A Festiva Avila with some stuff

[Lithopedion]

Hello, i'm Alfredo from Caracas, Venezuela, and i'm about to purchase a Festiva Avila '97 full stock, it was my sister's and i'm gonna buy it from her.

The thing is i want to make some simple modifications to it:

1- Can I and how to install a Rajay RotoMaster T3 turbocharger kit?

2- How can i modify the cooler fan and radiator so it can cool the engine with the grill possibly blocked ? (I'm going to install 4 anti-fog lights in front of it)

3- Can i install a double battery system?

4- What do i have to do to install 15" wheels?

5- Double exhaust?

6- It has one weird thing, when the A/C is turned on, the engine starts rev-ing up and down randomly.

7- I found an article on google that says "how to make you festiva a AWD" but it was a broken link, anyone knows where i can find that?

Thanks.

[htchbck]

don't know too much about the newest festies (US sales went from festy to aspire in '94) but I'm assuming its like the aussie version and its just what we call an aspire still sold under the festy name. So I will do my best to answer what questions I can... I only do N/A motors, so I don't know anything about turbos, so I will skip over the first question.

2- How can i modify the cooler fan and radiator so it can cool the engine with the grill possibly blocked ? (I'm going to install 4 anti-fog lights in front of it)

I ran my festiva for a couple of months with the grill opening completely covered solid with plexiglass after I broke my old grill. I didn't experience an overheating issues with it like that. The one thing that might help would be mounting some kind of deflector behind/below the bumper to divert at least some airflow over the radiator. Just make sure you have a pretty fresh thermostat in there, cause if the thermostat locks up the car can overheat pretty easily. The addition of a turbo will likely affect the cooling system, but I don't really know how much.

3- Can i install a double battery system?

I don't see why not. Not really sure on all the electronics that would be involved as far as the charging system (alternator and stuff), but plenty of folks that have done motor swaps have mounted their batteries in the trunk, so I don't see why it wouldn't work to keep the one under the hood and have another in the trunk.

4- What do i have to do to install 15" wheels?

shouldn't take too much. Stiffer springs and low profile tires will probably necessary. Other than that, the hardest part of putting larger wheels is finding some with the 4x114.3 bolt pattern, but since yours is a '97 it is probably the same as an Aspire over here, which already has the 4x100 bolt pattern, so there should be plenty of wheels available for that pattern

5- Double exhaust?

the hardest part would be routing it underneath the vehicle. However, there isn't really much use for double exhaust on these cars since they are only a four cylinder motor and there is only one manifold that goes to a single pipe. If you really wanted duals you would have to split the exhaust in a "Y" at some point underneath the vehicle. A better plan might be just going with a dual tip muffler rather than actual dual exhaust

6- It has one weird thing, when the A/C is turned on, the engine starts rev-ing up and down randomly.

the engine revving randomly is the compressor cycling on and off. this usually indicated a problem with either the compressor clutch or possibly the compressor itself. I haven't really worked on A/C too much, so I don't really know how to solve the problem, but I can tell you it is most likely something with the compressor or clutch.

7- I found an article on google that says "how to make you festiva a AWD" but it was a broken link, anyone knows where i can find that?

dunno where that link has gone too, but if I remember right it wasn't really a tutorial or walk-through, it was more just people throwing around ideas about using the AWD drivetrain from a 323 GTX. At any rate, it would be a lot of work to make it happen, but that definitely doesn't mean that it can't be done. You can check in the "Complex Engine Swaps" section of this forum for a lot more info and ideas being played with about this subject...

Ok, that was kinda long... I hope at least some of it was helpful. There's a ton of guys on here that know a whole lot about festivas, so don't hesitate to ask, cause we love to help when we can.

[Lithopedion]

Thanks! By the way (and foor those unfamiliar with the Avila model) here's a pic.

http://www.deremate.com.ve/jm/img?s=MLV&f=4864421_2921.jpg

The engine is a 1.3 8V (different than all that are shown in this page, it uses a round air filter on the top of the engine) and a 3-gear automatic transmission.

[muscle_Car1]

Its carbed?

[88lx4speed]

its gotta be carbed to have the round air cleaner...