'91 Festiva, fun daily build

[skeeters_keeper]

This car is coming along nicely quickly! Great job!

[TominMO]

A tip for when you install the rear struts. If you look at the tube at the bottom of the coilover struts compared to stock Festiva ones, you can see how much thicker they are, since the Festiva struts just have that thin stalk at the very bottom. There are one or two areas on the rear beam that need to be cut off so that when the beam articulates, it does not rub on the new strut when cornering hard. Otherwise it will dent, and can possibly rupture, your new rear struts. This needs to be done for both struts. You may already find the marks on your struts, which will give you an idea where to relieve the rear beam.

[FestYboy]

I also went to another yard and looked at '90 L Plus (auto), it had the instrument cluster with the tach in it. Will it work on my '91? Is it possible to roll the odometer to match my current mileage?

I also noticed that it had fancy door cards with pockets and cloth insert, never seen that before (I'm guessing that's why its the "Plus").

The cluster is a bolt in as long as you fish the speedo cable to the right side of the column support (not through it as it sits now).
The door cards are typical for L+ and standard for GL models.
The seats you scored are custom.

[parrainx]

A tip for when you install the rear struts. If you look at the tube at the bottom of the coilover struts compared to stock Festiva ones, you can see how much thicker they are, since the Festiva struts just have that thin stalk at the very bottom. There are one or two areas on the rear beam that need to be cut off so that when the beam articulates, it does not rub on the new strut when cornering hard. Otherwise it will dent, and can possibly rupture, your new rear struts. This needs to be done for both struts. You may already find the marks on your struts, which will give you an idea where to relieve the rear beam.

Thank you for the tip, I will take a look at it.

[Advancedynamix]

My excuse is to occasionally commute for work related stuff, I can walk to my main office, but sometimes I need to drive to Corporate or other properties.

Real reason? I was bored and wanted another car to mess with. I always missed the first one I had. It's sort of a dream car and hopefully I can keep it forever.

Basically immediate goal is to have a reliable fun car to drive around which I pretty much already achieved. Take it to Good Guys autocross for poops n giggles, since they don't want my miata because its not American. Take it to a back road for fun and hunt some sport cars (already do that with the miata).

Long-Term - motor swap, but I want to have a smog legal car (Miata is not and that's enough hassle). I was at the junk yard today looking at Festiva for random parts and there was a Capri with what I'm guessing is a 1.8 motor (DOHC 16V), and Escort GT with 1.9 EFI right next to it. It was very tempting, but a motor swap and living in an apartment in the middle of SF does not go together. Yes, I got a nice place I can work on the cars in, but motor swap is not doable there.

Someone mentioned that a B6 is somewhat passable for SMOG, but I'm not sure what that engine looks like. I need to brush up on Mazda engine designations.

That capri is a B6d unless it's turbocharged, which makes it a b6t. I've swapped both engines into festivas and passed CARB inspection. Non turbo capri engine will run on stock Festiva fuel injection, which does make it a weekend swap with a custom engine mount. It's basically the same engine as a miata 1.6, just with different intake/exhaust manifolds and valve/timing covers. In fact I have one in my car now with a miata bottom end (same thing).
That's a good 100hp engine with a good bit more TQ than stock. I compete in time attack with mine and the car is regularly faster than all the cars in the class above me. The last time I competed, I was 3 seconds a lap faster than a prepped s2000 on R compounds, with a good driver. These cars are great track cars.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THAT ENGINE SWAP

[parrainx]

You are killing me lol. If i looked up prices right looks like Pick n Pull engine is like $170. I'll double that for gasket kit and other refreshers. I have never bought a junk yard motor before. Seems like a cheap upgrade. I'm pretty happy with a B3 as it seems to be pretty peppy and runs great.

I'll read up on the swap to see what I'm getting myself into. I can keep my tranny?

Will see if my buddy is willing to let me borrow his garage for the weekend. Need to track down a cherry picker. Oh boy.

[Advancedynamix]

Yes, you use your stock tranny. I recommend an exedy brand replacement clutch for the festiva and have the Festiva flywheel resurfaced to match the finish on the pressure plate. You could also buy a new flywheel. You'll want the flywheel friction area to be slightly rough or the disk could glaze, and cause slippage.

The b6d block is very very similar to the stock b3 block in terms of mounting tabs, and holes to mount accessories. All stock Festiva accessories will swap right over to the b6d.
If you like the B3, you'll love the b6d. It doesn't feel uncontrollable at all, and you still retain that stock vehicle driveability, but you get more TQ everywhere.

When buying an engine from a salvage yard, it's best to check the mileage on the vehicle, remove the valve cover and look at the color of the aluminum inside the top of the head. This shows how well the engine was maintained. These engines hold up well when maintained well, so the head color check is more accurate than the mileage.
Some salvage yards will check the compression for you, that's a good idea if they do it.
The Capri engines sometimes develop a coolant leak between cylinders 3 and 4, in the intake manifold gasket, that will flood one of those cylinders with water when the engine sits at rest. Usually you can see signs of this on the spark plug. It'll be obvious that there is moisture in the cylinder.

Read that thread that I linked you too.

[TominMO]

I'm pretty happy with a B3 as it seems to be pretty peppy and runs great.

Now that we have totally suckered you into the upgrade game, starting with tires and suspension, it will be impossible to not put a B6D in your car eventually! :-)

That being said, it is huge fun to drive a slow car fast. You can get better breathing at higher rpm by drilling a couple dozen holes in the airbox bottom piece.

Another cheap/free upgrade: a shift knob from an early 90s Escort/Protege/Miata. Screws right on.

[reyestuninggarag]

Like stated earlier, those bottle caps... my gosh ive never seen bottle caps make a car look that good ever! Ive seen em on a ton of cars b4 but never on a festiva and the result was, terrific! Love it! Keep up the good work good sir!

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[parrainx]

Long overdue update. Had to dust off my computer, its been a while. Work and other stuff got in the way, but I've been making some progress on the car.

"Upgraded" to two point seat belts in the back to clean it up some and make the older style sit fit better. Due to different seat belt receiver brackets on older cars the seat wasn't clearing them and had to be pushed down to be secured at the top.


I ended up trading some of my miata parts for a passenger miata seat. Had to get the rail/sliders from the junk yard. Got some steel bars at Lowes and went to town. Stripped out both original seats and at first tried to mount the seat straight to the stock framing and sliders. It ended up being 3" taller than OEM, not ideal. I ended up taking the mount/sliders off and using the steel bars to run across and then mounted the stock Miata sliders to that. Height was at stock levels. Then I decided to try another design and make the seat even lower. That didn't work out so well because the seat could not be mounted in the center line with the steering wheel and the knees would be too high and it was kind of awkward, although the shifter ended up being within perfect reach. I still need to clean, trim, and paint the whole contraption, but I'm very happy as it feels very solid and miata seats were quite comfortable on a 3-hour drive I did.



Installed dual USB port in place of cigarette lighter, so I can charge my phone.


I picked up a tachometer cluster and will be installing it as soon as I figure out how to take it apart without breaking anything and rolling the mileage back to match my current, if that's even possible. It was already ripped out of the car when I got to the yard (looks like they wanted the speedo cable), in that process the clear cover was damaged, so I will have to reuse my own, which doesn't come with a hole for the trip meter reset, but it's no biggie since trip meter doesn't seem to be working anyway.


I checked the rear strut to beam clearance and I'm good there, since I mounted the longer bit of the eyelet to the outside and only trimmed one side of it during initial assembly.

I decided to hold off on the motor swap for now. Upgrading a miata from a supercharger to a turbo, and don't want to juggle two things at once. After all, this is supposed to be a daily . I did think about mounting the supercharger on the B3, its an M45, so it wouldn't overwhelm the motor too much at 6psi I would think, but I'm probably going to sell the SC to offset the cost of the turbo bits.

More to come...

[parrainx]

Like stated earlier, those bottle caps... my gosh ive never seen bottle caps make a car look that good ever! Ive seen em on a ton of cars b4 but never on a festiva and the result was, terrific! Love it! Keep up the good work good sir!

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

I know the bottlecaps was an accident and a good one at that. They were $30, so I couldn't pass up.

[reyestuninggarag]

I know the bottlecaps was an accident and a good one at that. They were $30, so I couldn't pass up.

Man! Thats a steal! At that price id even put em on my sandwich lol

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[parrainx]

Wow this has been a long while. Life got in the way; I moved, got sick of my job and got another one. I have two other project cars and I keep working on all of them. I've been trying to find a minute to come back and update you guys.

I will breakdown the updates into a couple of posts.

[parrainx]

Back in February I did the following:

- replaced apt/water pump belt
- wired turn signals into corner lights (still keeping the original turn signals operational)
- removed washer bottle and extra wiring that wasn't being used on my trim
- relocated coil and other sensors that mounted to driver's strut tower
- installed older style grill (no more snot)
- replaced worn steering rack boots
- painted exhaust heatshield
- installed cluster with tach

- modified and painted front bumper
I used fire sprinkler escutcheons I had laying around at work to make a custom bumper and hide the ugly dimples and holes after I removed the front license plate. Measured and drilled holes with hole saw, inserted the escutcheons and glued them from inside. Painted it dark gray to basically match the original color.




moving:


all loaded up: THAT FITMENT YO!

[parrainx]

Fast forward to March:

Started doing a lot more highway commuting and quickly learned that one of my $30 bottle caps is bent pretty bad. Vibration was unbearable at highway speeds. I searched long and hard for a matching replacement, but nothing came up at the right price.

I ended up finding NB Miata 14x6 for $100. At 12.7lbs they are a bit lighter than bottle caps (14.8lbs). Offset is +45 so with my 25mm adapters I get final offset of +20 which seems to be a sweet spot as I was able to remove the washers (camber) from the rear and had zero rubbing so far. Painted them flat black for easy touch-up.


Put new emblems on the car:




Now people stop traffic to take photos and passersby can't help but crack a smile.

Also painted calipers, rotors, and drums high heat black.

Removed headliner and painted it black black.


Somebody decided that they have an issue with the little car and I ended up with broken windshield.
One mobile installer and $267 later I have a shiny new windshield, it was the last one they had in the area. I guess is was meant to be as the original had plenty of rock chips.