'88 L Street/Track Build- Coilovers • B6ZE • Weber DCOE's • Widebody • Chopped Top •

[theastronaut]

Don't bother trailering the Festiva to Madness, take a picture, have it blown up and tape or glue it to a poster board, heck when you get to the Madness parking lot, pull out the poster board and grab ya a parking spot.

Lol!! I have a guy interested in buying my Miata, and I offered to meet him with it at Madness, so that might be an option!

Wonders if that guy is retired lol i have a hard time finding time to mow the grass sometimes . Good luck with your projects .

Not even close, I'm only 30 years old. It'll take me until retirement to finish any of them though :lol:

[Doug Brown]

So have you actually chopped the roof yet on any of your cars? I've been thinking about doing something like that, so any input would be helpful,

Thanks!

[theastronaut]

So have you actually chopped the roof yet on any of your cars? I've been thinking about doing something like that, so any input would be helpful,

Thanks!

No, we've cut glass for a lot of chopped cars but have never actually done a chop.

[theastronaut]

I pulled it in after work last night to get everything ready to pull the engine. It's all out of the way except the axles and a few wires on the back side of the engine. I'll finish unhooking everything and pull it this afternoon.




Made it home safely from picking up the dually. If the gauge is accurate, it drank 3/4 of a 28 gallon tank coming back, which was roughly 130 miles. I need to fill it up and check the odometer for the exact distance travelled, but that's somewhere around 7 mpg. It's in better shape than I was expecting, so I'm really happy with it so far. I'll de-grampa it by removing the running boards, bed caps, tow mirrors, and tool box soon.






My rough MS Paint "photoshop" of what I'd like to build, except not red!

[firebush357]

Any thoughts on pulling the bed off for now and just running a Flat Bed until you get the short bed?

Also with a tune up and some adjustments I'm sure you could get a little better fuel mileage out of it.

[FestYboy]

Get a 5.3 and add a turbo with 6lbs of boost... Best of both worlds. And it's a tried and true mod with plenty of development and support.

[FestYboy]

Also with a tune up and some adjustments I'm sure you could get a little better fuel mileage out of it.

Yup, a whole 8 mpg... Those 454s are boat anchors even with better heads and intake... The bottom end is low compression, so unless you replace the pistons, there's not much you'll see out of them. Any good running BBC is gonna see at least 10.5:1

[bhazard]

Get a 5.3 and add a turbo with 6lbs of boost... Best of both worlds. And it's a tried and true mod with plenty of development and support.

6.0*

[FestYboy]

^ not for boost... And you can get a 5.3 for a song... Super cheap upgrade, spend the difference on the turbo kit and you're ahead of the game.

[theastronaut]

The gauge is off, I was estimating the 7 mpg going by the fuel gauge. I filled it up last night and checked it, it's getting 8.8 if the odometer is correct, which it might be low since it read 5 mph slower than it's actually going. So it may be getting better than 8.8, which is prety much normal.

Eventually I want to do a 5.3 swap with my T56. Haven't thought of adding a turbo, but that's something to think about, I've seen people run small turbos with low boost (3-4 psi) and they pick up a few mpg. Dad has an '89 crew cab with no bed (the white one in the background) and it's a 4 speed so I'd probably end up buying and building that one instead.

[ryanprins13]

Yup, a whole 8 mpg... Those 454s are boat anchors even with better heads and intake... The bottom end is low compression, so unless you replace the pistons, there's not much you'll see out of them. Any good running BBC is gonna see at least 10.5:1

Ive been told that converting them to propane makes them even better

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[theastronaut]

Pulled the engine tonight. Now I have to deal with the wiring harness, which I've been dreading since deciding to swap it... I need to find a wiring diagram for it so I can figure out what can be removed and what I need to keep. I'm going to be keeping the B3 distributor and swapping it onto the new engine for now.







The carbs arrived today from the rebuilder in Italy. I had a set of velocity stacks that were too big to fit under the VW's air filters but they'll work for now on the Festiva. I'll probably just zip tie fine mesh over the stacks for now while I'm tuning them, and until I find filter housings that clear the firewall. I don't want to run foam socks since they can become fuel soaked from the stand-off at WOT.



Video of fuel stand-off. The filter housings need to be large enough to contain the stand off without the filter element becoming soaked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs8mnaouP8U

I've been cleaning up the truck in my spare time. I took the running boards, mud flaps, and tow mirrors off and started buffing the paint. It's cleaning up really well, much better than expected. I also bought a set of 19.5's from a P30 box van to go on it. I'll probably lift the front about 1.5" to make the truck sit level (it's nose down now) and to clear the taller tires.

[reddragon]

Pulled the engine tonight. Now I have to deal with the wiring harness, which I've been dreading since deciding to swap it... I need to find a wiring diagram

https://www.techcapri.com/Wiring.html

Print the 1st one onto 6 x A3 sheets, it is fairly easy to follow

I swapped the complete capri harness into my 121, it wasnt as painful as I thought it was going to be.

[theastronaut]

Thanks, I'll print that out tomorrow!

Took the grill, bumper, and lights off tonight, then rolled it outside. Looks much better after pressure washing and scrubbing with Purple Power cleaner.

[theastronaut]

Been super busy, haven't had time to update with progress.


Transfered the front bracing and radiator support from the mock up car to this one, and made lower radiator mounts. Radiator is aftermarket for a Honda Civic.








First test fit in the car.




Heated and bent the header tube to fit the flange better. Also cut out a pie shaped piece from the end of each tube to angle the bottom of the header back away from the radiator.




Current state. Need to hook everything up still, but it's in.





In non-festiva news, I got the 19.5's painted and mounted on the truck, and used it to tow the VW to the Goodguys show in Charlotte over the weekend. I think the engine in the VW died yesterday morning on the way to church... started blowing oil mist out of the crankcase vent, seems like there's a ton of blowby. I took a chance on heavily skimming the piston tops to get enough deck height and may have gone too far. Haven't had time to do a compression test or stick a borescope down the plug hole to diagnose it.