daily driver mods

Hey guys i have been reading your post for the last few days. i realize how hard it is to find parts for these cars now. i just bought a 95 geo metro lsi for 500$. It needs a little tlc to make it look decent. both rh and lh mirrors are gone and the front windshield needs replaced. I basically need to know if you guys can help me with a few engine mods? I believe i am going to have the local shop do 2 inch pipe from the exhaust manifold back. will this be the best size for the 1.3? I was also wondering if anyone makes air intakes for these cars? if not i will just go with the k&n. I would love to do the 1.6 dohc swap but it seems that the ecu and harness and etc are to hard to come by. i want to do just a few mods to make it better on mpg and highway driving. are there any underdrive puilleys, egr block off plates, upgraded camshafts, etc out there i can buy? does anyone know where i can send the head to be ported? any aluminum radiator? basically can you guys give me some links for parts? sorry for the million questions in one post. thanks for any help!

Well, the guy you'll be lookin' to talk to is on teamswift.net . His name on there is suprf1y . He's the top SOHC guy for performance parts. He's got custom cam/cam gear combos to whatever lift/duration you please for like $150 range. Also, head porting would do excellent with a 2" exhaust and a big cam. There's also under-drive pulley manufacturers on there too. Search around the site for a while. Everything you'll need is built by the members there. Any auto performance shop can do a good head port job. BUT, i would take it to a race proven shop, so you don't get some doof that'll mess your head up.

Your windshield broke because the hood blew up and broke the windshield after failing to latch correctly. This 'll keep happening, [factory design defect], so check your hood latch each and every time you open the hood for security, or else, surprise, 60 MPH accident. Why bother with the SPEED mods, as the GEO is perfectly designed to get efficient MPG, not speed. Remember, gas will go over 3 - 4 Dollars per gallon in 2005, so keep it real and you'll save big time on fuel costs. You can get 45 MPG NOW, and that'll only get worse with POWER mods.

actually i have never seen a car get less miles per gallon from a better flowing air filter and exhaust. this is all i really want. besides a bigger exhaust will drop some of the torque off which will hopefully let my driveline live a little longer. anyway i have a rx7 to mod. I just want better gas mileage for the daily driven metro. i have a automatic and the 1.3 sohc engine so i only get a little over 30 mpg. I am just going weld on 2 1/8 inch straight pipe for a side exit exhaust, k &n air filter and a tune up. wish i had bought a 1st gen metro. they are like 350 pounds lighter!

Too bad you've got the 1.3 version, as the earlier 1 liter version is just about the most fuel efficient engine ever built. I get 43 actual MPG driving at 75 - 80 MPH freeways [usually full throttle on all road conditions]. The car is quite peppy as is, and I don't miss a V-8 engine one bit. If I slowed it down to around < 65 MPH, I get around 47 - 49 MPG all day long. Getting 13 - 18 MPG better MPG is going to be very valuable in 2005, as gas WILL be over 3 - 4 dollars per gallon. ie... the world is just about pumping all that supply can provide to demand, and we're now pumping from our stratigic reserves which'lll have to end now that the elections are over. That'll equate to around $45 - 85 dollars per month in savings. Additionally, you'll be doing our planet a favor by not putting more money into the hands of your beloved Arab friends, who just can't wait to spend our petro-dollars on Western friendly things, such as WMP's and suitcase nukes etc. .

I'd gladly give up a couple mpg for 10hp! :naughty:

IMHO oil prices will stabilize throughout '05.

After the Iraq elections democracy will have taken a serious hold in the middle east and will help improve relations in all the countries.

Speculation on the Iraq situation and the strike in Venezuela have been the major influences in oil prices globally and several hurricanes have interrupted production as well. All these effects are temporary.

The problem we are facing in the US is not a lack of oil, but a lack of refining capacity as EPA regulations make it just about impossible to build a refinery in the US. This results in little competition and impacts the consumer in a negative way.

There are about 20 different formulations being refined to meet local regulations. All the fuel you buy, regardless of brand, comes from the same refinery and the oil companies have a guaranteed market to pay for the cost of refining. The oil companies lobby heavily to keep their guaranteed markets and one cannot blame them.

My plans include a performance cam, timing sprocket and 2" cat-back exhaust. I'll modify the stock air cleaner buy gutting it of the stock filter and adding a larger inlet pipe and high flow conical filter. All for about $200.

People panic about the lack of oil and the rising demand, but I've got Popular Mechanics magazines from the 70s, and they were proclaiming the end of petroleum powered vehicles by the end of that decade. Oil was in short supply and everyone was worried. Electric cars were on the horizon, and everyone was going to live in geodesic domes.

Oil is a finite commodity, it's true, but I don't think the time to panic is quite here yet.