Engine Mod for Gas savings?

[ndemge]

The gas price thread made me think of posting this....<br /><br /><br />Geo Metro, tiny lightweight car, 3 cylinder, 1.0L, about 50hp engine Gets 45mpg<br /><br />The Thought, Drop in a 18hp Kohler, rated at 1.5gph fuel usage , gear it to run at higher RPM before the tranny...<br /><br />What I would expcet is a slow and gutless car, but that's all I need to commute to work<br /><br />Think it would work? Could easily do the conversion, just need to make an adapter plate, easy drawing to a machine shop to get that.

 

[JRJ]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Why not? But if you get 45mpg now why bother? With the money it would take to do the change, buy CVX stock and you'll receive dividend checks

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

http://www.utterpower.com/10hp_chevy.htm <br /><br />I really doubt you'd save enough MPG to be worth the trouble and embarrassment though. A diesel would be a different story...

 

[Terry H]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Noel, they power a lot of vehicles that way in 3rd world countries where the roads don't allow for high speeds. I would think it would work just fine for commuting short distances at city speeds. Chief

 

[treedancer]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

You might try to find an old Kubota tractor around your area should not be to much trouble retrofitting seeing as geo is made by Suzuki and of course Kubota is Japanese also. The make a very good three-cylinder diesel engine.<br />Would more than likely have more power than the original.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

I think the torque loss would be horrible. How about mounting a motorcycle engine in the engine bay? I know that a Yamaha 1100 or a Honda goldwing motor could be adapted.<br /><br />Scooters are starting to look appealing if the weather to ride one is okay.

 

[ndemge]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

bob... I'd love to just have the gas milage of a scooter, but I want to live.<br /><br />driving almost 40 miles each way, with as crazy as everyone drives around here, my lifespan wouldn't be over a couple years.<br /><br />as they saying goes,, "it's not IF you crash, it's WHEN you crash" ....and all the older bikers I've met, that holds very true.

 

[dhammann]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

During the gas shortage in 1973 I injected water into the intake manifold. This allowed me to increase the timing (which is what actually increased the fuel mileage) without spark-knock. It worked great and increased mileage from 2-4 miles per gallon.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Big Dee...interesting idea. Haven't heard of that for fuel economy, but I remember water injection as a common drag-racing mod back in the good ol' days. Don't see it much anymore. But I did a quick Google search on "Water injection engine" to see if this idea is still alive. There's all kinds of ideas and plans out there.

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

It's a lot cheaper to put 40-45lbs. air in your tires.<br />Place a block of wood under your gas pedal to where you only get 60% throttle.<br />Remove all unneeded weight. If you don't use your back seat, door panels,pull them out.<br />Don't warm it up, get in and go. <br />Turn off the motor while stopped in traffic.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Agree with skinnywater on those ideas. Seems like a lot of money to do the conversion and then wait several years for it to pay for itself.<br /><br />Try driving without shoes on: the increased feel in the sole of your foot really changes driving style.<br /><br />Fill the tank only half full rather than topped to the brim.<br /><br />or you could fit a spinaker

 

[dhammann]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

The conversion did not cost anything....I had enough junk laying around to do the job.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

One word, L.P.G.<br /><br />Or is that 3 words?

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Originally posted by Dunaruna:<br /> One word, L.P.G.<br /><br />Or is that 3 words?

That's equivalent to using dollar bills as toilet paper here in the states.

 

[KRS]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

LOL

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

ZmOz, could you elaborate?<br /><br />My work vehicle is runnning on L.P.G. Has been for 12 years. The conversion cost me about $1500 but the fuel saving is massive.<br /><br />Mileage is the same between gas & LPG.<br /><br />Currently - <br />Gas $1.30 per litre<br />LPG $0.35 per litre (is it not this cheap in the U.S?)<br /><br />(I have to have a bit of a chuckle as I type this - we call 'gas' petrol, and we call 'LPG' gas.)<br /><br />Aldo

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Originally posted by Dunaruna:<br />(is it not this cheap in the U.S?)<br />

Nope. Compared to the cost of gasoline, with the drop in MPG propane vehicles loose money every mile. Propane prices aren't going up right now nearly as fast as gas, so that might change, but I doubt it.<br /><br />And that's if you don't bother to pay taxes on the propane. Since propane is sold untaxed, you're supposed to pay to get some kind of permit or something to use it, though that's difficult to enforce...

 

[ndemge]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

when gas was $2.50 last month, I tossed around the propane idea, was $2.00 for lpg...<br /><br />except all the cheaper propane conversion kits are for the larger v8's.... <br /><br />What I should do is find a propane kit for the metro I'm hopefully picking up tomorrow

 

[treedancer]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

Noël if you find two let me know . <br />Don C

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Engine Mod for Gas savings?

I've never lifted the hood on a Metro but I considerd another idea.<br />I thought that you could cut a connecting rod right above the bearing journal. Remove the piston and cam followers or rocker arms of that cylinder, plug any oil holes and disconnect that injector. Remove the wood block under the accelorator pedal.<br /><br />I almost posted it until I came to the part of which cylinder to eliminate. The 3 cylinder crankshaft design wouldn't make it a good candidate. At least with an even firing design you can eliminate 2 cylinders at a time.