Well, the welded rear sure doesn't add to the drivability...

I have a 4.5" lift, 1.6 (previously stock 1.3) and 31's and don't have any problems... Then again, I don't mind the road noise (ragtop) because the radio doesn't work.

Sounds like you have some sort of engine problem if you fill every two days... What mileage do you get? Mine is around 19mpg...

 

I like driving the sammy every day. It is funny to drive by people and watch them stare as I go by. It catches alot of kids attention to, I geuss it looks like there hotwheels at home. As for gas, I am running 5" lift spoa, 32" mud terrians, stock gearing and 1.3l with stock carb. I usually only have to fill the tank once a week.

 

I run mine every day too..

1.6L EFI tho, but on 33's lots of looks, but I love it.. I also have a 94 Cavalier and prefer to drive the Sammy!

 

Until I started my rebuild, mine was a daily driver. Welded front & rear---1.3L w/ Weber, cam, & header--31s---7" lift---put gas in once a week (unless I hit the trails). Sounds like you may need to do some tuning. The only problem I ever had was minor bump-steer & the fact that I wanted to drive over everything (sidewalks, bushes, careless drivers). During a snow storm, I was commandeered(sp?) by a state trooper to pull stuck cars out of the ditch ,'cuz I was the only one moving. Pulled 13 cars--every one asked what the hell I was driving. I told 'em a $1600 POS (cheaper than a 4-wheeler, but street legal) Brad.

 

I drive mine all the time...about 100 to 150 miles a day. I've got a LOUD stereo and can cruise all day at 80mph on $8.00 in gas.

 

>>I only get 2 days out of a tank of gas too...

For some reason this reminds me of one of my pet peeves. You go into a pizza place you have never been to before. They offer small, medium and large pizzas. You ask how big the large pizza is and they say "12 pieces" WTF good is that info, anyways? How big is it before you cut it into 12 pieces? If you cut it into 16 or 20 or 24 pieces does it get larger? How many pieces is the small pizza? "Only 6", OK..well, give me the large pizza, but only cut it into 6 peices and charge me for the small pizza....

Saying you have to fill up every two days is kinda relative, isnt it? I drive over 200 miles a day. My Mom drives about 3. Needless to say we have to fill our gas tanks with varying frequency...

I have a couple cars I can drive. My Toyota Echo, in which I drive the 200+ miles per day and my 88.5 zuk, which I drive all the rest of the time because its fun to drive. Yes, it handles poorly and is noisy and not terribly comfy, but its fun and funky. Im kinda glad I dont have to drive 200+miles a day in the thing, but I have on occasion and lived through it. Its a state of mind thing. If you compare it to an ordinary passenger car and try to judge it on those terms, it will fall short in many respects. However, an ordinary passenger car can't do what a samurai does, even a stock one. You have to judge each vehicle on its own merits. Its like someone asking you "how you do it" driving your Grand Am because it won't go over a pile of rocks and cant fit between trees that are really close together.

~daxe

 

rotflmao - that was perfect. long live 'cult' vehicles that require a state of mind to own & drive

chris

 

daxe, I see your point. You are right, it is a state of mind thing.

I drive about 30 miles to work and 30 miles back. takes 40 minutes to get there. I would think that I could go 3 or 4 days on a tank of gas. But, it does only cost $12 to fill it up. hehe

I wold think a mini mouse motor like the 1.3 should get GREAT gas milage. My V6 in the grandam gets alot better...

It takes a while to start up when cold to, is this usually caused by something that could effect my gas milage?

 

Like Daxe you need to get in the right frame of mind. No carpet, 1 layer soft top and yes it's noisey. I've got a
1.3 with cam, DT header, weber, GRSII, 4.62's riding on 31's. Though it's not a daily driver I do drive it on
evenings, weekends and to the trails. At 65mph = 4000 rpm I get an honest 22mpg. Last weekend I drove
50 miles each way to Evans creek ORV park and wheeled all day on 1/2 tank. Check your tune up

 

benny, 2 things you're missing here.
1) the drag coefficient on a Samurai is hideous, and mud tires make it even worse: even though its small, and light, once you start to 'up' the speed, it actually takes more power to move than the grandam
2) it was never designed for high speed use. the grandam will cruise at 70-80mph all day in OD, and be doing what it was designed for. the Zuk was designed as a utility vehicle for lower speed use on rough roads, carry & towing loads ( note that I dont say sport ute)...

put those 2 together, and yes, mileage may well be terrible, especially if you try to cruise for extended periods at highway speeds. FWIW, even my diesel powered Niva, which is about the size of a tracker, hits optimal speed at about 50-55 mph, and starts to suck fuel over 65 mph...and thats using the motor designed to push a 3800 lb mercedes at 70-80 mph all day long. the best you can do is to make sure all the wheel bearings, diffs, shafts etc are properly lubed, and torqued, to minimise losses, and, if possible , use synthetic fluids to minimise operational drag.

chris

 

It sounds like your getting something less that 20MPG, so you certainly have some issue with fuel
cosumption. 30" tires on stock gearing and engine doesn't help your power ratio. Your tires are
14% over so you have lost that in torque right off the top. Add to the fact that many sami
engines aren't on top of their game to begin with, and its not hard to understand where you
are at. If it takes more than about 5 min to warm up, something is definetly wrong.

I could never go 5 days on a fill, but I never let it get less than 1-2 gallons anyway. I dont
have that problem now since I plumbed my jerry tank to the main tank with a E fuel pump.
BTW my round trip is 40 a day, and I'm getting right at 23 mpg average for the life or the
truck so far. Of course, my 410 has the 1L, but no 5th OD so that about cancels out.

With only 45 HP it manages most roads OK but top speed suffers a bit. Carson and Ebbot's
pass's in the Sierra's kind of proved the HP shortcommings though!

As for daily driver comfort, replace the seats with Neons, or any other better made more
comfortable seats. The stock sami seats are notorious for wearing out and minimal
comfort. Ditto what the others said about noise and such. I took to wearing earplugs
long before I got the zuk. Noisy trucks have already given me some permanant ear
damage, so I don't need any more.

And as said, its a zen kind on thing! I enjoy driving mine daily.

 

man im in the same boat. i love driving my sammy. it is noisy and slow but it rides like a caddy. but for some reason with my lift and 31's with 5.38's just driving around town i have to fill up about 2-3 times a week. it sucks. i think its time for a tune up. you guys think?

 

This year alone I have filled up my tank 3 times!

Seriously

 

This may sound odd too but.. I had a very very noisy tranny that finally puked up a bearing and started knocking. I swapped in another tranny that I had laying around out of a parts truck. I swear my gas mileage is better, and no it isn't a later model tranny with the lower 5th gear both trannyies are 87's. Was my old tranny really bad enough to make a noticale difference in fuel consumption? I really think so.

 

Hey Door how bad is the gearing running those 32" with stock motor and stock gears? What about trail use? I can't see myself going with a bigger tire on my zuk till I can afford the tcase gears to go along with them. I still see alot of people running 31" to 33" tires on stock gearing and wonder how their not smoking the clutch offroad all the time. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Matt

 

I'm running a 88.5 soft top , 94 1.6 , Pony carb , 4.16 T-case , 3.91 R&P, Lockright in the rear , 31/10.05 , Daily driver can cruise at 65 mph with no problems and get between 20 and 25 mpg, I's not that noisey, however I do have carpet and insulation and can hear my CD player...

 

I smoked my clutch on 33's. T-case gears are the best mod money can buy....

My .02

 

First, as mentioned, you are 14% over geared with the 30" tires. That cuts down the MPG a little bit. More importantly, from what you are describing, you have a stock carb that is feet up, and in the fatal rich mode. Your post would indicate that you were around 10 - 13 MPG depending on how low before you fill up. It should not take that long to warm up either. I think you are in need of a replacement carb either rebuilt or something different, a good general tune up, and a new thermostadt. If you do these things I think you will be a little surprised. Different seats, good tunes, and you can be "comfortable" in it. Just depends on your taste. I cruise mine with half doors, bikini top, 33's, and the wind every where. I love it. Wouldn't trade it or the stares for any other vehicle. I love the snapping necks of those other 4x4 owners when they realize that was something unusual that just whipped by with the engine screaming around 6 grand!

TGT - NCO

 

the aero dynamics of a samurai is like running into the wind with a 4x8 sheet of plywood straight up and down.

HUGE difference from your Grand am..

but even with that, you should be getting 22-24 MPG with your current setup.

with a properly tuned 1.3 (meaning the carb works and the vaccume lines are not cracked... etc)
I was getting 22-24 mpg with 31's on my rig.. and using up to 4th gear...

as for noise, yes a soft top will be noise, I put a hard top on mine and have put many hours into mine to cut out all the squeeks and other noise sources.
mine is pretty dang quiet. and if I were to drive it 200 miles a day, that would not bother me one bit.

I used to drive it 100 miles a day and Yes I was filling up the tank about every 2 days....

 

With 4.62 rears, GRS1 and totally wore out 31" TSL's, I was down to 12mpg at best . Once I stuck the rear set of 33's on, it's jumped to almost 15 or so average . Just have to get the engine in it's happy spot . Not to mention, your carb has some serious issues . I know why my mileage suffers, it's due to a huge 38mm carb....
Sarge

 

""the aero dynamics of a samurai is like running into the wind with a 4x8 sheet of plywood straight up and down.""
hahahHHAHAHHA!
With 3 cylinders pushing hard I was getting about 20 and some change. I'm hoping with the new GTI hybrid I'll be getting 25 ish or more

 

Mine'a a daily driver.... I love it and would rather drive it than my gals Beemer.
I suppose that might indicate a personality defect, but so be it.......

I think you need the "Zen of Zuk"............

 

"I suppose that might indicate a personality defect, but so be it......."
Crow, I completely agree with you. My question is which one of you has the personality defect?

 

Funny

I liked the pizza analogy...

But a shorter answer might have been:

"Too fill up less often, get a bigger gas tank"

Seriously, I love rolling in the sami. There are plenty of fixes available to make the sam drive more like the grand am. Unfortunately, the fix for one issue usually will worsen another... But it just may be the wrong car for your commute...
Is it for sale?

 

Thanks for posting that Daxe. That always drive me nuts too. Why do so many people drop units of measure? Is that why you always hear stupid crap on TV like, "IF you stacked 1,000,000,000,000 of (whatever) end to end, it would reach from here to CA??

I always used to say the same thing about the pizza "How many slices in a large?"

"Well" I'd say "I can slice it in 2 or 256, but the DIAMETER won't increase"

Anyway, back to the subject. I have two sets of wheels and tires to make commuting more bearable. The street tires allow me to drive a lot faster and get a lot better gas milage. I drive it every day and it even has a rear locker and 4.16 gears, 5.5" lift. Looks kinda silly on those thin street tires, but I don't have a self-esteem problem, so it doesn't bother me.