3cyl Geo metro

Owner said starts and runs but won't drive. Someone looked at it and thought timing skipped a tooth. 

I haven't seen the car yet. What's the worst case scenario? 

Control arm mounts are rusted out.

A quick bit of research says it's a non-interference engine. They're very simple and generally reliable cars. I remember I got stuck behind 2 of them (Swift-branded) locked in furious battle on track one day, back when my Corolla had a 4AF...it was quite tedious.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

That's good to know. In going to try and look at it to see if I can get a better idea of what happened. Just popped up for $300 and haven't had time to research them yet.

Honda k-swap is probably the worst case.

If you're looking at buying it, check the front frame rails. If they're ok, anything else is relatively minor.  Believe it or not there's excellent support for them online and there's even a member here who is pretty much the authority on that G10 engine

TURBO the crap outta the G10 because 40hp is NEVER enough

This would be for an event coming up. 

$500 car with $500 repair/modify budget. Drive t to the Grand canyon and back. 

I have been looking for one of these for a while now. If I could find a non rusty one locally with a 5 speed for that kind of money i'd jump all over it. Something about having an odd no. of pistons is very appealing to me.

Also what Bob said. Turbo the thing because turbo all the things.

In reply to Nick Comstock :

FWIW I had a friend get killed in one of these when he was t-boned by a 1st gen CRX doing 65mph. It pushed the driver's seat to the centerline of the car. I remember the bumper supports were styrofoam too. Oh, and I still want one of these, especially a convertible.

Planning to take a look at it Saturday. He said he doesn't mind me poking around to make sure the damage isn't a game ender.

What do I need to be looking at as far as the engine goes?

He says it'll start and run. How do I verify nothing more catastrophic than a timing belt slipping a tooth has happened? 

Planning on taking my compression tester and timing light. Anything else I should bring? 

In reply to Nick Comstock :

Two things you should bring:

bring money

bring a car home.

I remember one of these engines coming into our machine shop many years ago.  It was tiny!   We just carried the block around instead of using the overhead crane.  

3x2=6

yep, control arm pulls out from the body taking the CV shaft with it. but you never know until you see it first hand.

Come on Nick, This is more your style:

https://austin.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-pontiac-firebird/6511748699.html

Polish the crank and throw some bearings. run some 15w-40 in it and cruise to GC in more style than a 3 cylinder metro. :) Oh and the Metro has so little HP my wife got one stuck on a speed bump before. 

In college a buddy had one and we went someplace that required getting on the DC Beltway. Sitting in the back seat I have never been so scared in my life as the car "accelerated" up the ramp hitting about 30 by the end of the acceleration lane, after which we almost got pummelled by a dump truck rolling at like 70 as we tried to merge into traffic. Luckily the driver swung onto the shoulder so we didn't get hit. Buddy swore that he had it floored the whole time.

Maybe one of the best non 4x4 off road cars ever.  On par with the original VW even.  Red, my good friend and neighbor had one.  He was a WW2 vet, retired, and loved to explore.  One Saturday afternoon while out exploring for ginseng (that was the excuse he told his wife) we came across some ATV trails.  Well, that little Metro was just about the same size as an ATV and probably even smaller than most of the side by sides you see these days.  We hummed over those trails for what seemed like 100 miles and were thoroughly lost.  Finally, Red misjudged his speed on one particular hump and we wound up high centered.  I was looking around for a log to use as a lever when I heard a group of ATV's on an adjacent trail.  I ran over, flagged them down, and told them we were stuck.  "Whatcha on?"  One of them asked.  When I replied we were in a car, their incredulous looks were priceless.  It only took four of us (one on each corner) to carry that car back to safety.

Worst case scenario:  You buy the car-shaped pile of parts, spend $3000 on trying to make it a car shaped running driving car, then send it to the scrapyard.  After titling and registering it.

I heard about somebody doing a complete rebuild on one of these for about $200 in parts, including clutch>

Lol it's not my money. 

Unfortunately, I'm the trusted advisor in this little caper. So I'm going to find a car, do all the prep and repair work and hope and pray it makes it there and back so I don't get blamed for the failure. Boss and his brother are supposed to be going but boss man is starting to make some noise that he might not be up for it. His brother asked me if he bails would I go. So I may be going yet but that is still to be determined. 

I've never actively searched for $500 cars before. It's tough, but at least this one has a title so that's better than 90% of the ones I've seen so far.

I say you buy the Metro AND the Firebird, and join the two.

My '87 Pontiac Firefly (Pre-Geo-Metro poo, but the same shovel) joined with an '88 Firebird, and the result is tire-smoking magic!

I can't think of a car that would be less enjoyable on a 1000+ mile road trip 

I'd be looking for a $500 luxo barge with body damage. 

In reply to 2002maniac :

While I agree with that the pickings are slim out here for cars that are under $500 purchase price and can be on the road for under $500 repair costs with a title. Still searching though.

Nick Comstock said:

This would be for an event coming up. 

$500 car with $500 repair/modify budget. Drive t to the Grand canyon and back. 

God no. I hated driving 63 miles each way to grissom in my Swift. No way in hell I'd spend 1000 miles in that death trap.