TeamSwift

Aside from the starter's solenoid seemingly not doing its job without coaxing on occasion and a break in the exhaust back by the muffler, the car hasn't had any problems. I think I am up to 242,xxx miles.

I have installed sway bars from a 1996 model car. They fit right in, although you do have to fabricate some body mounts for the rear bar. It keeps the car a little more level, but I still blame the 12" wheels for that 80 mph swirrly effect. It probably doesn't help that the shock absorbers on the car are probably not up to par anymore.

I still drive it over 90 miles per work/home commute. A long 80 mph blast down the interstate is almost a daily thing for the car.

I think that earlier in this thread, or definitely somewhere else on the forum where burnt exhaust valves were the topic of discussion, someone insisted that these cars should not be driven more than like 65 mph "because they weren't designed to do that." Well, I exceed those figures daily on a 24 year old 3 cylinder swift. It doesn't seem to care.

The engine oil seals have all been replaced at one time or another, the same for the transmission. It has literally zero oil leakage now.

That may have been me, I have been known to say things along those lines before. I'm drifting the other way now, thinking that it's low RPM's with wide throttle openings that are more likely to burn valves. People who run the snot out of them and people with automatic transmissions, seem to have longer valve life.

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91 Pontiac Firefly Turbo
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the severely limited displacement leaves high rpms the only place for performance to be achieved.

whip those squirrels! when i was driving normally aspirated 3 bangers i would absolutely flog them on a daily basis. if you lug the engine it is way more apt to burn exhaust valves.

keep the egr passages clean and clear. service the fuel pressure regulator in the throttle body. don't be afraid to run the engine above 4000 rpm.

imho, guys who lug these engine around and run transmission ratios way too high in an attempt to see high fuel economy are off the mark. more engine damage comes from that type of operation than comes from driving a 3 banger like you stole it.

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1991 Blue Geo Metro Convertible highly modified 1.0L Turbo3 5 spd. - 1991 Red Geo Metro Convertible customized with a Twincam 5 spd.

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Well, I had the EGR in my old Metro's G10 disabled, meaning it never got any EGR. I remember that I got the car with 126,xxx miles and 2 head rebuilds in the next 11,xxx miles took the car to 137,xxx miles. I ran that thing to 229,xxx miles with no EGR function and zero engine issues aside from a head gasket failure somewhere around 221,xxx. I sold the engine to someone else and that's the last I heard of it. It ran great. I drove that thing everywhere.

Call it a streak of luck if you will. But I have also never touched the fuel pressure regulators in either car. Both are ancient, and I ran the G10 engine for 9 years now. Wow. That's a long time. I guess it is possible that someone else already did something with it, but stuff in that area of the car never showed any obvious signs of tampering.

I am still going to stick with the cause of valve meltage/burnage to be attributed to gunked up lash adjusters and a resulting negative valve lash. Honestly, with all the engines that I have ever been around that had hydraulic lash adjusters and burnt valves, they all had one thing in common: Syrupy oil. And on the old Hondas where someone didn't want to do the valve adjustment maintenance, guess what happens to them? Valves burn up.

The same thing happens in countless motorcycles--do no valve adjustment maintenance, and you get valve problems later on if you keep it long enough.

But, on a separate note, it is looking like I am going to be saying Goodbye to my 1994 Metro. I just bought a 2009 Suzuki SX4 for a commuter. I just got the itch to get something that is nicer, and the SX4 seemed to fit the bill. After all, there aren't many other "newer" cars that can be had with a manual transmission and all wheel drive shy of a BMW 3 series, a Subaru WRX, a Ford Focus RS, and a handful of others. I'm not up to the maintenance costs of the BMW, and there are a few things about the Subaru boxer engines that irritate me, and a Focus RS is too much $$$ for me to spend.