Fecomatter's Festiva Build

[Fecomatter]

So I got to work on the car today but I got pretty discouraged after opening my gas tank that had been "properly drained".

IMG_5799.jpg

So I spent an hour or so cleaning it out, and now im soaking the inside in apple cider vinegar to clean it up. its going to take a least a week of soaking.

Then I took a few minutes to clean out the air box. It was full of crap. Im glad I opened it.

I also drove around and got some FREE e30 headlight lenses to mock them up and see what it looks like. It seemed really cool. I will probably install some working ones, EVENTUALLY.

IMG_5802.jpg

Then because I was SOL with the gas tank waiting game, I decided the festiva needed to look different. So, I started getting the undercoat off the roof. Im working thinking to myself, "hmm this paint is still good, if i'm careful I could buff it up back to white." The second I think that my razor blade hits bondo. There apparently was a big dent on the roof of the car. The metal underneath appeared to be intact, It was just poor workmanship. Its all cracked up and uneven. Bondo space was about the size of a pillow. I peeled up the plates of bondo that were along the cracks and then got out some paint and did some rattlecanning. It was a good pick me up from the tank and the bondo.

IMG_5803.jpg

The plan of the paint was to make the uneven parts more visible, so I can fix them, But im not sure it is going to work that way. It was fun though. Probably just going to make sure the gas tank is good and clean before I do anything else. Wish i could have just used this carbd one. SOMEONE BUY IT FROM ME.

[Movin]

I have a carbed tank in my red car, I drilled the top to match the carb bolt pattern and it all works well. No leaks and the electric pump works fine. One of the vapor hoses is smaller , I used new hose on that , the smaller size and stretched it over the bigger size, again no issues. Many years ago I converted the electric pump to a jeep cherokee pump. It has slightly more volume and there is no problems with fuel return on either tank.

It seems like I did a write up about this ?

[Fecomatter]

^^^ I wish I would have thought about that before I ended up getting this crappy tank. Probably dont buy anything from mtx, he claimed he didn't notice anything in the tank when he shipped it. The Vinegar is working well, Just a real pain. Turn It and wait.

[Fecomatter]

I pulled a bp from the junkyard. Had new distributeur and 140,000 miles. Trans in the car was obviously burnt up, and the car had an oil change sticker from a couple months ago, looked very clean so I went for it. But I didnt remember till the next day, TPS sensors were different between auto and manual BP's. So today I made the Festiva TPS, which is the same as the BP one, fit on my automatic BP throttle body.

This fix didn't take long, only about 2 hours of trial and error, but its not really perfect either.

here is a picture of the inside of the automatic TPS:
(I tore it apart because I couldn't use it anyway)

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5826_zps8852b87d.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6

I figured there was a way to connect the the manual TPS, so i stuck some scrap metal into the end of it and cut a notch in the top of the now broken auto TPS:

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5829_zps2f107f98.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

How I had it setup, was that the scrap metal sat in the notch and turned the manual TPS along with the throttle. This didnt work out because the plastic piece that spun with the throttle control was too independent from the actual throttle.

When taking the auto TPS from the throttle body, you see screw in the center that goes into the shaft that is the center line of the throttle, the axis that it spins on in the center. under the screw is a gold plate with two prongs that contact with the auto TPS and spun the sensor on the axis without going directly into the sensor

This is the plate:

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5832_zpseb631704.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

So I took out the screw and the plate Planning to make a bit that would fit into the end of the manual FPS, Needed to fit in here:

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5827_zpsa227ae94.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

The shape is semicircle basically, so what I ended up doing was welding a nail onto the screw that held in the plate, Then I cut it to length. After I welded a little thin plate onto the nail. This let me bend the little plate to a general semicircle shape.

This is what it ended up like:

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5830_zpsf8cda043.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

I think I tweaked the position of that plate a bit after that picture, But In the end I just put that nail into the end of the manual TPS, and it turned it correctly. It took a couple tries, and requires a bit of adjusting to get right.

Finished:

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/TPS%20festiva/IMG_5831_zps5cd808d0.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

I used two random screws to hold it in place. The original screw holes were too close together, but there happened to be two more conveniently placed unthreaded holes that I made work.

The important part to making this work is make sure you are getting the correct readings from the sensor. When the sensor was on the festiva, the top two pins(orientation based on picture above) read 1 on a multimeter(set to ohms at 20k) at idle, and 0 at wide open throttle. The bottom two pins are 0 at idle and 1 at WOT. As long as you get the same readings when it is mounted on your automatic throttle body, It should be good to go.

NOTE: I have not done my swap yet, so I have not tested this. This is just getting the same readings as when it was on the festiva so I am assuming it is going to work properly. I can't think of any reason why it will not work, If it breaks it will be because of the metal piece inside the semicircle part in the sensor, but there is very little load on any parts I put together so I figure it will be fine.

Bottom line for today, Is that it is possible to retrofit the festiva throttle position sensor or a manual transmission BP TPS onto an automatic BP throttle body.

[Fecomatter]

So haven't posted in a while, but I have been getting some stuff done. I got the b3 engine and trans pulled and the engine bay sorta clean. I have the engine hanging on a hoist currently. Was debating on repainting the bay completely before i put the engine back in, but I decided that once I get the car running, ill do it when I find a G series to put in. Not much in the way of getting more done other than time. I'll get some pictures when something interesting happens.

[Fecomatter]

I found some 17s on ohio BMW Parts do I picked them up for 75 bucks. Crap tires but need lower profile ones anyway. Then later today, I sold my bottle caps with crap tires for 85.

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Tommy_Tremains/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps1cd88e53.jpg.html

Looks pretty funny right now, but once it gets back down to a stock height it should look pretty good. Fenders will get adjusted and it looked like the wheels were touching the struts so either modify them to work or just find some cheap spacers. Might have to plastisol the wheels so they don't attract to much attention in my neighborhood.

[william]

Look at dem rims! 17s look like 40's on a festiva :-)

[Advancedynamix]

Those are pretty big. Does it rub?

[Fecomatter]

Oh yea, there is gonna be some massive rub. I pretty much ignored everything I researched on tires and traction to go big. I am going to try to dig up some 195/40/17's to get the tires to a more reasonable size, I plan on doing some kind of flare and fender mods to there is no rub. The tires on the wheels now are 225/45/17 and are dry rotted to hell. not driving a mile on them.

[Damkid]

Don't even know what to say......

[Advancedynamix]

Oh yea, there is gonna be some massive rub. I pretty much ignored everything I researched on tires and traction to go big. I am going to try to dig up some 195/40/17's to get the tires to a more reasonable size, I plan on doing some kind of flare and fender mods to there is no rub. The tires on the wheels now are 225/45/17 and are dry rotted to hell. not driving a mile on them.

Good call. Watch out when cutting the rear arches. There is a seam that is about 2" above the arch and it is structural. It is the main reason the overall diameter can't exceed 22".

[bhazard]

DONK!

[Fecomatter]

Good tip I'll keep that in mind.

[william]

You need some 185/35/17s

[Fecomatter]

Out of price range, 4 of those would cost more than I'll have in the entire car after I finish my bp swap. I'd rather just make larger tires fit.