1988 LX 'Red'

[Christ]

Sweet. That makes me happier since I'm getting rid of the flywheel/clutch assembly, it'll fall in line with my project's 'expected' weight.

You have any idea what RPM you're hitting 45mph at in 5th gear? I need to know so I can adjust my primary ratio to something the engine will be happy running at.

[Christ]

festy part.jpg
I found this while digging through the barn the other day, along with a crap clutch I can take the hub from to mate the engine to the input shaft [didn't grab that part, it's fine laying in the water for now].

Figure I'll use this one to make a wood template from which I can get exact center of the input shaft and make an actual adapter plate to mount the motor in a solid fashion to the transmission and prevent coupler wear or, worse yet, input shaft wear due to misalignment.

If I get the information I need [RPM @ 45 in 5th] I can determine the primary ratio I need and remove the clutch hub to attach the proper sized cog belt pulley to it with a support extension that will ride in a bearing in the adapter plate so that belt tension and torque dragging doesn't wear out the input shaft bearings.

[Christ]

Also just found this:

http://www.www.delphifaq.com/faq/auto/ford_festiva/f903_0.htm

Which contains this:

MPH RPM
==========

25 1040

35 1450

45 1870

50 2080

55 2290

60 2500

65 2700

70 2910

75 3120

85 3540

95 3950

105 4370

115 4780

125 5200

[Christ]

Welp, I'm holding off one the bike carb part of this project. I just wanna get it running and drive it, and I dont have the money to spend on something I don't really care about right now.

So far, I've changed my mind about it 4 different times. I'll give the relevant 2 times here:

First, I thought that since the 5th gear ratio was .69, and 45MPH RPM was about 1800 RPM or a little less, I should probably use an input ratio to make the engine spin faster than the transmission input.

Then I realized after spending half the day planning that out, that it wasn't really necessary. Yep, I was just overthinking things again. Turns out 5 speed transmissions have 5 gearsets in them... and you can use each one at will. Who'da thunk it? Yeah... so now I have that figured out, and that solves one major engineering hurdle.

Next - I have broken apart a junk clutch I had laying around to get the spline hub out of it. Now, I have to figure out a way to couple a 1'' keyed shaft to a .75'' 12 spline shaft.

I measured the OD of the 12 spline hub and found the answer pretty quickly.

The hub OD is 1.180 on the end that normally faces the engine, which means I need to trim out .090 either side of a 1'' ID keyed sleeve, which shouldn't be all that hard to do. So if I take a pulley set from a 1'' shaft motor [have plenty] and bore the end of it in by .250'' to a diameter of 1.180'', I can epoxy or weld the spline hub to the 1'' ID keyed sleeve and have an adapter.

Now that those problems are basically solved, all that's really left to do is whip up some kind of motor mount and an adapter housing that will allow me to bolt the engine directly to the face of the transmission at the proper spacing to keep everything lined up.

Also fix some rusty spots where the trans cross member bolts in. Stupid rusty spots. :/

1209307_10200369088699574_53613405_n[1].jpg

Pic related - it's the 12 spline hub that's left after you disassemble a clutch disk.

[Christ]

The engine I was supposed to get is apparently made of the rarest form of Unobtanium - Noseeum-93.

Turns out the guy had no idea what he was talking about, it's actually a 10HP, which is not even close to what I need for this project...

Doing some major re-evaluation at the moment... a friend has a part for me that will help me complete a different, slightly more exciting engine swap... Will advise as more details become available.

[Christ]

Ok, here are some relevant measurements -

First for the Festiva, next for the Mystery crankshaft -

Festiva:
Crank end - 3.265''
Center bearing bore (pilot OD) - 1.375''
Pilot bearing width - ~0.350''

Mystery Crank:
Crank end - 3.345''
Bushing OD - 0.822''
Flywheel center hub width - 0.525''
Centering hub OD - 1.695

Before the pattern gets drilled, the first two things that need to be done are to open up the flywheel mating surface [crank side] by about .125'', and open up the center bearing bore by about .325''. At the same time, I'll talk to a machinist about recommendations for laying out the pattern and balancing.

And here's a pic of the new crank pattern approximately laid out on the Festiva flywheel:

1185611_10200387794807215_1160898674_n[1].jpg

[Christ]

I finally found someone to cut the flywheel for me for a reasonable price... he's gonna take it to work and put it on the CNC, so I have to be absolutely sure what all my measurements are before I send it to him, because what I give is what I'm gonna get.

He says it shouldn't take more than 3 hours, so I'm looking at $75-$100 basically, which includes tooling, setup, programming and actually running the part. He'll also save the program in case once this is done, I want to do a couple more conversions, and then it'll take less time for each subsequent piece.

[Christ]

Just ordered the pilot bearing.

Pulled the transmission out of the car today and sorta cleaned 15 lbs of grease and dirt off it, had to disassemble the CV inners to plug back into the transmission because it's gona be sitting 'open' for awhile.

Transmission is sitting on the back of the engine right now, waiting for me to get a piece of steel or alum and make an adapter plate for it.

Looking at the clock angle the engine is supposed to be installed, I'm not really positive it's even going to fit...

[Advancedynamix]

What engine did you end up finding for it?

[Christ]

It's still a secret!

Eh, screw it.

I'm using the engine from my old VW Golf lol It's a 58hp IDI 1.6 liter diesel, it's being mated to the E-series trans though, because I felt like making the swap about 200x more difficult than it had to be, I guess.

[bravekozak]

I just sent in another rwin carb intake manifold for cleaning at Technostrip last Friday. If you ever change your mind, I have the solution you really want. Can you say Laser?

[Christ]

Laser?

I can say "not interested in gas engines - ever - at all"

The only reason I drive anything with a gas engine is because this country has moved toward gasoline production over diesel production and I'm left having to tolerate an inefficient engine design I can't stand operating.

Thanks! I'll take a diesel any day.

PS - I'm still working on the IC swap, just not at the moment. I have a set of carb with original airbox that will fit oh-so-perfectly.

[kumalaba]

cant wait till you finish this!

[Christ]

Me too. I was hoping to have it running before winter, but not positive it'll shape up like that. The transmission and engine bolt patterns are so close to each other in terms of pattern diameter it's gonna be a bit of a pain to make the adapter plate. I'm gonna make a template from wood so that mistakes are less costly.

I'm also looking into a way to use the IDI's clutch setup so that less has to be modified. The IDI uses a 'backward' clutch, but the OD and ringgear of the flywheel [which bolts onto the pressure plate] are similar [but different] and may fit inside the bell. The starter placement is great in that there's enough room to break out the hole of the OE starter and re-drill the housing to bolt on the IDI starter [which is about 100x more powerful].

Just a bunch of ideas I'm running through my head while waiting for things to come together.

The IDI can be mounted straight up and down without any issues, but it's meant to be mounted 15* anticlock as you're facing the front of the engine, and I'm kinda eyeballing for a firewall interference issue if mounted 'properly', and a hood issue [easy fix] if I mount it straight up.

I want to do this in such a way that it covers the gamut of interests, in case someone wants more power, leave room for a turbo/manifold, etc, because I plan on making a kit out of it that I can build to order from raw materials on the cheap.

The issue with mounting at 0* is that the oil will not drain properly from the oil pan when it comes time to do a change. It'll always leave slightly under a pint in the pan. There is no oil pan for these engines that mounts it at 0*, only one that can be swapped on that will mount it at 50* anti, which /will/ be a firewall interference. IN our cars, may as well set the head in your lap at that point.

[Christ]

I got the pilot bearing in the mail, so I can go to town on getting the transmission lined up and determining engine install angle, as well as mocking up the template for the adapter plate.

If anyone is interested in a drop-in kit for just about any VW [water cooled] engine against the stock transmission, I'll probably be keeping the template and having it transferred to a machine format for a friend of mine to cut them out. [all diesels since '82 or earlier share the same pattern, including the venerable TDI 1z/AHU engines. The pattern is also shared with just about every gas 4 cylinder including the 1.8T]

If I do that, I'll also have pre-built engine mounts, and probably also be able to make swaps that fit in G25MR transmissions for those interested in upgrading their trans at the same time. Price TBD, but I can say for sure that it's gonna cost you less than it's costing me.

Depending on availability, I may also be able to pick up a clean-ish chassis and do the swap at home, then sell the car whole.