I have changed my mind on going that route, and need to see what I'm doing RPM wise...

So if you are still interested in selling it I am willing to buy

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by MPGeo

I was thinking of purchasing a tach signal converter module that converts from any cylinder # to any tach signal # and add a digital tach along with some other things. I even spoke to the manufacturer, it would have been around the same price... but I have changed my mind on going that route, and need to see what I'm doing RPM wise...

So if you are still interested in selling it I am willing to buy

Still interested! Email message sent.

[MPGeo]

Found gas leak over the weekend. It turns out I was right, in that it was loosing all the gas from the gas filler section all the way down to gas tank filler neck. That's quite a bit of gas that fits on that pipe section...

So with the leak fixed I topped off, and had my first good day since kammback install, and it's looking promising so far. Typically I've been using aprox. 1/3 tank on my daiy commute. Today it only used aprox 1/4 tank.. If this pattern holds true that would be a great improvement!

On another note, I lifted the car and counted tire revs vs engine revs while on 5th gear. And for every 1 engine rev my tires rotated only 0.75 revs aprox. Any coments on this?

[MPGeo]

So I purchased the tach cluster from GAS FUMES along with a red tail light center cover just because ... Can't wait for the tach to come in the mail so I can finally see some real #s.

Later on down the road I need to add a volt/amp meter as well as a vacuum gauge, but I had to decide on which way I was going with the tach first.

Also purchased today the OFFICIAL ECOMODER shifter knob from DAOX. The near future plans for this is to setup the buttons as kill switch / engine start / & alt on-off.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by MPGeo

Later on down the road I need to add a volt/amp meter

I got one of these little LED volt meters on eBay. I think they're under $2. They fit just about anywhere!

[MPGeo]

Currently I have a set of 155/80/R12 on my car with fairly low miles on them, so no rush to replace tires based on thread wear, but I want to experiment with bigger tire sizes as it's a proven way to increase FE.

I have a set of factory Metro 13" wheels, and also a set of factory Honda 15"x7"s that fit the Metro. Neither set has a good pair of tires, plus the Honda tires are a bit too wide, so I would have to buy some tires just to experiment with either of these sizes, so I might as well make a targeted buy.

So in the past few weeks I've been playing around quite a bit with this tire size calculator and comparing my current 12" tire size with all the options available for the 13" & 15" and based on thread width, side wall height, and revs-per-mile I chose a few preferred tire sizes for each rim size and hit the used tire shop circuit around town.

I had no luck with the 13" sizes that I wanted, and almost no luck with the 15" sizes. But yesterday I was able to find only two, non-matching, but with great thread 165/80/15's... So I had them forced feed those babies onto the 7" rim ...

I'll be running a few tanks on the mods that I have with the new tach once it comes in this weekend, then I'll throw the 15"s on to see what they do.