Diesel Festiva

[FB71]

Finally making some progress on the diesel swap. Got the engine located satisfactorily, and the passenger side engine mount fabbed up. Need to figure out driver side mounts yet. Here's some crappy cell phone pics;

two more;

last two for now.

[sc72]

Glad to hear and see you are hard at it, from what i see, it looks like that engine was made for that car. The mount fab looks good and plenty of room, it looks like this swap will be a reality soon. I'm looking forward to your progress reports and pic's. Keep up the good work.

[blkfordsedan]

Nice job! Any future plans to turbo it? What's the hp/tq rating on that?

[Nerd Racing]

from what I remember its more of a fuel economy project, but I could be mistaken.

[mattman]

sweet!!!

[Damkid]

Sweet!! i was wandering when this build would show up

[kumalaba]

looks great, what kind of mpg is expected?

[sc72]

From the conversations i have had with PU241 the goal is 100 mpg. Back in the 80's, we drove a VW Dasher Diesel, average mpg was 55, Good luck FB71

[Bert]

FB71: Congratulations. Wonderful to see that someone is properly capitalizing on the extreme light weight of Festys. Every new car today goes fast and bolting in a B8 only allows us to stay ahead of the Jones. But a diesel project (especially if it isn't one of those super-convoluted newer electronic-controlled ones) is really good news. Imagine a Festy with a prominent sticker on the back that says "75 miles to the gallon". That would raise some interest and eyebrows.

Be so kind as to detail this build for us. Are you working with a VW engine?

My mechanic buddy is currently gearing up to retrofit a Cummins diesel 6BT into a 350ci gas 85 Chev 3500 and this is also going to be a monumental undertaking but presumably worth it for power, economy and reliability once it's done. I don't know what it is about n. America's aversion to diesel technology but it is time that consumers realized that diesel fuel contains 30% more usable energy than gasoline.

[blkfordsedan]

Diesels are extremely popular and prevalent in the states, but mostly in pickups and heavy trucks. Here in the midwest, every other pickup on the road is a Cummins, Powerstroke or Duramax. Many people have been doing diesel conversions for decades. Back in the late 1960s, my dad drove a '59 Ford F250 with a 6-cyl diesel from a Ford 6000 tractor. I have a 79 F250 4X4 with an OM352 Benz diesel swap that my daddid back in the 1980s. The biggest issue with diesels here has been the lack of power...even with the first factory Cummins and Ford/IH motors. Since the developments of the 1990s in diesels, the power is now a non-issue. Cars have still not caught on, however. Most people don't like the noise, vibration and smell of diesels. Obviously, the newest diesel cars are a different story as well!

[Crankworm]

Looks awesome, my "other car" is a jeep liberty with a 2.8L diesel. I average 28-32 mpg and get 21-22 mpg pulling 3500lbs boat at 70. I wish I could buy a new fiesta or fiat with a diesel

[Christ]

I've got a couple vw 1.5l idi engines and 4speed boxes as spares for my mk2 diesel, but now that I legally own 2 registerable festivae, I'm more thinking about rebuilding the 1.6 thats already in the golf and boosting it with some work, so the 1.5's are just extras.

Except the one I want for a bike build.

[freshtiva]

Cool project, what is the motor out of ?

[Damkid]

I believe the engine is from an overseas 323, it's a Mazda diesel engine, the engine code is PN if I remember right, the engine is the one that Festiva GTX used to have

[pyrothehitman]

mount looks really good...nice job