Time to ecomod the gas hog
 

Well, unfortunately, my 1998 Metro (The Zimmer in profile) has a major problem with the transmission internally. Some bearings are grinding really bad and I cannot drive it anymore until I find a decent replacement and purchase a new clutch kit. This really saddens me since the car is a 1998 and so far has had a lot of repairs needed since I got it from rebuilding the head, exhaust, brakes, etc and the frame also needs some attention before long and now the transmission is toast :mad:

At least my old reliable Chevy 4X4 (Black Betty in profile) has never let me down in the last 6 years of ownership even with me neglecting repairs :thumbup:

I have been busy the last couple days on my truck. I had a set of manifolds given to me from a friend (mine were both cracked) and got a couple donut gaskets and fixed the entire exhaust from manifolds back with 2 1/2" straight pipe and reused my Chery Bomb muffler. I also tuned it up with a fresh oil change, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, fuel filter, etc.

The best part was finding a very used hard bed cover at a yard sale Friday for a whopping $20.00 :eek:

I started my ecomodding with the above repairs and also.............

Removed Trailer Hitch
Hyper-inflated tires to 50 PSI
Removed weight from behind seats and emptied the bed
Installed the bed cover
Using driving tips from here

Check out the pics.....................

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...lkbetty001.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...lkbetty003.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...lkbetty005.gif

I also went and filled the fuel tank today and am going to see if I can improve the MPG from around 10 to 16 or better. The fill-up cost me $92.00 :o

Now some of you may say why not just fix the car with the money you blew on the truck. Well, I spent roughly $80.00 on tune-up and exhaust repairs and another $20.00 for the used cover. I did all this in about 10 hours and 15 beers and all of these neglected items on my truck were way overdue. Also, finding a decent trans is not easy for the Metro. There are a few in local scrapyards, but either they have over 200,000 miles on them or asking price is way too much for a $400.00 piece of crap car that I am a little pissed at right now for letting me down. Normally, any beater car that I get goes to the scrapyard when any major issues come up and this car already had one fixed and still has two more issues needing attention, so it can sit where it is until I decide to fix it. I even kicked it today and left a huge dent that was not really intended to be that bad, but yeah, whatever.

It was nice driving the old gas hog today. The acceleration was effortless, the automatic transmission was smooth, and the sound emitting from the tail-pipe was pleasing to my ears and less loud than the grinding metal gearbox in the Metro. She is black, sleek, and sexy and lets me pound her all I want without ever a complaint after all the years I have been using her. :confused:

Bummer about the Metro transmission. Double bummer that the replacements are hard to find/expensive.

If I were you, I would take this as a sign from a politically correct "higher power" to source one from a 1.3L car so you'll benefit from the taller final drive when you get around to fixing, rather than kicking it. :)

Do you have a real use for a 4x4 pickup? If its just to haul stuff you could always sell it and find a smaller truck/2wd truck. Or even a minivan, you can take the seats out of those and get way better than 10 mpg.

Sell me the metro?

11 Seems low for a regular cab with a 305. I'm sure you can bring that up. How does the plugs and air filter look? I'd throw a bottle of Chevron Techron fuel treatment into the tank. The 4x4 hurts a little, putting synthetic fluids in the 2 diffs and transfer case during your next maintenance interval might pick up 1mpg which isnt too shabby when you are sitting on 11.

"and slowly, the oil beast creeps up inside even an ecomodders veins...AAAAHHH!"
Sorry, That's all I could think of while reading about how exhilarating the beast was to drive....:) Too bad about the metro, I bet parts for it are at a premium these days. I'm kind of at the same dillema right now, with the toyota needing welding and exhaust. Looking ever so carefully at the new vehicle option.

The MPG readings now is because of the major exhaust leak and lack of maintenance and that stuff is all done now, so an increase in my mileage will be substantial since it got about 18MPG when I first got it.

Future mods will include...............

Partial Grill-block
Synthetic oil in the boxes
More weight reduction

Sell the Metro? I got the car for next to nothing, but already have over $500.00 invested in repairs and upgrades. I think if the trans and clutch run me another $500.00 then I should be fine until the frame breaks (OMG don't get me going again). I got this car to save me money in gas, but the cost of repairs is making me break even.

Not for sale...........................yet ;)

Looks good. Now what is the cap that you replaced? How about getting rid of that tailgate?

[QUOTE= She is black, sleek, and sexy and lets me pound her all I want without ever a complaint after all the years I have been using her. :confused:[/QUOTE]

Hmmm.... hmmmm ....( I must be a pervert. );)

It's a shame that truck gets such lousy gas mileage. It really looks nice.

Ninety two dollars for a fill up ?? gasp !!

Just with the drive today after all the work I have done, I can actually feel the truck has more power and I can drive with a very light pedal and it will climb hills without kicking down anymore. The biggest reason for my poor fuel mileage was the exhaust leak. There were flames literally coming out of the manifold cracks.

It will take a little less than a week to update my fuel log and I hope the mileage doubles, but I don't expect that much of a gain.

from time to time I drive either a 2004 chevy 2500 quadrasteer 4wd, or a 2001 f250 powerstroke, and I must say that it is enjoyable for a good 20~30 miles, then it sucks. IMHO but they are overbuilt which is good fore reliability/ durability . .