thinking about an mpg project

[Philip1]

I've been rolling this around in my head for some months no and I stumbled across this...


http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/1661649565.html

a 1.2l and a decent shape (albeit a touch blocky) this would make a good car to hit an easy 50mpg and a possible 60+. I have owned one before but with the 1.5l and saw 35-40 all day long.

if I were to get tis I would pull the head and have it shaved a bit and add singh groves. I would then swap the carburetor for EFI so I can more easily control the mixture. swap the 4 speed for a 5 speed (although 5th is virtually useless in these) lower it a bit and smooth the wheels.

[imzjustplayin]

Be prepared for the ultimate money pit.. To keep things simple (or complicated), you're going to want two trashed vehicles and just port over the parts you want to have like the fuel injection system etc. It's going to be a lot of work in order to get that car to support EFI. How much money do you have available to play around with this toy? I can assure you that you're not going to be saving money with this project car, or at least save money for a very long time.. I figure I give you the heads up because all too often people get overly ambitious with projects like these and end up giving up on them cause of money, time or both.

[FrugalFloyd]

I like your project. I had a 1976 B210 and got a steady 36 mpg thrashing it pretty hard. I didn't realize a 1.2 was available in them.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Looks like quite a project...I'd probably just fix it up and use as is. I had a '75 B210 with....I think it was a 1300, 1400, something like that. Got between 27 and 32 mpg, if memory serves (that was about 25 years ago). Remember my wife was driving us to Vegas one time...I was dozing in the passenger seat...woke up to find that she had the speedometer needle buried on the high side of 100 mph...quite a car for $400!

[Philip1]

I have built 4 of these cars 1 was a 71 1200, two 76 B-210s and one 81 210/B-310 engines ranged from 1400cc to 2130cc milage ranged from about 25 to in the 1200 about 45 all were built for performance with no consideration to milage. I can build on a tight budget I have built cars ranging from $700 total investment to 12,000 depending on how nice the finished product is intended to be. This car if I buy it will be a lower budget build due to the fact it runs and drives very little will be needed mechanically. the body looks to be straight and reasonably rust free so that won't need much attention. The interior is the issue but 79 on nissan used a set seat mount dimension so interior parts are widely interchangeable. I see this as a sub $1000 high mpg car

[Project84]

I like the idea.... I'm just not into the effort side of it.

Buy any newer, small displacement car, that already has fuel injection, a 5 or 6sp, and computer controlled ignition.... mod a few things here and there and have 50+. Why not just do that?

Metro, Jetta, Saturn, Civic, just to name a few candidates. Parts are a lot more available, chassis/suspension would have a lot less miles/wear and tear, and 90% of the stuff is already there for making great MPG... from OEM.

[Philip1]

because older stuff is generally lighter plus I like old things






this was a $700 project autocross car I bought for $150 and pulled out of a field


this is how I found it

[Project84]

What is it, an old Celica?

IDK man, for MPG, I'd steer clear of anything "older" when possible.

IF you're going to get an old car and make a MPG machine, why not transplant something like a modern 4cyl into it? That would be more unique/different/interesting in my opinion.

[Philip1]

if the original engine could get 40+mpg stock it should do better with some modernization. older cars have the benefit of not having miles of unneeded wiring and weight adding accessories. they also have nicer looking designs in my opinion. the car above is a corolla I have photos of a couple other field car projects I've built and sold if you are interested.

[Philip1]

this is my old B210 dispite being ugly it was fast this had the 2130cc L20b in it making 150hp it was a great rally car.




this was it's twin this just had a 1.5 but made 110hp thanks to cam, header, and carbs.









this final photo was the most expensive build due to the quality of the finished product. this had just a 1.4 but a 5 speed and full show interior as well as the paint and body work this regularly pulled 40 mpg+ and if careful could top 50.


you probably noticed I have a soft spot for old Datsuns I would drive a Datsun every day if I had one.