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

[Greywolf]

Why would you go with an orifice tube, when the expansion valve is pre-plumbed in stock evaporators?

Far as I know, orifice tubes have to be replaced fairly often compared to XV's

Also - the thermocouple (balloon tube?) can be moved left or right to change the cooling. An option not available with an orifice.

[william]

[QUOTE=theastronaut;719858]Thanks! I'm using the tow hooks on the rear for now but I'd like to come up with something better to keep the straps off the bumper.


I tie to my tow hitch for the rear! Its a custom hitch that sticks through the bumper.

[FestYboy]

As far as the evaporator, you'll have to modify the evaporator box to fit anything other than stock in there. Also, our systems are TXV, and that can lead to poor cooling if the balloon tube ( can't think of the right name for it) is in the wrong spot. If I were to put a system in, I'd go with an orifice tube instead.

[theastronaut]

I drug home Festiva number two today, it's also an '88 L four speed. I'm going to use it to completely mock up the B6 swap, then once it's all sorted I'll be able to pull it all out and swap the red car easily. That keeps the red car on the road instead of being torn apart for a long time.

I've also decided to add A/C to the red car since the blue one has all the A/C stuff in the dash still. I originally wanted to keep the car as light as possible but our months-long 90+ degree weather with high humidity kinda makes A/C a necessity. I might try upgrading to a larger evaporator and condenser for better cooling- any suggestions on what kinds of cars to look at for those parts? I'll be using a Sanden compressor as they supposedly only take .5 hp per 1000 RPM and they don't have problems being run at high rpm for long periods.

I'm putting in an offer on a house next week and I'm still working on the VW so progress on the Festiva will continue to be be slow for awhile. Parts chasing and build research/planning is still underway though.

[theastronaut]

Looks good I have a 14 foot jackson I carry on my car I use the tow hooks but the kayak is longer then the car so my tie downs don't even touch the bumper lol.
But I may have to make some loops as well .

Thanks! I'm using the tow hooks on the rear for now but I'd like to come up with something better to keep the straps off the bumper.

John, are you running spring tops in the front? I think I remember seeing pictures of your setup in another thread and it looked like you didn't have spring top hats.

It has Kia Rio top hats.

[Advancedynamix]

John, are you running spring tops in the front? I think I remember seeing pictures of your setup in another thread and it looked like you didn't have spring top hats.

[william]

Looks good I have a 14 foot jackson I carry on my car I use the tow hooks but the kayak is longer then the car so my tie downs don't even touch the bumper lol.
But I may have to make some loops as well .

[Advancedynamix]

That's sweet!

[theastronaut]

Not much going on with the Festiva lately other than a couple thousand more miles. I bought the third pair of front tires a few weeks back... too many times around the "on-ramp road course", burn outs (well, burn out attempts anyways), a couple of autocrosses, and general daily hooning killed the last couple of pairs. Good thing they're cheap at ~100 bucks shipped for a pair.



I did finally get around to installing a working dome light. Grabbed it out of an Escort wagon last time I was at LKQ. The map lights are a nice upgrade from the factory dome light, which was dead when I bought the car.




Melted tires after a few hot laps around the on-ramp road course.




I made a pair of looped straps that I mounted under the fender bolts so I'd have a place to easily strap down the front of my new (to me) kayak. They tuck inside the hood when they're not needed. Keeps the straps from marring and warping the bumper when the tow hooks are used.







I spotted a old train trestle on a side road on my way back from picking up the kayak, so I turned around and went back for a few quick pics.

[firebush357]

Oh Okay... got it now

[theastronaut]

It does, but getting it that hot makes the metal shrink once it's cooled off. That's why welding "warps" sheet metal- the welded area shrinks, distorting the area around it. If steel gets hot enough to turn blue it shrinks.

[firebush357]

[Tip to get bearing races out easier- run a mig weld bead around the old race. The heat shrinks them and they'll pretty much fall out. ]

I thought Heat Expands Metal?

[theastronaut]

Got the brakes finished this weekend, much better pedal effort now. I hope to never have to replace the rotors again, that was a chore! I'll swap to Aspire stuff once I get serious about tracking the car. These are working great for now with street tires.

I think I've got a busted strut mount on the driver's side. It's making noise over bumps, especially at low speeds and it looks weird under the top nut holding the coilover on. I'll pull it off tonight to check it out.


Found the source of the bearing noise.




Tip to get bearing races out easier- run a mig weld bead around the old race. The heat shrinks them and they'll pretty much fall out.







Bought a few more pieces. I had better headlight housings but had never installed them, so I dug those out and cleaned them up. Put GE Nighthawk bulbs in and also bought 100 watt bulbs to replace the 55 watt bulbs in the driving lights. With the relay harness already in the car, this is as good as the headlights are going to get unless I find a pair of e-code housings. I can easily see over 1/4 mile down the road with the high beams on so I'll probably leave them as-is.

[theastronaut]

If you used a dry chemical fire extinguisher (ABC, Purple-K or BC powder) do NOT try and wash off the powder!!! It makes an incredible gooey mess that will stay with the car for a long time.

Simplest and quickest way of removing it is use a vacuum cleaner. NOT your wife's house vacuum, but the one you use it the shop for all the nasty stuff!!!

Any dry chemical will quickly control/extinguish a spill or PRESSURIZED flammable liquid fire - however, expect it to re-ignite until the heated metal cools off. Always turn OFF the ignition!!!

If you just do very short discharges (bursts) of 1 or 2 seconds, that will initially extinguish the fire. Keep watching, and if/when the fire re-ignites, just give it another 1-second burst. By fighting the fire in this manner, you can get about 4 to 8 very short bursts out of a 2-3/4-lb extinguish, keep the fire under control/extinguished and let the metal cool off to prevent re-ignition.

The typical 2.5 or 2.75 lb stored pressure dry chemical only discharges for a total of 10-12 seconds, so you have to know what you are doing to get the most out of it.

If you have any water, soap, soft drinks, beer - any non-flammable liquid - you can pour it onto the hot metal to help cool it off.

Any type of foam extinguisher - AFFF, AR-AFFF, Cold Fire - also works very well on a UN-PRESSURIZED flammable liquid fire. So turn off your engine/fuel pump if using foam! The foam's are mostly water (96 to 99% by weight) so they work very well in cooling the metal to prevent re-ignition.

Foam extinguishers are magic, but weigh a lot compared to dry chemicals. If you know what you are doing, you can extinguish a very large fire with dry chem.

Good info, thanks for posting!! I'll definitley keep a couple extinguishers in the car from now on. The fire department used water after we had used the dry fire extinguisher so the whole thing was a mess. It came off with Purple Power sprayed thorugh a pressure washing, then scrubbing with a brush. I treated the bare metal with PPG DX579 Metal Cleaner and DX520 Metal Conditioner, and I've blasted the remaining burnt paint off with glass beads. Hoping to have the tail end of it in epoxy primer later this week.

[Doug Brown]

Fire Extinguisher use

If you used a dry chemical fire extinguisher (ABC, Purple-K or BC powder) do NOT try and wash off the powder!!! It makes an incredible gooey mess that will stay with the car for a long time.

Simplest and quickest way of removing it is use a vacuum cleaner. NOT your wife's house vacuum, but the one you use it the shop for all the nasty stuff!!!

Any dry chemical will quickly control/extinguish a spill or PRESSURIZED flammable liquid fire - however, expect it to re-ignite until the heated metal cools off. Always turn OFF the ignition!!!

If you just do very short discharges (bursts) of 1 or 2 seconds, that will initially extinguish the fire. Keep watching, and if/when the fire re-ignites, just give it another 1-second burst. By fighting the fire in this manner, you can get about 4 to 8 very short bursts out of a 2-3/4-lb extinguish, keep the fire under control/extinguished and let the metal cool off to prevent re-ignition.

The typical 2.5 or 2.75 lb stored pressure dry chemical only discharges for a total of 10-12 seconds, so you have to know what you are doing to get the most out of it.

If you have any water, soap, soft drinks, beer - any non-flammable liquid - you can pour it onto the hot metal to help cool it off.

Any type of foam extinguisher - AFFF, AR-AFFF, Cold Fire - also works very well on a UN-PRESSURIZED flammable liquid fire. So turn off your engine/fuel pump if using foam! The foam's are mostly water (96 to 99% by weight) so they work very well in cooling the metal to prevent re-ignition.

Foam extinguishers are magic, but weigh a lot compared to dry chemicals. If you know what you are doing, you can extinguish a very large fire with dry chem.