I'm buyin' a Chebby this weekend

jwalterus

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I need a work beater.
Something that won't break the bank on fuel (wow, a whole 1 mile drive each way!!!! :rotflmao)....
Not after this winter, we're looking at a house with some land, gonna be 35 miles each way. But I'm using the short commute currently for an argument that I need a little gasser. I don't want to put my truck on a cold weather drive that won't even warm the coolant in the winter.....
I've been using the Mustang for to-and-from work, kept the fluids circulating, but, after some soul searching (and someone with some DEEP pockets), I sold it this last weekend. Kind of sad to see it go, but it is just a car after all, even if it was a low mile classic.....

Anyways, back on topic. LOL

Saturday I'm picking up the ultimate in Chevrolet high-horsepower gas guzzlers......









A 1993 Geo Metro! :rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao
Oh yeah! Feel those thundering 55 ponies under the hood, that roar coming from the 1.0L 3-cylinder engine through a 1" tailpipe......



In all honesty, I had a '91, I sold it a couple weeks before Katrina hit, went from 50mpg in that thing to an LTD with a 460 just in time for gas to skyrocket!

They are decent little cars, the ultimate econo-box!
If I used it solely for work, with that 10 gallon fuel tank, where I live right now..... I'd have to go to a gas station for an annual fill-up. LOL
Kinda looking forward to my $800 work beater. ;Sweet
 

IDIoit

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are you atleast getting the turbo model?
had one back in the day, that thing hated going 75 mph
 

jwalterus

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Well, ended up buying it, spent a whopping $750 on the car. ;Sweet
I picked it up at 10 am yesterday morning, stopped by the range on the way home to try out the Monkey Gun, that thing is lotsa fun, but that's for a different section of the forum LOL.
Previous owner bought it in '02, he was the second owner, he used it as a summer runner (he's out in BFE), and says he was changing the oil every 2k miles. It was idling a little rough, and had a tick I thought was a lifter, he said the tick and rough idle had been there since he had bought the car, interior is pretty good, no rust on the car. Ran decent at speed, he said it was getting 42mpg mixed Hwy/city after he took off the a/c belt (which sounded low to me), but compared to the local used car market, it was a steal, so I bought it.
Made it home about 1:30 with the truck, had to meet my dad at his place to run down to look at the car, a little over 100 miles each way, and his Kia Rio gets a lot better mileage than anything I had until now, no sense wasting fuel if the car wasn't worth it...
Got the car home about 5pm after running errands and getting parts for a tune-up (and used the car for that LOL). Oreilly didn't have an air filter other than Microguard, I'll pass, everyone else closed until Monday.....
Oldest kid started puking every 15 minutes while we were out, I wasn't going to eat anything listening to that, time to start on the car.
Started with an oil change, Menards had Valvoline synthetic blend blue bottle on sale for $2.19/quart, picked up 6 quarts and a Bosch premium filter for $4.99 (there was a new Napa gold in the car, but these Bosch have more pleats:dunno, tomato, tamahto).
Drained the oil hot, not much in the pan..... DOH! Forgot it's a 3qt crankcase........:frustrate Guess I have the next oil change already.......
Grab a bottle of Motor Honey from the shed, appears to be my last one, time to stock up again.......
Motor honey, 2 full quarts, run the car for a bit to warm it back up and fill the filter, top off the oil.
Foamy engine degreaser, rinse, regular degreaser, rinse, hit the stubborn heavy spots with brakleen, rinse, foamy, rinse.......
Now it's an engine I'll work on, all the paper tags are on the trans, I need to see if it's ever been replaced.....
Start by pulling the plugs, look decent, oh well, in go the E3's (they seemed to help my Mustang, I'll put 'em in everything).
Pulled the top plug wire out of the separators, get to the distributor and "***!?!?!?", you'd think over the course of 15 years of owning the car and doing his own maintenance he would have noticed the distributor was loose..... Whatever, tighten it after cap/rotor.....
New wires, pulled old cap, pulled rotor, new rotor doesn't fit, $*&@ you Oreilly and "this is the only one we have for that car"...... Something else to get on Mon at Napa along with a fuel and air filter..........
Cleaned the old rotor with a screwdriver and my jeans.... LOL
New cap fit fine, started, still ran rough, might as well check timing since the sticker is still under the hood.
Hook the light to #1, not even on the timing tab! At least I can see the mark.....
Supposed to jumper 2 spots in some connector, I'll find it later and re-check.....
Set the timing to 5°BTDC, hmmmm... Nowhere near as rough, and that tick went away, good enough for in the dark (7:30 by that time), tightened the distributor down, threw tools in the back of the car.



Wife's at the grocery store, kids are home, only pukey is up, I'll fix the timing right when she gets home (found what connector to jumper), then time to get the truck and her Explorer ready for winter......

Yesterday, I drove that car close to 200 miles total, cruised home at 65 no sweat, I have no idea how old the tires are, so I wasn't gonna go over that (and originally was only going to do 55), I got a kick out of using less than 1/2 tank in a car with a 10 gallon tank that wasn't even running perfect.......

I enjoy the car, it has some minor BS that needs fixed, but it seems solid, and going from driving/parking an F-350 CC LB 4spd in town @ 14.7 mpg to a dinky little econo-box @what should be about 50mpg is quite an enjoyable change.



I realized I typed all that this morning, and never hit "post reply" :rotflmao
it was sitting here 6 hours later
 

jwalterus

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Gee, I wonder which one gets better mileage....... LOL

On a good note, it means I can tear into the truck's interior now. ;Sweet
Have to remove everything from the front seat forward, going to replace it all out of my dad's old truck.


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no mufflers

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you must look pretty badass driving that lean mean gas miser machine. LOL
 

towcat

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i've driven through the crosswinds up in your neck of the woods in my F350 dualie. don't even want to experience it in a Metro :O
good luck! :D
 

jwalterus

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i've driven through the crosswinds up in your neck of the woods in my F350 dualie. don't even want to experience it in a Metro :O
good luck! :D


Didja drive through an actual wind, or just a breeze? LOL
Yeah, our winds can get kinda brisk, just like our temperatures.
(The super-extreme weather up here is kind of a regional pride thing....:D)


Today: Partly cloudy and breezy. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
Tomorrow: Sunny with gusty winds. Winds W at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
(copy/paste off of local forecast)


There are a few windmill farms up here.....
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snicklas

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Didja drive through an actual wind, or just a breeze? LOL
Yeah, our winds can get kinda brisk, just like our temperatures.
(The super-extreme weather up here is kind of a regional pride thing....:D)


Today: Partly cloudy and breezy. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
Tomorrow: Sunny with gusty winds. Winds W at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
(copy/paste off of local forecast)


There are a few windmill farms up here.....
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Not as strong, but reminds me of where my parents live.... they live near Danville, Illinois. There are wind farms just north of them. In my 40+ years I can count on one hand how many times there has been ABSOLUTELY NO WIND/BREEZE at their house. If you go outside at their house and it is completely still it's very weird!!!!! The air is always moving at their house......
 

towcat

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Didja drive through an actual wind, or just a breeze? LOL
Yeah, our winds can get kinda brisk, just like our temperatures.
(The super-extreme weather up here is kind of a regional pride thing....:D)
to answer your question, big rigs and RV's were having issues staying upright. little cars were struggling to avoid unintentional lane changes.
yea.....just a little breezy
 

jwalterus

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I've been wasting fuel in my hot rod... LOL
It's been single digits in the morning, so I've been starting the car and letting it warm up....
Start car and let it idle for 20 minutes, drive exactly 1 mile to work (3 stop signs, 30mph street, and only full throttle..), park and sit in comfort having a smoke and listening to the radio while the car runs for another 20 minutes. LOL
Go about my day, start car and let it run 10 minutes, rod the **** outta it on the way home....
Various errands on the weekend, on the throttle like it's on a autocross course (it's a 1L geo automatic, I don't have to worry about a speeding ticket or exhibition driving in it, it can't break 'em free (I've tried):peelout).
I finally got down near empty, right above the red line, so I filled it up today....
STILL got 18MPG!!!!!! :rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao

I love that car. :Thumbs Up

I might try hyper-miling it sometime to see how GOOD I can get, since I now know the worst I can do is nearly what my truck gets on the highway.....
 
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