Eggy (1997 Red Aspire)

[takeone51]

nice find, i vote for an engine swap!

[pwgus]

really, I thought just fixing the valve would be alot easier. I really really would like to avoid pulling the engine if possible. The haynes manual made the valve replacement sound taboo for a home mech, lol, how feasable would it be for me to do it myself? Would I get one off another B3 or what, cuz autozone doesnt carry valves.

[Britstiva]

Looks good! Just in case you didn't know this.... the '97 Aspire had a the front clip redesigned. So only a '97 bumper, grill and headlights will fit this car. (In other words you can't use '94-'96 headlights on this car w/out replacing the entire front bumper and grill.)

The '94-96 models had headlights that were more pointed in the corners, the grill was a seperate peice and the front bumper was seperate (and designed slightly on the air intake at the bottom.)

The SE cluster will need to have a wire ran for the tach to operate. (I believe that '97 was the only model that didn't have plug-n-play for the tach to work).

Other than that, a little bit of wax will go along way for the red paint! Congrats!

[pwgus]

Looks good! Just in case you didn't know this....
The SE cluster will need to have a wire ran for the tach to operate. (I believe that '97 was the only model that didn't have plug-n-play for the tach to work).

The '96 did have the tachwire AND the redesigned engine, right? Cuz, I know I think its the OBD-II model engines are slightly revised, so you have the tachwire is on a different place than the old ones, so I was thinking just take the piece off a '96, and run the wire from it.

Also, I like the 97' bumper/grille/lights better an
yways.




Oh yea, does anyone know the diff between the check engine light flashing and it being solid, usually mine flashes, but once and a while its solid. Just wondered.

[Britstiva]

I'm not totally sure about that... unfortunately. What I do know is that for most of the '94-96 models all you had to do was plug in the tach cluster into the wiring harness already in the dash and it worked.

It sounds like you may know a bit more about the '96 than I do.... maybe some other guys can chime in on your question....

[pwgus]

I noticed eBay they have rebuilt enginge cylinder blocks, I might just order one of those ($225) and cover all my bases, posiblY replace rings while I'm in there, if I get a remanufactured one like that, I think I should be able to buy just stock spec rings and not worry about anything. Everything will be like new. Plus I won't have to completely pull the engine (right?)

[pwgus]

Gave the car a nice oil and oil filter change last night. I'm only getting 24 mpg so I unplugged the #1 fuel injector power since cylinder 1 is mostly broken anyways, so hopefully that will cut back a little. If I replace the cylinder head, will I have to pull the engine or just take the top appart I wonder, ill have to look it up?

[Levitan]

If the head is the problem, I have a head for you. $20. You'll have to use your rockers. sc72 would probably install it for you for a few bucks. Have my head checked so your car your car isn't down, then do all the work in one afternoon.

[pwgus]

Head including valves and everything! Done! if you think its reliable and you can find someone to put it in for me I'm def interested.

[Levitan]

The valves are there, but usually you have those redone, along with the valve guide seals, I believe. I'll talk to Karl about it. Not sure if he'll do it, but we'll see.

[pwgus]

Sounds awesome man, that's just what I need. Also, the oil doesn't smell like gas now that I changed the oil, hopefully it won't come back.

[takeone51]

oh , i almost forgot i have a set of .30 overbore performance pistons for the 1.3 if your interested..

[pwgus]

I don't think I'll need them, but thanks.

Guess what folks, I got a gift from God on Sunday. I have a friend with a broken '94. It's not an SE but it did have this!!!!:




Mine for the low price of just $20!!! I couldn't resist. The car is a beautiful blue, but my phone's camera doesn't do it justice, it looks an ugly purple from the pictures. Just gotta paint it red and drill holes, should be pretty easy. I find it strange that its made in Austria, why Austria????

[pwgus]

Oh yea, I changed the front seats and did the Escort dome light swap. An interesting note, they got rid of the rear two screw holes for the Escort dome lights like are present on the Festiva when you cut away a small portion of the liner, so I only got one screw holding it in. I also replaced the driver side door jam switch. I was gonna swap in some Escort GT seats, but I couldn't engineer a way to get them in, so I decided to skip it. Damn those woulda looked sweet too.

[pwgus]

Parts have been ordered!! I ordered the cylinder head from sandman; the head, exaust, and valve cover gaskets from rock auto, and a '97 Aspire Service manual set off eBay. Total is about $120 so hopefully we should be good!! I should have it all done in a month or less. Whish me luck I guess, lol. I've been messing around with installing the spoiler. Talk about a real pain in the patootie. Having to manually drill all the holes and crap