CRXFi Build Thread (Geo Metro XFi drivetrain in Honda CRX)

[Jim-Bob]

The somewhat cyclical idle seems to be an irritating trait of these engines. On my Metro it seems to be related either to engine temperature or astrology, the phases of the moon and voodoo... I think it's engine temp, but I am willing to entertain other ideas! At any rate, have you done the typical maintenance these engines need-namely de-carboning and a good compression test? Have you put in a fresh PCV valve and cleaned out the system? Are the vacuum hoses all new? I may have missed it but if you are using a used engine and not a rebuilt one you likely need to catch up it's maintenance as most Metros have seen very hard lives. Also, three cylinders are inherently unbalanced engines and tend to vibrate more than engines with even numbers of cylinders. This trait can be lessened with a balance shaft, but the G10 uses no such device. This is why it is important to use the stock circular motor mounts to absorb most of these vibrations. Otherwise, the steering wheel will be like holding on to a jackhammer.

[Wonderboy]

Schultz: How fortuitous that you'd post today of all days. I've got as big a piece of news as any about the project, and I was going to post about it just now:

I just got home from snatching up some ripe Craiglist loot: 4 stock Potenza RE92s on stock insight rims with the fancy little hubcaps all intact! $250 plus a bit of a hike (100 miles) but they were right near where my father grew up so I took him with me and we did some visiting and made a day trip out of it. One of the tires has some dryrot that hopefully isn't bad enough that it leaks. The rest of the tires are in great shape. One of the rims seems to have met and had a small conversation with a curb or some similar character at one point. Luckily it didn't get too influenced :P Anyway.... SCORE!

News item 2: This monday marked the completion of my bearing replacement! It was my first time with a hydraulic press and I finally got around to pressing a brand new bearing into my front DS knuckle. Once I put that back on and get my new tires on, I'll be confident enough in the safety of the vehicle to take it on longer trips and finally start getting an idea as to what kind of numbers I can get out of it sans aero. Then I start adding mega aero in time for the GGP. Hooray!

@Jim-bob: I did not replace the PCV, but I did a complete rebuild of the engine. One thing I wish I'd done while I had it cracked open was to balance the piston+rod weights. I saw a forum post somewhere where the person weighed each piston and took material off (from a non-critical area of course) with a dremel to make them all equal to make the idle smoother. I do indeed have very solid mounts, but the idle has gotten smoother. Installing a bunch of interior parts to dampen the initial fierce metallic rattling it had produced helped as well.

The guy who got me access to that hydraulic press (he made a user id on here and chimed in at one point earlier in the thread), who has been a great help and has taken interest in the project, is a megasquirt fiend with his 81 BMW. I'm sure I can rope him into helping me eventually break free from the confines of TBI. That's down the road though. There's your update, folks!

[MetroMPG]

I am jealous enough about the Insight tires & rims to say "you suck" and leave it at that.

[Wonderboy]

Original posting on CL was 1/03/11 .. they had been there a while. I called up and the guy said several people had called, none had come. Whenever I see something like this on CL, I usually post it over in the classifieds here for others to see (like that set I found in toronto that one time). Sometimes you just get lucky and get everything you want, and sometimes you're Darin :P Happy new year!

[MetroMPG]

Patience and persistence pays off, in other words.

I like where this project is going. I didn't know you were considering a Megasquirt conversion. MPFI???

[Jim-Bob]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Patience and persistence pays off, in other words.

I like where this project is going. I didn't know you were considering a Megasquirt conversion. MPFI???

I was looking at my G10 today and thinking the same thing. If you look at the head, there are three perfectly angled bosses for injectors just waiting to be drilled and machined. I think the injectors off of the later MPFI G13 would likely be the proper size and may even have a fuel rail that could be cut down for the project. I can't imagine the cylinder spacing is different on the 4 than the three.

[MetroMPG]

I'm sure it's been done before. Teamswift probably holds the answer. Also, maybe the 1.0 turbo engines were MPFI. Dunno.

[arcosine]

You can disable two cylinders in the HF and have 750cc, I have done this on a 1600cc Honda and improved gas mileage from 40 to 48 mpg. it idled twice as fast too. Careful driving as the semi trucks pass trying to accelerate, it was horrible.


Thread:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post217825

[MetroMPG]

Arcosine, could you please post a thread detailing that project? I know others would like to know about it, and won't see it buried in this thread.

[Wonderboy]

I've scouted out some MPFI prospects. I know its possible. This is where I'll be looking first when I start getting more serious about it.

Teamswift probably holds the answer.

They always do!