Is anyone making MPGuinos anymore?
 

Hey guys! Long time, no see. Been busy starting a family, but I'm back! :D

I recently bought a 93, 4 door, geo metro and want to put a mileage gauge in it. I don't even know what I'm getting for mileage, because I haven't had to fill it up yet! :D lol

I noticed that Meelis11 isn't making them anymore. :eek: Is anybody making them now? Or am I on my own for building one? I don't have as much time anymore with a 2 year old and a 3 month old baby. :p

As always, I appreciate your guy's help and advice!
SO GOOD TO BE BACK!!! :thumbup:

I don't think anyone is making one. However, you might find someone who is willing to part with a used one. Of course the alternative is making your own.

Also, welcome back.

Sadly, the market for FE mods is tiny- and the market for pre-1996 mods is even smaller. Glad you're back, I know how family can hinder mods. Hell, I can barely hypermile any more.

Thank you for the replies. I've been doing some research as well and have come to the same conclusion. I am greatly disappointed though, not because people don't currently make them, but because people don't share their builds enough for others to make their own... I have spent about 3 hours looking for a build write up, with no success. Perhaps I'm just looking in all the wrong places? *sigh* I can watch my mileage the old fashioned way, it's just more exciting to try and beat your trip mileage, or your spouses mileage. ;) I've been without a mileage gauge of any kind for about 3.5 years now. I miss it...

This is another option:
https://www.reveltronics.com/en/prod...omputer-utcomp
I have not used one myself. Maybe someday.

One of the guys on the astro forum has one (i think its the same one). He recently asked about my mpguino though so he might be looking for something better. Not sure what he doesn't like about that other unit.

https://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopi...689634#p689634

Here you go:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...uch-37322.html

Well there are a number of Scan Gauges IF you don't mind getting your MPG from the OBDII Port. I have two versions: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...cat=0....these are fine and well made. and as a cheaper version but seemly a little more complex is: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...kw=turbo+gauge

This is a new one, looks interesting.https://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-OBD2-Ca...UAAOSwUrZd8ggE

The only need for a MPGunio is IF you tricking the car's PCM to improve its MPG and it some cases you might trick the MPG readings as well. Which is why I have them.

Rich

What about cars with lean burn?

My best guess is if it factory then its PCM should show a correct readout.

Most of those devices have a 30 day return policy so try it and see.

Rich

I nearly built one a few months ago, even bought all of the parts and had them on my workbench. At the last minute someone on this forum offered to sell me a prebuilt unit, which is more compact and ultimately what I used.

They said they had a 93, which is OBD1.

Sorry my bad, well this is for all running 96 or newer systems.

Rich

That last ebay lik looks nice. A bit boxy.. but nice.

I have one of each of the two first gauges, and like them. The Turbo gauge seems to have More features....

I also have a couple MPGunios, mainly because I had planed on doing things with the injectors, even one plan that might bypass the injectors so along with the above scan gauges I have a two of the very old Zemco automotive computer...sadly the great models I own are so rare I could not find any of them, not on ebay not in a wide search...just this older model: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-NOS...-/273868141978

Here is a picture of the great head unit in my 93 Chevy van. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

These work off its own VSS sending system by mounting a set of magnets to the drive shaft close to the transmission, and mounting a small coil close to them, running wires to your dash. this gives miles driven, MPH and is used to compute the MPG with a fuel flow sensor that is mounted in line from the fuel pump and the carburetor. This flow sensor tells the computer how much fuel that flows to the carburetor. With these two sensor these computers could tell you your MPG, MPH, range, as in miles to out of gas. And a few other read outs. There was a calibration needed, so for the first trips you needed to make adjustments to refine its readings.

I ran one in my 1974 Chevy van. It worked very well. During the gas shortage of the 70s having a read out to out of gas on road trips was a great help.

A few things I need to point out: These were low pressure systems, 5 PSI, I do not know how well the fuel sensor will work with 30 to 90 PSI systems.

Another problem with OBDI FI systems had fuel return systems, fuel fed to the fuel rail that was not used was bypassed and fed back to the gas tank. The fuel sensor cannot tell how much fuel was used by the engine. Even my 74 Van has a fuel return system but it was at the engine driven fuel pump so from this fuel pump was one fuel line to the carburetor so the sensor could read only the fuel fed to the carb.

I was trying to rig a aftermarket Fuel Pressure regulator that had a external fuel return that would allow the system to then feed the fuel rail as a direct line from this external fuel pressure regulator allowing the fuel flow to read the fuel fed to the fuel rail.

I did get this system rigged on my 93 Chevy van bypassing the TBI injector pressure regulator built into the TBI injector system, but ran into some kind of problem and ended up removing the system. The van runs at 10 to 20 PSI fuel pressure. It had no leaks at that pressure, I cannot say how it will handle higher PSI of other systems.

I also heard that the gas flow sensor did not have a great life, and can wear out, so was looking into better fuel flow sensors to handle higher fuel pressure system. I did not find one then.

Rich

Greetings racprops
Like you I still have the same Zemco unit , I have used a few of these
Zemco systems since 1980 and have found their metering repeatability poor on
small engines(with carburettors) , also the internal seal fails eventually ,I have had to repair a few of these.
After about 5-7 years of service .
I also don't recommend more than 5 psi with these sensors due to the sealing
method used.
There was a conversion box available to convert these Zemco units to fuel injection
although I have never seen one ,it was listed in the owners handbook

Tp

Thanks for your replay.

So where does these flow meters seals fail??

I once found a copy of the FI device circuit but I believed it failed to work.

It was a simple system to produce a ground pulse from a injector.

From the test system in the manual it should be very simple to make one, all they are doing is creating a temp pulse to ground, the test is to just ground the wire to these flow sensor a number of times and see it the computer show counts changing because of your tapping ground.

It could be as simple as hooking a bright white LED to a injector's ground trigger lead and putting it into a housing containing the flow sensor's light sensor light reacting diode.

I wanted it operating WITH the fuel flow sensor (of some kind) because I was going to trying some stuff to the cars computer that could product false readings and in a couple of possibilities that could by pass the stock fuel systems like fuel vapor.

So I was hoping of a system that reads the fuel used completely independent of any of the cars fuel management system.

I was hunting a high pressure flow meter to replace the unit that came with these systems. I am still looking for one.

I have read the BB used in these ware down, so that was one way it was reported to fail, and I bet these BB was not running though its track on low flow rates on your small engines.

Rich

PS I added a couple of photos of this flow meter here so we can agree we are talking about the same unit: https://www.facebook.com/richardacoy...e=3&uploaded=2

Zemco carburettor fuel flow sensor
 

the 2 wires that exit the body is where they leak.Where these wires exit is the photo transistor , between the this & the fuel is a round glass window with some sort of sealing material to keep the fuel out ,I have one disassembled, I will try to post a photo. I think E fuel wasn't kind to the sealing material.

Thanks. Darn, here I feared the big plate to plate would leak.

So now I KNOW I will need a better flow sensor.

Thanks.

Rich

The reason I ended up here is to find a seller of mpguino,does anybody know what the previous sellers asking price was?