Greetings from upstate NY!

[PonchoBuick]

Hi all!

I'm new to this forum, but I've been checking it out over the last few weeks and some of the stuff here has definitely caught my attention! Right now I mainly have an interest in trying to squeeze a bit more mpg from both of my current vehicles, but in the long run I may attempt to build a commuter EV (especially after realizing it can be done affordably in some cases!).

My current rides are:

'94 Dodge Caravan (Da Bus)
3.0 Mitsu V6 w/ 3 speed auto
Dynomax Super Turbo muffler added, otherwise stock
Best mpg: 17.8 suburban driving (out of town, no interstate)
23.7 highway (managed 25 behind moving truck)
Goal: 20 suburban / 25-27 highway

'81 Buick Century (no nickname as yet)
4.3 (265 cubic inch) Pontiac V8 w/ Metric 200 3 speed auto
Cat removed (old one clogged, have replacement, not installed yet)
Removed A/C system
Best mpg: 18.0 suburban driving
25.1 highway
Goal: 20 suburban / 28-30 highway

Plans for both include smoothing the bodylines where possible, including grill blockoffs, plus a little diet for both to see where some dead weight can be lost. I may experiment with WAI's as well on both, and I may run a fuel injector shut-off for the van to shut down 3 cylinders for highway usage.

As I said, eventually I'd like to build an EV for commuting to work. The Metro seems quite popular, but I might go a little different route. I think I'd like to try doing up an EV with the ancestor of the Metro, the old Chevy Sprint. If I can't swing that, perhaps something more interesting like an early Dodge Colt/Plymouth Champ. Time will tell (plus whatever I can find when the time comes!LOL).

Anyway, just wanted to say this is a great site with some great stuff! I hope to put all this info to good use and contribute when I can! See ya on the forum!

Cheers,
Aaron

[SVOboy]

Greetings TO upstate NY!

Quite an impressive garage you got there, don't forget to enter some fuel logs!

[groar]

Welcome on EM.com

I'waiting to see pictures of your cars, with and without mods, and their fuel logs.

Denis.

[MetroMPG]

Hi Aaron - welcome to the site.

You're not to far from me - 1000 Islands - but moving in a couple of weeks to the east coast.

Just curious: what sparked your interest in efficiency?

[PonchoBuick]

Thanks all for the welcome!

SVOboy, it's a unique combination in the driveway! I do plan to start gathering some figures in the near future, all comes with time and money (and when I have one, the other is usually nowhere to be found).

groar, here are a couple of pics.




The van looks the same, the car however is in the process of badge removal and is about 1/3 done in dark gray primer. There is a bit of surface rust which I want to attend to before the snow gets here, so I'm priming the whole thing then I'll concentrate on getting it sprayed next spring. But as you can tell, both can definitely need help for some FE improvements!

MetroMPG, thanks! I'm very familiar with the 1000 Islands. My folks have a house in Cape Vincent right on the St. Lawrence, and years ago we used to have a summer camp halfway between Cape Vincent and Clayton. Love going back when I can.

The interest in economy? Hmmm, quite a few factors. The van is the primary concern as it's the family truckster, does most of the grocery running and out of town trips. So in that case it's trying to get the most bang for the buck. As for the car, well, it started as just a second car for me to drive to work. But it was all original and needed a good tune-up and some past due maintenacne. As it sits now it gets equal to slightly better FE than the van, and considering it's a carbed V8 powered 27 year old car I think it does fantastic for what it is. The engine is a Pontiac 4.3 litre (265 CI) engine with a 2 barrel carb designed for fuel economy, so hopefully trying out some of the tricks on here might help this old beast out. This one is kind of an experiment to see just how efficient an older car can be using some newer tricks, an exercise of sorts.

And the interest in building an EV car comes from your Metro, actually! I did a yahoo search for high mpg vehicles, and came across your EV Metro and saw that it was built for less than $1000. Now I know that won't be the case most times, but it proved to me it was possible to do it affordably. The only thing in my case would be using an older econobox car, just to set it apart from the field. A Chevy Sprint is my first choice, but it comes out to what is available when I decide to go forward with it.

Cheers,
Aaron

[MetroMPG]

Well, I was just curious - as the price of fuel is falling, I figured people joining the forum would have more than pure economics as their motivation.

A Sprint would make a good platform for a short-range (light pack weight) runabout. One of the guys who helped me with the ForkenSwift has a Forsa (same as Sprint) conversion. If I recall, they're about 150ish lbs lighter than the 1989-94 Suzukiclones.

There was one available here around the time we started, but it had two major strikes against it: the body wasn't in great shape (rust) and it was an automatic.

[groar]

Thanks for the pictures it changes me from the European & Japanese cars I see all the time.

Often when I'm looking at pictures on this site I'm feeling like when I was a young boy looking at 70's / 80's American movies/series except during Columbo 'cause its Peugeot 403.

Denis.

[PonchoBuick]

MetroMPG, well the van is probably the only one that done from a pure economy standpoint. I'm actually quite happy with the car as is, so that more of an experiment to see what effect ecomods would have on an older car where high efficiency might not have been as high of a priority. Even though the price of gas is falling, I still don't believe it will stay that way. I'd prefer to stay ahead of that if at all possible.

groar, yep they're a bit different from the asian/euro cars that's for sure! But at the same time, I love checking out some of the foreign cars we don't have access to (Suzuki Altos, Mitsu Minicas, Peugeot 106's, VW Polos and so many more).

Cheers,
Aaron