Got the Girlfriend a Festiva!

[links56]

Dude, that's nice of you. Big spender. lol. Just giving you crap. You should put a big bow on it and then give it to her.

[crazyrog17]

Well today I'm knee deep into the engine.

It has a blown exhaust valve on Cyl 4 (first pic).

I have a spare engine with a bad bottom end, originally from my DD. I'm going to swap the head from it onto her car.

Of course, none of the parts stores stock the head gasket and the one on order will be here tomorrow at 1:00 :confused2:

[M3NTAL]

aww man that sucks....good to see you will have it up and running shortly though!

[crazyrog17]

Yes, it does suck!

BUT, the previous owner put a lot of new parts on it, hoping for a fix... Sold it cheap!

I got my donor engine apart, the head looks good! I have to change out the IAC because it was spewing coolant everywhere back when it was in my DD (some might remember that ridiculous thread).

Pics in a sec of the donor engine.

[crazyrog17]

You can see that the bottom end of the donor motor has a piston sitting at the very bottom of it's cylinder. The rod is rattling around in the bottom of the oil pan every time I move it.

Head looks pretty good. A lot less carbon deposits than the bad head.

[crazyrog17]

Cleaned all the parts I was using up, got all my ducks in a row and put it back together today.

It took me about three hours to reassemble it.

Filled the fluids, checked the connections and...

It runs! Rough. I need to readjust the timing belt. I'm at one extreme of the distributor adjustment. The head is also really noisy but I'm hoping that'll quiet down once the HLAs get a drink.

[crazyrog17]

I'm going to pick-a-part if not tomorrow, this week to grab the Aspire head I (dumbly) passed up on Saturday.

The donor head that's on there now is knocking horribly and sputters under load.

[htchbck]

Don't worry, you'll get it fixed up right! Yep, the ladies love the Autos and A/C, had to put an auto in the '88LX for my wife after we got it home (fortunately already had AC though). Can't complain though, it got the auto out of my '90 so I could drop in a REAL transmission Yeah, I was wondering how well that head would perform after seeing the bottom end it came off of. Aspire head is a nice little upgrade though with the roller lifters. I've heard it can bump MPGs a bit but never had one on mine long enough to confirm or deny. Shouldn't hurt though, and any benefit in the MPG department is a blessing to the autos lol.

[Stivadiva]

So your happy about giving your GF a disease...

Festyitis -- An incurable disease that can be very contagious and can be classified as a kind of madness!!!

[crazyrog17]

Yeah, the head was terrible even after I got the timing right. I think it's letting pressure back into the intake under load. It also knocks hard above cylinder 2.

I was talking to Donny today (xaero_81) and he confirmed with me that the Aspire head (exhaust and electrical) is plug/bolt and play. I'm going to get the aspire intake tubing to go along with the system and reduce the clutter under the hood.

She better appreciate this when it's all done

[crazyrog17]

Couldn't pick up another head last weekend. It's been hot as blazes this week and I'm banking on a cooler weekend ahead.

If I find a good head (Aspire or Festiva), can I reuse the 'new' head gasket that I just installed or should I get another one?

[crazyrog17]

Got a 'new' head, head gasket, spark plugs, throttle body gasket and thermostat housing gasket. Installed everything and started it up.

It's still running rough

It idles fine and I'm relieved there's no ticking this time. The engine runs rough and pops when under load though. I'll put it in drive and the revs will go way down and I can hear pop pop if I press the gas too far.

My initial instinct is timing. I'm surely triple checking that. I've already swapped VAFs from my DD to it and it still runs the same. I took my DD out for a spin with her car's VAF in it and it accelerates a lot better! Might just be a dirty air filter but I'm going to keep this one in my car regardless

What's next on my list to check/change?

[crazyrog17]

Swapped cap, rotor and wires over from my DD Festy. Runs much more smoothly but still pops under load when I'm giving it gas.

I moved the timing belt a tooth. The distributor was at the end of it's travel when it was running best. Still haven't figured out if it made it any better or worse.

I know I'm posting a lot but... I'm going to California in three days and I need to have this done for the lady!

[crazyrog17]

It was the order of the plug wires on the cap. DERP!

1 - 3 - 4 - 2 going counter clockwise. Start at the plug on the rotor that's closest to your face when you're looking at the engine compartment head on.

[Basement_Modder]

lol perfect.