I snagged a 2 for the price of one deal, pair of 1991 geo metros both 3 cylinder five speeds. First one was in a wreck in 1994, 36,000 original miles. Came with a new front clip so guess I’ll have to learn how to replace structural steel in a unibody to fix that one up. The second one is complete 177,000 miles needs a motor rebuild. Plan to swap drivetrains and get some tires and have a commuter for work, I can’t keep up with the wood pile right now life has gotten more busy. Why a commuter gas mizer?
That was a great find , i had a 94 and a 91 metro, nice little buggy ,i delivered washers and dryers for several years, with a tiny trailer just wide enough for wash machine, and long enough for three machines.Running around empty i got 38 mpg on the older high miles one and got closer to 45 mpg on the other less miles geo metro. I had a good working stick shift in one of them. havent seen many on the roads up here in salty roads michigan in few years, or seldom. You might find a low miles one at a wrecking yard for an extra motor cheaper or easyer than rebuilding. or just put all the good parts on the best known body, see if you like them. save the rest for parts. AND if you could build a light weight charco cooker- it might not burn much char gas.i think i would put a char gas unit in trunk back seat area, and seal the area off from front seat area, let the char refill door be through the roof in a roof rack area. IF IT LOOKS LIKE IT would fit.i havent checked- i had mine several years back.
Complete engine overhaul kit is 83$ less then 100 after shipping. Ill end up putting both cars on the road as they are both rust free, will mean i get to keep the woodpile for pleasure driving instead of the rat race of work every day, it becomes very demanding driving long distance daily
The rebuild won’t bring back the piston too bore tolerences- is what i was refering too–you can put new bearings on an old crankshaft; but that dont make the crank round again- thats why its cheaper too find low miles engine some time’s though maybe the miles were well maintained miles, and the wear is tolerable./? or you can have the crank checked for out of round wear and the bores checked, could bore it or have crank turned and polished, still might be cheaper than low miles engine. THE trannies dident seem too heavy duty.The stick shift trany worked good and had better mpg- had better over drive gearing,Hope this helps- good little run- abouts though.
I can mic everything to see what it needs, a fresh polished crank is 80$, a bored block 300$. Most geos were beaten hard and ended up with blow by from piston rings carboned up. A quick hone out bearings and rings gets another 100,000 in these things. Low mileage engines are extremely hard to find around here. I never should have scrapped my old metro years ago but back then the parts were hard to come by. They still are now but with many meeting their demise at the frame horns rusting out over the years the engine parts have become more available. The auto trans were iffy, they had problems with the computers loosing capacitors that forced a hard shift and killed them in short order, one of many reasons every rig i own is a manual transmission which means paying more up front to get it. I got real lucking and snagged both for 1100$, the not running one is worth 1500 just being rust free. Locally one that runs and drives in any co dition is 2000-3500 right now even though kelly blue book has then valued at 800-1200. Tires will be here next week, shouldnt take more then a day to swap running gear if i get after it. But it will likely sit for a week before i can get to it, other big things happening that are priority
the gentleman i bought the geos from is a 55 year mechanic who owns his own shop, he had never seen a woodgas rig or heard of it, that turned into a hour conversation walking around the dodge show and tell. He is a collector/hoarder with property to store all the goods, i believe his junk/ treasure piles would put @Wayne to shame. after the walk around of my truck he proudly proclaimed " i have ever piece i need to build this in my back yard!" i invited him to come check out the forum he was very interested. it has become enough of a normal occurrence explaining the truck to people when i go places on weekends that now both my youngins have to proclaim to anyone they meet " my dad has a woodgas truck!"
parent teacher conference’s i had a teacher ask me with a baffled look “what is woodgas? your boys never stop telling people about trucks that run on wood chunks??” i told her look out in the parking lot and you will see one haha
How much is propane out there Marcus? I just had my tank filled here at $2,56 a gallon. I think mileage losses on propane are probably close to wood gas so maybe equivalent to around $3.35 head to head with gasoline. I know that the propane conversion kits are outrageous but I can’t see why they can’t be DIYed. Would sure beat 5 bucks a gallon and indefinite storage is a huge plus in my mind. Even with Stabil, I still have real issues running stored gas in my saws and other 2-cycle stuff. Currently gasoline here is around $3.70 a gallon for E-10 I’m spending $4.55 the other day for non-ethanol.
It varys greatly, last year i was paying 2.25, i heard its up to 3 and some change now but im still running off last years stocked up tanks. I only use propane for my outdoor cookers usually
Closer to $4:00 high to $3.55 here in Wenatchee area. It cost a lot of diesel fuel to drive it over the mountains 200 miles away?
If they could sale it for more monies here they would.
Bob
Hi ALL the real cost of converting a vehicle to run on propane here in Washington State is the huge increased annual registration (tax) fee added.
Here is the deal. LPG providers are not set up to collect and send to the state a 49.3 cent per gallon “roads-usage-tax”. So they will fill up an on-board vehicle tank ONLY IF you have the special annual for-propane-only pre-paid registration tied to that specific vehicle.
Used to be this was a base $$$'s calculated on the annual expected miles, weights and gallons one of the old set-up for propane big V-8 RV’s used.
Was an added $350 annually back in the 90’s. Jumped up to $600. annually last I checked in the early 2000’s.
No allowance made for dual fueling gasoline and propane. In fact you have to pay for a State Patrol special inspection to prove as much as possible the gasoline equipment has been removed.
So a fellow either takes in many portable bottles for refilling. And cross pumps them over. Expensive. Cumbersome. Not a real safe thing to do.
Set up and run the vehicle with a back end full of small portable in&out bottles. O.K. Just like a travel trailer set up.
Or have a big 300, 500, 1000 gallon ground delivery tank. Yeah-yeah. “For my house” “For my shop” And cross pump LPG into a vehicle.
That gets sooner or later shut down just like those scabbing in dye colored non-roads taxed AG diesel. Pulled over by the State Partol for an out tail-light; one of the randoms equipment’s functioning checks; unlucky to run into a road-block them looking for a fugitive. He/She Officer sees or smells your using propane with out the pre-paid proper registration. Forwards your vehicle and driver license info to their Weights and Measures Division. And you get a knock on the door from them, and a WA State Revenue agent.
Sheeet. The Game is rigged against you by the social progressives now in cultural/political power out here.
Ha! Ha! So go the trunk full of portable bottles route and bootleg. Coyote howl out FREEDOM.
Do set up for at least a 300 gallon ground tank. And the liquid transfer pump and hosing-couplers. Howl out longer.
Have some fun laughing about how long you did get away tax cheating.
S.U.
All true, but I really like sticking it to the MAN when I can. Really hate it when they turn it back on me. Luckily now days it’s not an issue. We drive at most a hundred miles a month. If we had a milk cow and chickens we would probably not go out at all.
170-300,000 is normal milage for most the runners around here and they are low on power which is bad in a 52hp engine that struggles to do 65mph on the free way🤣 but they are so easy to work on and cheap to do most anything on them they are worth it for long range commutes
Nice find- I get propane for my tankless water heater - and cook stove-50 bucks for 100 pound tank- last me about 3 months. Yes i know what you mean, you can rerring and bearings and get a lot of better running miles most the time. i have rebuilt probbley 6 motors over the years, makes a big difference- and gets new gaskets at the same time.
Exactly Kevin.
It ain’t about getting back to perrr-fect factory new or even hot-rodded better.
It is about getting back some 10’s thousands of miles of daily driving useability.
Buy yourself a year or two.
I’ve had vehicles I did twice re-ring, pistons decarbonization, and a hand relaped, valves facing on. An old Volvo PV444. A Rambler American. A BMW 1600.
Poor-boys with poor ways did not American disappear with Model A’s.
S.U.
