I'm on board
 

My interest in building an XR3 is basically what brought me here. The XR3 build is still on hold until I get myself dug out from one of those hick-ups life can toss at you. I'm a member of the XR3 yahoo group and have been doing a lot of cranial design, i.e. power plant, lighting, seating, windows and yes redesigning the front clip. For those that know of the XR3, that thing on the nose is the vented engine cover, the motor sticks out of the hood a bit.

Anyway,
In the meantime I'm going to try a few mods on my Astro AWD work van, after I replace failing wheel hub:( I was thinking of wheel disc's and I've been working out a louvered grill replacement. I don't know that a belly pan is really doable. The tight motor bay is already a cooker under the hood, the tranz/ T case cross member hangs below the rocker panels, and it's pretty crammed with hot things under there that need air flow.
I already do a better job of eco driving then most of the people on the road with me. I hang back and try to stay off the brakes and maintain a relatively constant speed, try and time the lights, and just keep my foot out of the throttle. I pretty much only drive the van for work, which mean's I'm in heavy traffic 98% of the time.

I had the oil changed last weekend, 4qt. 5W30 Pennzoil high mileage, 1qt. Lucas. Today was fill the tank day and check tire pressure 35psi.
I keep track of my mileage already, partly because my fuel gauge is wacky and untrustworthy. So come Monday morning I'm going to start improving my eco driving technique, learn the finer points of the tranz shift points.

Jasen

Welcome! Looking forward to following your fuel log.

I was looking more at the XR3 and I saw its engine is longitudinally-mounted, which seems to have pushed for the need of that hood scoop for clearance.
http://www.rqriley.com/imagespln/xr3...asmy-tv1-b.jpg
Have you ever considered to use a transversely-mounted engine instead? That might help to deal with the clearance issue and get the weight closer to the center of the vehicle.

Welcome to the forum, Jasen.

You've probably seen the other Astro work van thread going on here recently (http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...sel-26437.html )

The thing about thirsty vehicles: even if your mods and/or improvement in technique might not look numerically impressive (eg. ~20 mpg), small improvements in MPG at that end of the scale represent relatively big savings in fuel & money burned.

So I take it your XR3 will be an additional commuter/trip vehicle? You don't have anything else in that role right now - just the van?

Metro,
I've been following JB3's diesel swap over on Astrosafari dot com. It's been a long haul, but he's about got the bugs worked out, looks like he's going to put some shorter gears in it.
The wife has her Wrangler, but this current job has me hopping and I never know what tool's I'll need from one day or hour to the next, so I've pretty much got them all with me.

Cripple,
The XR3 uses a flipped VW type 1 transaxle, which sets the motor height. I had the notion of lowering the motor by connecting them via a gear drive and having the custom made tranz-dapt plate double as a oil chamber. I think with the low torque/HP it's doable, but gear drives are noisy.
My 1st thought was to use a transverse motor, but it would sit even higher. The Geo G10 1L and Kabota D902 1L are less then an inch difference in exterior dimensions 22hx16wx20d

You can kinda make out the motor/tranz alignment here, this builder has also moved the radiator from the rear compartment to the motor bay, as I plan to do. He's running the 34 hp Vanguard turbo diesel.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/1826387...5-2010+023.jpg

and just to show what one can do with the nose...

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/1826387...e/DSC03067.jpg



Reilly as done a good job with weight distribution at 70/30 even if you build as an ICE only, you balance it by switching from a 3 gallon tank to 9 gal. The tank is mounted in the tunnel frame so the fuel level never sets you off balance.

You could eventually slant it a little.

Got that thought in my head, would need to take a measurement, maybe two.;) Figure out how it effect's oil return, might have to mod the oil pan.
This sort of thing is the appeal to me about it, the basic's are there and open for a verity of mod's and power plant's.

Sure. The possibilities are nearly endless. Well, I've been considering a BMW flat-2 motorcycle engine with its stock transmission powering the rear wheel, since many BMW motorcycles are already heavy as hell it probably would work nicely. A few ones have even reverse gear.

Oh yea, my son's Ducati streetfight is 150-160 hp, his old Yamaha R1 was 190 hp, that as much as my van. The Trimagnum uses the whole bike minus the front end. If you use just the beemer motor, you'd be sit'n pretty.

Well, but their torque is not so impressive, something like 1/3 of the van's torque. But still enough for a light tricycle to remain quite peppy. Unless you would follow my early advice and get an utility trailer to pull with it :D