The Canadiana build thread

[ryanprins13]

So now that I have a bit over 3,000 miles on the suspension and it should be all settled I checked my alignment again. The camber is now -2 degrees all the way around and my toe is still at zero in the front. So that was good to know.
Julian came by to pick up his struts and took my car for a spin, seemed to like what the negative camber does even on stock suspension. I rode in the passenger seat for the first time and got to appreciate in a different way how quiet and smooth and nice this car drives compared to any other festiva I've driven.

2500 miles or so on the engine oil and its still golden and there is not a drop in my catch can which I find odd but good.

I am having 2 issues, one being I don't seem to have a good speedometer cable out of the 4 or so that I own... needle is jumpy. Second is fuel milage. I have only gotten 2 tanks of gas where I wasn't towing the trailer, racing it around or using the a/c the whole time. I wasn't trying to get good gas milage on those 2 tanks but just driving it normally-which is more spirited than most others on the road, lol. I have a 35 mile commute, through the capital city of our province, another city and then a town during rush hour each way. Lots of stop and go, and the 75mph stretch of freeway is too busy to keep a constant speed. But my ceiling seems to be 43 US mpg. I know this commute is hard on gas, this car is super heavy compared to my other one and the tall tires don't help in the city but i was expecting more. I think part of it has to do with this dual stage mazda thermostat not working properly anymore. I bought it late last summer and it worked fine for the couple months in my red festiva, wasn't used over the winter and i put it in this car. Seemed ok for a couple days but it doesn't let the car warm up now, I think the smaller part is stuck open or malfunctioning. This is as high as it gets on a morning going to work.

[ryanprins13]

Thanks!
I just realized ive never taken a photo of my whole engine bay. Here is the packed messyness i have created...



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[XR2KID]

What a cool build, makes me miss my festi more and more.

[ryanprins13]

This is the photo of the a/c charging hose i promised. The cans i used are in photos above.


Found out today i can still fit 2x4's in my car even with a/c, the rear panels and seat, cargo cover... not near as many but enough for what i needed.


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[ryanprins13]

Was super hot and sunny out the Tuesday-was 85f when i went to a funeral in the afternoon. Almost unbearable to be outside. Ac worked decent, took a bit to cool the car off but once it cooled off it was enjoyable. But when you park and shut the car off it takes like 15 seconds for the car to be roasting again... :/ its just a greenhouse. Need some window tint.
The ac sure heats up the coolant too.

Then i brought the rototiller back to my parents. This is my view on the way there:



This is once it starts getting dark.



So i am trying to start on my trailer now. The car is not done but working, the trailer however needs a ton of work in the next month and a week to get it ready for camping at westiva.
So this week I am just doing little stuff like checking spark plug wire resistance, taking tools home from the shop, got some extra keys cut.... need to check wheel alignment tomorrow, change transmission fluid, fix my speakers, but thats about all for the next bit. Just kinda pausing on this build.

Since i started daily driving it not quite a month ago i have put 1700 miles on it, 1100 on the new oil and there has been no blow-by in the catch can, no oil burned and the oil hasn't even begin to change color on the dipstick. Still almost clear. I'm happy! Its quiet, drives smooth and straight, back end is a little stiff but not bad, has good power, looks nice..

[ryanprins13]

So the Monday after we went to the graduation there was may 15, I had decided a long time ago that I would never use oil additives again because their a dumb idea 99% of the time. However there was a lot of varnish in my motor and I decided to add some atf to the oil to help clean it out. After work I put about 3/4-1 liter in and drove home about 35 miles taking it easy. Next morning I added some seafoam as well and drove back to work taking it easy again. The plan was to warm up the car nicely after work and change the oil. However another member here (festyfreak39) came to drop off some parts for me to work on and check out my car. Went for a drive which turned more into going for a rip, lol. Took it up to 4-5k rpm a few times and had the pedal to the floor a bit.

I changed the oil and cut the old filter apart. Now after the oil change it sounds a bit rattly. When its idling it kinda sounds like someone gently shaking a tin can with a few marbles in it. From by the oil pan more, not the top of the motor. Oil pressure is still good, 5w30, 20psi hot idle, 50psi at 2800rpm-ish, 60psi when i rev it up when hot because I shimmed the oil pump.
This is what the oil filter looked like:





My theory is that when i was revving it way up the bypass valve in the filter opened and let a bunch of those carbon chunks through the motor. Thats why I only use Wix filters, the have the bypass valve at the front of the filter, not the back so this doesn't happen, but whatever... This is the filter that was on the car when I bought it. Those little chunks are quite hard. Theres usually a couple in my oil filters but nothing like this, that was fairly fresh oil too. I am not 100% certain that this noise wasn't there before, maybe I just noticed it after the oil change, but I doubt it. Heres a video of the noise which didn't turn out the greatest.

https://youtu.be/-YrKBqNebPg

Anyway I still don't recommend ever using oil additives. The only kind would possibly be the oil flush ones where you put it in and idle the car for 10min, then drain. But i wouldn't leave the oil after that in for more than a day and wouldn't work it before changing it again.

The rest of the week i installed my tpms, found my rear cardboard and carpet, started planning my a/c and bought some stuff for it. I also discovered I had one spark plug come loose which was weird. Pretty sure I never touched it. Reason I started looking for a problem was my check engine light came on for 20 seconds but went out before I could check it. Hasn't come on since.



fri may 19 I started working on the a/c. did the cabin air filter, re-did the disintegrating foam on the airbox, Went to install my new expansion valve and it was wrong. So I cleaned the old one and put it back in.
The reason all this wasn't done before was the orings I ordered from rockauto were wrong. So I ordered the NOS Ford o-ring kit and it took a long time to get here and was very expensive. Listing was called "Ford OEM Air Conditioner O-Ring Kit NOS E1ZZ-19B596-A YF-982"



Guess what? I think 2 or 3 of them fit, that was it. So I used the 2 or 3 that fit, a couple of the green ones that sort of fit and the rest all ended up coming from a universal 70 shore A nitrile kit I had handy. I wasn't going to order more and start this all again later.
I had installed everything before, so i removed the lines and flushed them out with isopropyl alcohol. I had previously flushed the condenser and evaporator. I blew and vaccumed them out, removed the compressor and went to dump compressor oil into something to measure it with and there was none in it. So I put 5oz oil in it and installed the compressor. The system is supposed to take 10oz of oil and I flushed everything so I tried to put the rest of the oil into my new dryer but it wouldn't all go in there. So I ended up putting the rest into the hoses and compressor. 10oz is a lot of oil by the way!
Your supposed to use mineral oil on the o-rings, but I couldn't find that anywhere I called. So i used air tool oil.
By then it was about 10pm and I was thinking of going home (since its an hour drive) and finishing Saturday but I realized that the oil is hydroscopic and since I had no way to vacuum the system it would absorb moisture which would be bad. So I had to finish. I installed everything else, some things taking a real long time since I was tired and they just weren't fitting and everything was going wrong.... This was actually the most frustrated I have ever been working on a festiva.





I bought an r-12 knockoff because we cant buy real refrigerant in Canada. I will try to add a photo of it later.

started the car, hooked up the adapters and put some refrigerant in that was left over from when my brother last did his. That was enough to make the compressor kick in and out a couple times. The instructions say in bold to not charge into a vacuum, only into atmospheric pressure, so because I didn't vacuum it I put in a can thats supposed to dry out the system by converting moisture into lubricant. Who knows if it actually works, but whatever. I had misread the directions, the low side adapter wasn't working properly and I punctured the seal on the can before it was threaded on all the way on. Actually before it was threaded on at all. So I had to thread it on while it was spraying and I was sure I was going to have frostbite on my hands but I didn't. They were numb for what seemed like ages though.
Anyhow, then I installed a full can of refrigerant which brought the low side pressure to 38psi. I ran the engine to circulate it quite a while, then called it good and cleaned up to go home, left just after midnight.
I tried to drive home with the a/c on but only made it 25min or something before I was way too cold.
The only problem seemed to be that the small fan doesn't go on.

The next day, may 20th i did a test drive for the a/c. It was 70f ambient, 90f in the car. I had 75f air blowing through the vents after a couple miles on the highway. Then i turned the a/c on. It cools it to 42f, compressor kicks out and it heats up to 47f. Kicks back in and cools to 42f and continues that cycle while driving.
The engine fan and compressor kicking in at the same time causes a noticeable drop in power. Have to press the gas harder when they kick in and let off when they kick out.
The cabin filter slows down the airflow a bunch i think but its not bad and i think its worth it.

Later that day i hooked up the trailer to go to my parents and get a rototiller for our garden. Its about a 3hr drive. With my red festiva i didn't care if the inside got scratched and i just put the rototiller in the back. I care about this one too much and have to use a trailer. Kinda too bad. But whatever, thats how it is.
Used the ac a bunch on the way there which was nice. Noticed that having the a/c on heats up the coolant
I was falling asleep and decided to draft a semi for a while to stay awake. That increased both the oil and coolant temps by 10f which was interesting.
I got some parts from my parts cars which are at my parents. Went to take a tire off but i put these cars on soft ground. Dug a hole for my jack but then the jack would just sink rather than lifting the car! It held it enough that i could dig out underneath the tire and get it out though.



The next week i finished up my a/c install, checked and lowered pressure on the a/c slightly (i thought more was better....). But most of my time was spent on other things. Took a good half a day to rototill our garden, had to clean up the yard and house for a birthday party for our son, bunch of work on the house and wife's car that had been neglected all winter...

[ryanprins13]

Ryan, when you had the valve cover off, did you clean under the baffle?
That is where the PVC vapors are usually blocked by buildup.

No, on the engine for my red festiva i did, but there is a bit of a gasket in there that came apart then. I used a different valve cover on it. This time i let it soak in solvent and blew out the baffles. Not much came out. So far after almost 2 weeks there is nothing in my catch can. I dont think this car has a blowby issue, so it was probably reasonably clean.

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[bravekozak]

Ryan, when you had the valve cover off, did you clean under the baffle?
That is where the PVC vapors are usually blocked by buildup.

[ryanprins13]

Yup.

Ryan, sorry for the thread clutter. I know you're interested in building an AOS for your car, so this is sort of on topic.

No problem, keep talking! the more i learn the better. Besides, it gets a little boring when no one says anything on here, thats why the last few updates have been weeks or months behind.

Could that be done on the B6T by routing that vent hose to the inlet just before the turbo?

Ian

Reason i asked where you are venting is because if the wind blows the vapor toward or into the cowl it will be sucked into the cabin by the hvac system. If you choose not to route it into the intake and you havent done it already routing the vent hose underneath the car should get rid of most of the smell. Run it down and back a little bit underneath the car and tie it to something. That should prevent most of the smell while your moving.

Ryan that's great work!
You may want to go for a little toe in in the front fully laden, even if that is a little more than you want un-laden.

Thanks! i do want toe in and i will be resetting that toe before i tow. Just got tired of moving it and the suspension was gonna settle and change it anyway. I also wasnt expecting that toe out to happen with load.
Ill probably check alignment in a week or 2 again, Westiva will probably be the first decent towing trip and i will set it just before that as well in july.

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[Advancedynamix]

Could that be done on the B6T by routing that vent hose to the inlet just before the turbo?

Ian

Yup.

Ryan, sorry for the thread clutter. I know you're interested in building an AOS for your car, so this is sort of on topic.

[Dragonhealer]

Ryan that's great work!
You may want to go for a little toe in in the front fully laden, even if that is a little more than you want un-laden.

[fastivaca]

Pedro has a non turbo capri pan. It's like a stock festiva pan with a baffle plate, so no drain pipe like the b6t has.
If you vent the separator to atmosphere, you'll get an oil vapor smell. Pedro is vented to the inlet pipe, where the valve cover vent goes on a Capri b6d. This took care of the oil smell and it draws a light vacuum on the separator.


The hose on the top of the separator is the vent hose, it goes around the engine to the intake pipe.

Here you can see where it plugs in, making this setup EPA friendly. This car is an 88, so this method is congruent with the CARB standards for 1988. 50 state legal system.

Could that be done on the B6T by routing that vent hose to the inlet just before the turbo?

Ian

[Advancedynamix]

Charlie, did you not use the outlet on the oil pan for this? I've got vent lines running from the former PCV bung on the valve cover and the block vent with the drain going to the oil pan bung. I get a bit of an oily smell once in a while.

Pedro has a non turbo capri pan. It's like a stock festiva pan with a baffle plate, so no drain pipe like the b6t has.
If you vent the separator to atmosphere, you'll get an oil vapor smell. Pedro is vented to the inlet pipe, where the valve cover vent goes on a Capri b6d. This took care of the oil smell and it draws a light vacuum on the separator.


The hose on the top of the separator is the vent hose, it goes around the engine to the intake pipe.

Here you can see where it plugs in, making this setup EPA friendly. This car is an 88, so this method is congruent with the CARB standards for 1988. 50 state legal system.

[ryanprins13]

Here is the walk around video, i know i posted it earlier but it fits better here [emoji14]

https://youtu.be/CqYOs44I8mA

Photos of the first weekend out with it visiting


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[ryanprins13]

saterday may 6 I installed my rear panels, seatbelts, rear hatch trim, seat...
I had some tiny rust spots on the rear hatch so I waxoiled them, there was one rust hole behind the lisence plate where there was a weld so I fixed that up.


Fixed my license plate rattle, adjusted a wiper, cleaned the windows...
Reinstalled my heat shield and put in the extra exhaust manifold nuts.

Then once all the non-frustrating things were done I took the shims out of the rear, recalculated based on my measurements and cut the blue plastic shims a bit different to adjust the thrust angle. Reinstalled them turned towards the way I cut and test drove.

Checked the alignment and set the front toe. The rear thrust angle was a lot better and ended up at what I called good enough for now. The rear toe was perfect.

according to my measurements the rear thrust angle is down to each rear tire pointing 1/32inch toward the passenger side of the car over the 22inch diameter of the tire. Thats to the point where i start to not trust my measurements. A little runout in the tire or rim can throw it off that much. After driving a couple weeks ill check again and if its still at that i may see if there is any movement to be made at the rear axle to body mounts.

I ended up at 1/32 total toe in the rear again though! Pretty happy about that.
Adjusting the front toe i keep going back and forth from 1/16th inch in to 0 so im just going to leave it at zero and check again in 2 weeks or so.

In case your wondering about my obsession with the thrust angle I would not be worried about it on a daily driver. However if it is out enough while towing what happens when you try to brake hard is the trailer pushes the back end of the car to one side (since the thrust angle is steering you) and you have to let off the brakes to straighten out. Thats what I'm told anyway and I would rather that didnt happen.

Final alignment specs read:
About -1.8 deg camber front, -1.9 rear.
Zero toe front, 1/32inch in rear.

Well then i threw 350 pounds on the front seats and 400 in the rear, rolled the car around, bounced it and rechecked the alignment. Gained 3/32 of toe in on the rear and lost 3/32 on the front.
Front got another 0.4deg of negative camber with the weight and the back didnt change. Well, maybe by 0.1deg.
So thats interesting. 1/32 toe in empty on rear and 4/32 loaded. Not bad i think.
This suspension is still all new and stiff so ill have to check it again once i have some miles on it, but the rear toe doesnt seem too bad.

If it gets worse as the suspension ages or i feel real ambitious next year i may make rear shims just for towing to give me 1/16th in loaded. Or I could try raising the rear springs on my coilovers and see what that does.

It looks amazingly level with that much weight compared to stock.

This next photo was stock suspension and tires. Notice how far the tire goes into the wheel well. 4 photos after are now.


Compare to now:


So I put my old tires back on, moved the steering wheel and called it a night.
I had been working a lot of overtime and other weekends on a project at work that absolutely had to be done for the Monday after this Saturday (the 8th). I had finished it the day before but Saturday while I was working on my car at the shop the cleaning broke several thousand dollars worth of parts including one of the parts ready for Monday. So I had to work 2 hrs Saturday in-between my alignment stuff to make another part and an extra hour Monday morning early to finish it off. That sucked a lot. I had been planning to drive it home that night but didnt end up with time to do that.

Monday may 8th I drove it home! that was amazing. So nice to do after all that work!
I drove it to work and back the following week while doing all the maintinance on my other cars that I had been neglecting. Also got my taxes finally done (2 weeks late) and started adding up the cost of this car.... [emoji14]
The car drove real nice and nothing bad happened. A few minor issues: front tires need re-balancing, some wind noise here and there that i need a passenger to help find, need a dimmer for my gauge lights on top of the dash as they reflect off the windshield bad at night, radio is a bit weird. Thats all for problems i think, although I still have more work to do in the next 2 weeks on it.
This past weekend was my brother and sister-in laws graduation from college, so I put the carseats in the festiva and we did a bit of driving and a lot of visiting for that- 800km in one week (500 miles). Put the bike rack on and picked up some bikes for the kids. It was a great time and the car drove great, kids loved it because they can see way more out the windows. No oil in the catch can! (was emptying 2 catch cans once a week on the other festiva) and no noticeable oil consumption over the week either.

Here are a bunch of photos of where its at now as well as a quick walk-around video:

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