Swift (Geo Metro) transmission swap

[hzoltaan]

Hi All,

Since MetroMPG's topic dealing with the transmission swap is long dead and I did not find any other relevant topic I thought I will start one here.

I decided to follow MetroMPG and replace the tranny of my '98 SuzukiSwift 1.0i to the swift 1.3.

Just to make sure. Will it fit? Both vehicles were produced in Hungary, mine is 98, the donor car is 97. Were there any differences I could come accross? If so, is there any way to identify the gerabox to decide whether it will fit or not?

And some info about the car:
Bought it as a cheap go-around. Without aero mods my record was about 4.9l/100km so far. Only careful driving and tires on 40psi.

I have an OEM wing on the car, at the edge of the tailgate. Not too high... I have no idea if that helps or not, removing it is probably tricky, it's some glue which holds it. (I guess it was fitted by a specialist. Bought it that way)

Next week I'll get LPG system installed on it. the reason: Fuel here in Europe is awfully expensive. Where I live (kinda cheap compared to the rest of the countries...) we pay around the 1.86USD for a litre of 95 octane normal gas.
On the other hand, this country has huge gas reserves and like 40% of the personal cars are running on LPG, which is abot half price.

Is there anyone having expreience with the GEOMetro / Swift on LPG? Will I have the torque so I can cruise in the higher 5th gear with the speed of 80-90km/h?

Thanks in advance. The LPG installation will be done next week and if so, the tranny swap at the end of April, so I'll provide results then. Sorry, no sophisticated economy meter like ScanGauge, but I'll be able to give you a reading between fill-ups.

Zoltan

[MetroMPG]

Hi Zoltan -

I can't comment on your '98 car - I think it's different than my '98.

When I did the swap, however, the transaxle housings were identical. The differences were in a support rod in the shift tunnel and the shifter linkage (if I remember right). They were slightly different lengths for each of the transmissions, since the transmission from the 4 cylinder car was offset further to one side of the engine compartment to accomodate the longer 4-cyl engine.

If you search at teamswift.net, you may find one owner on your side of the pond who did the swap and found there were minor inconsistencies when he did it. I don't remember how it turned out for him - this was years ago.

[hzoltaan]

Ok, I've got the LPG system installed and I'll have to agree, the torque is gone, no higher 5th is possible.

On the other hand the car behaves well on lpg (praise the mechanic who did it) my consumption is about 5.7-6l /100km of gas with my driving (slow... very slow... compared to the crazy Poles ). Since the price is about half of petrol, I'm happy about it.

technical question:

there is a feature in this small engine: while the car is rolling, the ECU keeps the rpm on a higher level, then it drops it to 0. really often I would use engine brake or just roll to a red light and it annoys me, that around 1500 the injection kicks in (if engine braking) or the engine revs while rolling the last meters to a junction...

after the car has stopped, (and I mean completely, there is no margin... quite strange) the rpm drops after like half a second to 800 and stays there stable.

My understanding is, that this elevated RPM keeps the engine in a ready-mode if I'd decide to accelerate, and it keeps the brake assistant fully "charged".

I see, there is a safety reason for this, but I don't feel that i could not live with only 80% of the brake assistant's power while rolling with 10-15km/h...

is there a way to disable this feature?
to have 800 stable when I get off the go-pedal in neutral?
Or is there a big advantage of this somewhere and I'm just blind not seeing it?