1989 L Revistited- Build Thread

[Festiva_Fred]

Upgrades from a Escort..

Installed some nice Escort seats I got from the junkyard, they were out of a wagon. I like them alot better than the festiva seats.






And Escort dome light, big improvement also.

[leapin]

Those look comfy. Rail swap?

[Festiva_Fred]

Those look comfy. Rail swap?

They are I followed this: http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5736

[freshtiva]

Nice upgrade, Ill have a couple of those front seat available before long. Installation noted.

[Festiva_Fred]

Few more updates

Installed my "DJ" style grill.




And yesterday my master cylinder/brake booster started to fail on me, so it got replaced with a aspire one, brakes are even better now

[walth]

did you also change to the aspire air intake hose? the round one? wondering about teh clearance issue compared to the flat ones made for the festiva.

it looks great! I'm guessing you went with the aspire booster as well? I'm enjoying mine and can't wait to do the front swap.

[Festiva_Fred]

did you also change to the aspire air intake hose? the round one? wondering about teh clearance issue compared to the flat ones made for the festiva.

it looks great! I'm guessing you went with the aspire booster as well? I'm enjoying mine and can't wait to do the front swap.

Yes that is a aspire air intake hose, it does make contact with the underhood bracing but just barely so I'm not worried about it. I like it better because it looks cleaner and gets rid of the resonator box.

Thanks! Yep the master cyl and booster is one from a aspire.

[Festiva_Fred]

Darn it!

While checking over the car today I found out that 2 of the wheel bearings need replacing soon The passenger front and drivers side rear. This sucks, almost broke right now and this is my only ride right now so I'll have to get it fixed asap. If it comes down to it I could de-swap the front brakes, since I still have usable festiva front hubs, just so I could keep driving it while I get new bearings put on the aspire hub. Just sucks that theres always something new to fix with this thing or any festiva I've had so far for that matter..

[Festiva_Fred]

Well guys, I got the wheel bearing issue fixed. De-swapped the fronts with good festiva hubs, and got a good rear drum assembly from the jy for $10. Butttt now I have to replace the engine.. yay! Neverending project! It leaked 2 quarts of oil today while driving, bunch of seals on it have gone to crap Putting my 93's old engine into it, which has a new oil pump, and water pump, so it should be back soon. But if this keeps up I might just walk away from this thing and be done with it..

[Festiva_Fred]

The "New" engine.

93' Shortblock with 160k on it.



New water and oil pump.


89's crappy old engine..




:shock:


Pics of putting the "New" engine together..








Should be dropping it in tomorrow, hopefully she'll be back on the road again then

[walth]

nicely done

[skimsucka]

nice work

[MTec007]

nice! what happened to that piston in the old engine? if it run i bet it didnt run well

[Festiva_Fred]

nicely done

nice work

Thanks.

nice! what happened to that piston in the old engine? if it run i bet it didnt run well

Thanks! Must have happened while the previous owner had the car, while I was taking the old engine apart it looked like it had had a different head swapped onto it and the headgasked looked new on it, guessing the previous owner swapped heads after that piston lost that chunk from it who knows... It did run okay like that. Just recently started losing lots of oil, thats why I parked it, lost 2 quarts in just 1 day of driving! :shock: it was that bad! So it definitely needed replacing.

[batstiva]

Nicely done, Fred. :thumbleft:

2 quarts in one day? Pfft. That's nothing. Ask anyone who ended up behind me at OSX.:p

That car was not supposed to go anyway, but got pressed into emergency service. It's getting ready to be a 5 speed carby with 240K on the body, and 102K on the motor. With fresh seals/timing belt/water + oil pump, and new clutch. Then, when the rest of my goodies come in, it'll be going in for some added hps. :mrgreen:

That piston makes me wonder if the PO either ran it hot, or dry?