I currently have a 1996 Geo Tracker that has been field engineered by someone who shouldn’t be allowed within 50 miles of a toolset.

Right now it’s a grocery getter that belong(ed) to my wife. She wanted it because it’s “cute” and 4WD, until the blizzard we had up here a few weeks ago and it left her stranded.

Now it’s mine, and it runs like crap. Goes from zero to 60 at the rate of erosion… which I don’t care about speed, but the lack of anything behind it is ridiculous.

The EGR has been a day 1 issue, the previous owner forced the wrong thread type in the hole, I figured it out when I yanked off the EGR and saw this
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_28_91313.jpg

After pulling it apart
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_1_56052.jpg
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_1_106398.jpg
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_1_167328.jpg

And I confirmed my suspicions
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_1_118488.jpg
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1242014214/gallery_1_1_20778.jpg

Put it back together and it fixed part of the problem with power, however this 1.6 can put out a heck of a lot more.

When I say it has power issues, I mean you can stand on the throttle and putt putt through an intersection… god help you on a hill.

So I’m thinking TPS, logical right?

Not working.

Maybe the ECU? Could stand to reason that there’s a problem with it… when I went to pull it out, the idiot had a stereo kicker grounded to the ECU… he DRILLED A HOLE in the ECU housing and put in a screw!

On a good note, I didn’t know the car had a stereo kicker in it (we’ve only owned it for a year and I don’t listen to music when I drive). So bonus score in a way! YAY!

I managed to get my hands on an ECU and that didn’t solve the problem.

Now I was thinking about looking into the mega squirt, but the more I think about it, the more the word “carb” buzzes in my head.

My very long winded question gets to the point with my idea.
Is it possible to mount a carb on a 96 Geo tracker motor?

I know I’ve used Weber kits back in the day on the Suzuki engine… but I think that was on an 88 (It’s been too long to remember anything useful).

I did a quick search for the tracker, but I don’t think such an animal exists.

I’ve bought a new throttle body for it (should be in next week) and my thoughts were to hack that sucker up, get some aluminum and make an adapter plate, weld or silicone it into place and mount a small carb to it, maybe throw a pressure regulator on it or get a carb that has it built in.

Has anyone done something similar that I could bounce questions off of?

Is there a better route to get this bird to grow a pair of stones?

I’m very open to suggestion.

This doesn't answer your question, and I have never worked on a Geo 1.6 (should be same as the 'zuk right??)

I honestly don't believe that by simply changing from Injection to Carb is going to get you any gain aside from a much more hacked up engine bay. From the sounds of things, the Previous Owner didn't have much regard for doing things properly and you probably have a fried motor. Does the compression check out okay? does it sound like it is not getting proper fuel? How is the timing? injectors clean? is it an Auto transmission? possibly that is failed(ing) and not shifting properly -- not getting your power to the ground.

You may be best off in this scenario to go to the junk yard and see if you can do a motor swap (bigger 4 or small 6 maybe) on the cheap instead of spending long hours and hard dollars trying to save this motor.

Thank you for the long initial post and pictures, it is hard to have too much information on this stuff.

For the most part, there is a lot of similarities with the Suzuki, but to be honest the 88 that I did the carb job on I was much younger, and there was a lot of beer involved (I was quite the drinker back then)

Looking at parts of the tracker it’s like being on the cusp of remembering something, but it could be my active mind remembering what it wants to.

The specs on this one 1.6 4X4 with a 5 speed.

I pretty much search junkyards around here for parts, but it’s getting pretty tough to find anything.

The idea of swapping out the mill did cross my mind, but the lack of shop and working in the outdoors in a major city has me thinking twice. Mostly it was me wrenching on this thing in -30° and bare fisting the wrench until it froze to my hand.

I should see if there’s a rental shop in the area and bite the bullet.

I wonder what would sit in there slick as you please.

If I did go with a new mill, I would think that getting something that’s not a factory engine would be the wise choice.

Oh, the compression is fine. The timing is straight, however eyeballing the pulleys when checking that out lead to unhappy discoveries with more field engineering from the previous owner.

Get this, that sucker took an A/C compressor out of a monte, cut a piece of pot steel into a bracket and there was this rube inspired pulley system that had everything but a tensioner.

I’ve gone through the line from the tank up, swapped out filters, checked the pressure.

I keep thinking that I have a 84 S-10 geared for bear that mill is tighter than… sorry, it’s a tight engine. Ugly truck, AMAZING engine and tranny.

I don’t think it would be good times trying to slip a 6 in that over-glorifed go-cart frame… but if I had the facilities I sure would be willing to find out.

The idea of swapping out the mill did cross my mind, but the lack of shop and working in the outdoors in a major city has me thinking twice. Mostly it was me wrenching on this thing in -30° and bare fisting the wrench until it froze to my hand.


and that is why I can stand Kalifornia, no -30* here in the valley :)

Best of luck, my wife dd's an 02 Chevy Tracker with a 2.?(2 or 4) and it is plenty peppy and has space in the engine bay. Seems like it wouldn't be too much trimming to get a late 80's chevy 6 with TBI into one of those. Not sure about where you live, but here old s-10's seem to go for the price of the tires on 'em.

Shop space sounds like the ticket, if you have the time to do it. Or just pay for a reputable shop to do the work.

I lived in North Hollyweird for a little while… funny enough that’s where my Elky’s engine took a crap and the apartments I was near is where I rented and wrenched on it.

The garage was so tiny I had to push it into it, toss the parts in the bed and push it back in the hole at days end.

Did a full inframe rebuild that way (ended up removing the front clip for easier access).

You know you really have me thinking about this.

I actually know how to fab bodies, and I’ve scrunched a mill or two in the past.

Stinks, I’m at the office and only turning the corner of 5 hours in a 14 hour day, so I’m going through pics to try to work it out in my head before I get home.

The more I think about it, the more deceptive I think that old trucks compartment was.

When I decided to disassemble it and clean up the body a bit for giggles I took some shots (always a good idea incase the teflon memory kicks in for the rebuild)

http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1214697524/gallery_1_35_145406.jpg
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1214697524/gallery_1_35_76243.jpg
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1214458208/gallery_1_35_142666.jpg

This is going to eat at me until I get home lol

Happen to know if anyone here’s tried to do a similar mount?

Ok, I don't have any idea what that last post said or meant to say????

But.......

You mentioned someone put an A/C unit on there out of something else and there is not tensioner on the motor....well we all know that A/C taxes the motor like other accessories. I guess I'm not sure that it would tax it that much, but hell anything is possible especially when the thing is as jacked up as that. so take the a/c off and see what happens. I'd just do a top end freshen up on the motor. clean the head, get some new parts like timing belt/chain (whatever is on there), top end gaskets, water pump, maybe new injectors (or have them cleaned), serp belt, and try doing an egr block off(just make yourself up a plate to cover it). If this doesn't net you decent power recovery and driveability than you have two options left A) you did something really wrong in the rebuild or B) there is something wrong with this thing that is beyond fixing and you should really just dump the POS cus it isn't like these things aren't a dime a dozen.

From what you describe it really doesn't make sense why the thing isn't right, but hey, i'm not there in front of it. These things are very prominent in the boneyards around here, where are you that you can't find parts? Further, you out to be able to find a full on donor with a blown tranny. These are very common vehicles.

The last post was mostly my brain falling out as I thought of how to fit that 6 out of my S10 into that tracker.

The EGR bypass I tried, didn’t seem to correct the issue
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1246662853/gallery_1_1_158774.jpg

The monte a/c I took off, that’s a good idea to look over the rest of them.

An inframe may be the right answer, and it’s a pretty quick fix with only taking up a couple of days.

I’m in St. Paul MN

go to the zuk forum youl get your answers check the faq first and you might get flamed. but they will help you out over there
and don't change to a carb. sami guys like me swap the 1.6 both the 8v and 16v. I have the 16v and it has decent power. and the geo tracker and suzuki sidekick are the same thing

Hamstar, just a thought, is your exhaust system FUBAR? Might be worth pulling the ex. manifold and checking for huge deposit buildup, shouldn't be, but if the motor is tight and not making any power you may have too much backpressure.

THat's a really good idea!

Right now I have the TB off and looking it over, I think I may disassemble it and rework/seal it, freshen things up a bit
http://minioninc.com/forums/uploads/1259986082/gallery_1_1_95401.jpg

while I have that apart I'm ordering a new TPS... while it would stand to reason that when you buy a new part that it works from the factory as intended... I'm willing to bet a couple hundred that I have a Fri/Mon part.

I didnt know when it was a good idea to post outside of the noob forums since I'm a very new member, that's why I've restricted myself to where it seems appropriate.