Matt's n600 rebuild project log

[SVOboy]

I think he's gonna restore it all nice and stuff, not modify it, he might be buying another to convert to ev though (i think), so meh. Out of curiosity, how hard/costly would a fuel injection swap cost?

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

That old N600 was equipped with a carburetor. If you replace the carb with a throttle body fuel injection system and oxygen sensor from an recent, four-banger, I'll bet it would get upwards of 60 mpg AND have more power too.

I would actually be interested in doing this. The problem, of course, is that I would have to get a throttle body/intake manifold custom made, as well as drill a hole in the exhaust manifold to fit an oxygen sensor. Custom fuel maps would have to be made as well to be fitted on a custom ECU. Sensors would have to be retrofitted to work with the car, and I'd have to get a different upper crankcase for it to have a tachometer.

Unless of course they make kits for things like this. I think it would be a very cool conversion, however.

[SVOboy]

Haha, I thought you were taking it back to stock, oops,

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Haha, I thought you were taking it back to stock, oops,

Oh, I am... but I'm still a tweaker at heart.

The carb works and was recently rebuilt, so any modification such as this will have to wait for a while.

A fuel injected n600 would be rather cool though, although it would take lots of work and I don't know how easy it would be to modify an ECU to use only 2 cylinders.

[Sludgy]

I searched for an aftermarket injection system. These folks claim they will custom-build a system for you.

http://www.affordable-fuel-injection.com/index.htm

[Matt Timion]

I removed the front seats and the carpet today. here is the interior:



And the old seats:



As you can see, the seats are in pretty bad shape. I am going to order an upholstry set on monday and reupholster the seats myself.

In the mean time I need to get the interior cleaned out. I found 30 year old dirt, old french fries and crumbled up fruit loops in there. I'm trying to figure out exactly how to clean it as my vaccuum cleaner isn't too good at stuff like this.

I'm also working right now on making my own carpet. I have a huge roll that I'm going to cut new carpet out of. I will be using the old carpet as a template and adding snaps to my new carpet so that it will snap into the same location as the old carpet. I will be using the same padding as before b/c buying new padding is ridiculously expensive.

Pictures of carpet progress tomorrow.

[Matt Timion]

I give up on the carpet. I have spent $25 on the carpet and about $15 in snaps to make it work. I spent a few hours today cutting the carpet so it is perfect and much to my surpise, it wasn't perfect. It didn't fit right and I could get the snaps to work with the carpet.

So I'm just going to throw in the towel on this one and order an after market carpet set instead of making my own.

I need to just stick to the stuff I know how to do from now on.

[SVOboy]

Nothing wrong with learning. PS: Aftermarket carpets fitment is poor, and most people end up taking them to a shop anyway. You have to heat and mold, I believe.

[MetroMPG]

been there matt - it's tough to do.

my first car was a 1964 pontiac catalina, and i replaced the carpet with "flat" aftermarket carpet off a roll. it never fit right. but i left it in because it looked a little better than the disintegrated crud that was in there before. believe it or not, i didn't know at the time that moulded aftermarket carpets were even an option

[GasSavers_DaX]

Good luck reupholstering the seats. I did it to my 88 Civic a few months ago...took me all day, but they look great.