The Canadiana build thread

[ryanprins13]

Thursday april 27th I took my exhaust manifold off and tried to get the bolts out without drilling for 4.5hrs total. They didnt come out....

The friday I got sound deadner, hoseclamps and exhaust studs & nuts before work. After work I measured my alignment again, removed the rear beam bolts on one side and pulled down on it to see how much weight goes through that attachment point. Its almost nothing. I put a weigh scale under each rear tire and it came out at 315pounds drivers side, 293 passenger side. I had 1/4 tank of gas.
Maybe 15 or 20 pounds each side goes through the rear beam to body mounts, the rest of that all goes through the rear springs. This is likely why the rear axles stay attached when they are literally rusted right off until they hit a large bump or pothole.

I cut the alignment shim and put it on the drivers side, torqued to 50ft pounds.


saterday april 29 I shimmed the passenger side spindle and bled the rear brakes since i finally had gotten enough penetrating oil on there after weeks of spraying...

I made that youtube video of how easily the rear axle articulatesto show that the rear beam is independent in every way but its name. The thread on this forum about it is here if you didnt see it earlier. https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60550

The -2degrees camber looks real goofy on 12in tires.


Then I drilled out and tapped the manifold bolts on the mill. It was quite difficult to clamp perfectly level and I didnt get any of the holes drilled perfectly on centre. So they were all a little loose after tapping. All in all those bolts cost me 7-8hrs before I even had the heat shield back on. It took less time to make that manifold!


I installed the manifold, downpipe, intake stuff and test drove the car around the block.
Measured the alignment but wasnt happy with my measurements. So I finished the sound deadner in the rear hatch and back of car and plasticed up the rear hatch.




Put the Achilles tires on and did a long test drive, 30km or so. The car handles way different with rear camber! I like it
Checked alignment again and rear toe is good but the thrust angle was way off.
I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to measure the thrust angle nicely and got some help on facebook.
With the aspire front hubs i cant do a string alignment because the track widths are different. Total rear toe was at 1/32 inch in which is perfect, their just both pointing to one side. Have about -2deg camber now. To check I did whats in the photos below and the laser is shining 1/2inch farther away from the pass side cv shaft than the drivers side but i didnt quite trust it to be accurite enough...



During the next week I came up with a plan for that, bought more nuts and bolts and stuff and sprayed rockgaurd on the rocker panels.
The po sprayed rockergaurd everywhere on the car. Except the actual rockers. He used just black paint there for some reason... :/



So each side would need to move 1/4inch towards the drivers side to fix the thrust angle. Over the length of the toe plates that would mean the front of each rear tire is 1/16th inch pointing too far to the passenger side. Meaning the shims should either be 0.008in thicker on the one side or 0.004in change on each side... :/

thursday the 4th I installed some 0.007in machinery shims behind the blue shims in the hopes that that would move my thrust angle to zero. It just made things worse.... The blue plastic shims just kinda squished over the shape of those shims



The friday I took my front knuckles off the struts and ground more metal off in order to get more negative camber. I test drove it and checked alignment, adjusted toe, shimmed rear differently using cut up pieces of pop can and test drove again.





Checked alignment again and the thrust angle wasnt good....
But I had had a weird rattle and discovered the passenger nut holding the strut on the strut mount had come loose so I tightened that. That was likely caused when I was adjusting my front camber.

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[ryanprins13]

I used the block vent as the auto drain on the separator I made for Pedro. It works perfectly. The car has no abnormal smells from the engine, burns no oil and the rings seal excellently (as indicated by how clean the oil comes out after 4000 miles of use).

Ok, im going to have to look at how im doing this more, too many other things on the go right now. But how do you use the same line as.... oh, just when its not blowing blowby into the seperator it drains?
So far (4days) theres nothing in my catch can! I was draining both every week on the other car...

Ryan, I noticed that the tensioner bolt for the A/C was missing (at about 3:50 in the video).



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.

Yes, when i went to put my a/c in i realized the o-ring kit i got off rockauto did not have the correct components. I had to prder another kit. I installed everything but will have to take it all apart again to install o-rings, replace compresser oil and charge. I figured it would be easier without that pulley installed.

Does your seperater vent to atmosphere? If so where is it venting? (Where on the car)

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[fastivaca]

This is a quick walk-around video of the car: https://youtu.be/CqYOs44I8mA
It gets a bit ahead of what ive been updating here but ive been pretty busy. Might be nice to see it in a video as opposed to so many pictures.

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Ryan, I noticed that the tensioner bolt for the A/C was missing (at about 3:50 in the video).

I used the block vent as the auto drain on the separator I made for Pedro. It works perfectly. The car has no abnormal smells from the engine, burns no oil and the rings seal excellently (as indicated by how clean the oil comes out after 4000 miles of use).

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.

[Advancedynamix]

I used the block vent as the auto drain on the separator I made for Pedro. It works perfectly. The car has no abnormal smells from the engine, burns no oil and the rings seal excellently (as indicated by how clean the oil comes out after 4000 miles of use).

[ryanprins13]

This is a quick walk-around video of the car: https://youtu.be/CqYOs44I8mA
It gets a bit ahead of what ive been updating here but ive been pretty busy. Might be nice to see it in a video as opposed to so many pictures.

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[ryanprins13]

Add a turndown to the exhaust tip, face it down and away from the car, that will make a huge difference in towing noise.

Great idea, thanks! I will do that.

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[FestYboy]

Add a turndown to the exhaust tip, face it down and away from the car, that will make a huge difference in towing noise.

[ryanprins13]

This is going to be one of the Quietest Festivas around...

I sure hope so! Want to be able to hear the kids yell at eachother for 3 months more clearly ya know
But in reality with the engine always being close to wot or in 4th gear and sound bouncing off the trailer back at the hatch im just hoping its as quiet as a regular festiva, lol.

Ryan, next time you want to melt varnished oil like that, use Castrol superclean or ZEP Industrial degreaser (purple color liquid, not the yellowish stuff). Don't use it on aluminum, as it'll eat aluminum.
You can run the block vent to your can and vent your can into the inlet pipe going to the throttle body. This way you won't smell engine at every stop light.

Oh, good to know, thanks. A quick google search shows those products are sold locally and their active ingredient is lye which we have in the shop here.... oh well, next time.

Thats the basic idea for now, i guess i should have stated my concerns. One being if the catch can will filter it well enough and how fast it will fill up.
Second being the pcv valve. I had thought i could just buy an inline valve for 3/8hose. Turns out not really. So i have to find some hose that fits over the bottom of the oem pcv valve and try to zip tie it somewhere where it will stay verticle as i believe thats important for it to function. I havent examined it or looked that up yet though.
Then with the catch can filling up- i could drain it to the pan but where i have it now it is lower than the bottom of the pan. Thats what i wanted, long hoses and the can being lower than its inlet and outlet points to cool the oil mist as much as possible and let it drain back to the catch can if any gets past the can and still cools off. However i hadnt thought of the issues with draining to the pan before i mounted it.
Also because i am retaining the stock pcv valve I will still have issues with oil getting into the intake tubing at idle and wot. It takes a second catch can to fix that and im running out of time, places to mount things and the will to spend lots of hours doing stupid little things just to have it exactly the way I want...



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[Advancedynamix]

Ryan, next time you want to melt varnished oil like that, use Castrol superclean or ZEP Industrial degreaser (purple color liquid, not the yellowish stuff). Don't use it on aluminum, as it'll eat aluminum.
You can run the block vent to your can and vent your can into the inlet pipe going to the throttle body. This way you won't smell engine at every stop light.

[firebush357]

This is going to be one of the Quietest Festivas around...

[ryanprins13]

So after that I painted some more of my interior panels and fixed my catch can. PL premium didnt work the first time, I ended up using J-B weld. I have never used a TIG welder and didnt feel like hooking up the aluminum spool gun to the MIG and messing up the paint.


I carefully and slowly worked my transmission crossmember bolts loose, wire brushed them clean and coated them in anti-sieze before reinstalling.

I traded some worn out tires for 2 13in tires from festyfreak39 which was awesome. Their fairly tall but they will be my summer tires so I dont wear the achilles before our trip.

My angle cube for measuring camber was way out and I re-calibrated it and checked my alignment again. Now I have more grinding to do to get my camber even on each side.... :/

Friday march 31 I finally installed my catch can!


I got my manual rad fan switch wired so it works in parallel with the oem switch on the thermostat housing. I test drove it 25km. Some road noise from both front windows since they dont seal, brakes take a lot of effort to press but stop decent. Still had passenger rear bearing noise and squeaky rear suspension. That saterday the shop was busy so I couldn't be there working on my car which sucked, I did the stuff friday outside in the snow.

The next week I Lubed the rear bump stop which didnt help and installed the last of my sound deadner. I replaced the outer rear wheel bearing on the passenger side which fixed my bearing noise. I Plasticed up the interior for the rear panels to go on.


I Sanded, ground and wire brushed rust off my sway bar brackets, soda blasted them and painted them with tremclad. one turned out good, the other not so great.

Saterday april 8 I Installed my tpms and Cut the clock bezel to fit the wires.

I installed my painted sway bar brackets, Wire brushed the cap and rotor. Found old tow hook bolts, cleaned them up and installed them. (Towhooks were missing when i bought it).

One of the 10mm bolts supporting the corner of the rear bumper to the frame rail had snapped off because I didnt heat it when removing so I drilled it out, tapped the hole and installed a new bolt.
I sanded my passenger rear bump stop smaller and sprayed it with silicon lubricant which solved my squeaking issue.

The following week I picked up some more sound deadner and washers the right thickness for shimming my oil pump. But that week and weekend I was super busy at work. 22hrs of overtime even with being in the hospital till after noon the saterday. The week after that I was still pretty sick and didnt get much done.

friday april 21 I Tried to get my exhaust manifold to pipe joint off and broke a bolt. I sprayed the other 2 with penetrating oil and went home.

saterday I Broke one more bolt off and got the other nut off.


Got my Oil pan off, Shimmed oil pump with grade 8 washer ground down to the correct size. I didnt grind it very even unfortunatly but it works. I cleaned bore well, lots of varnish on the walls of it. If I had taken my pickup tube gasket from home I could have taken that off and taken the plunger right out, but oh well. Hopefully that solves the uneven oil pressure I had.


Then I Did my block vent. Bought a right angle drill attachment, found my step drill bits. Used a 1/4 pipe thread by 1/2in hose barb. Used magnets to catch the filings. tapped it out, used red loctite. blocked it off for now untill I figure out how to run it. I want to keep the PCV system for now until our trip, then convert it to atmospheric venting most likely. Undecided yet. I need to do more reading on how to do it.


Oil pan cleaned. Lots of buildup, baked on varnish.... what do you guys think, what caused this and how to clean it?

https://youtu.be/z7zc-oOABWE

I used a lot of varsol, isopropyl alcohol and a razor blade on the pan but all that rust looking stuff is varnish still...


Oil pan back on with felpro gasket and rtv on full top surface because I just couldnt get it on dry.
Then I did Sound deadner in the rear hatch. waxoiled the hatch. Need to buy some more sound deadner.

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[ryanprins13]

Ryan, Negative camber in the rear drastically helps with rear traction in corners. Also, less toe will help a lot too.

Thanks. Working now on getting my questions togeather to post on here. Hoping for -2deg camber in the rear and 1/32 toe in at rest, 3/32 loaded.
I only bought 4 shims and i aim to get it right in one shot. I suck at math though. Takes me hours, lol.


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[Advancedynamix]

Ryan, Negative camber in the rear drastically helps with rear traction in corners. Also, less toe will help a lot too.

[ryanprins13]

I wasnt sure if i should include this or not, but it may help out someone else doing an alignment, so If anyone is interested this is what i recorded while doing my alignment.

First day stock everything and blown struts. measured alignment it had:




Then alignment with knuckles and front tires changed without driving it:




After changing rear suspension and driving 40km or so:



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[ryanprins13]

That Friday march 17 I picked up bolts and clamps from greggs distributors before work, after work I got started on removing the rear suspension. As in cutting it off... I made a detailed how-to writeup of what I did with photos which is here:

https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60265

if you have removed rusted rear suspension before and have anything to add to that thread please do.
In short I cut off the drivers side lower rear strut bolt with a sawzall, removed drivers side axle to body bolts, cleaned them and replaced their lockwashers. Removed spindle and cleaned up its threads. Couldnt get brake line off.
That took 5hrs, I think I got home at 11:30 though.

Saturday I installed everything I took apart on the drivers side. I don't like how the coilover mounts to the body. Would be just fine if I wasn't going to tow a ton of weight. I talked to dragonhealer about it for a while and have some options to try out now.
You can see in this photo how all the weight will go through that small rubber to a concentrated area of the body.


Then I Removed strut on pass side with 3in air cut off wheel. Removed that spindle, cleaned up threads and reinstalled. Installed strut. Cleaned both brakes, regreased bearings, sanded drum and shoes. Reinstalled drum. Drums are in great shape, brakes and hardware are too. Bearings not and spindles are scored up for some reason.



I have new drums, shoes, bearings, seals and hardware but going to do that next fall, i dont have time now and will have to either replace or fix up the spindles first.

Put my 12 in tires back on and then installed my coolant splice so I can have my temp gauge and oem fan switch still. Didn't wire my manual switch yet though.



Bled coolant and then drove 30-40km. First decent drive since starting on this!
Had the new 14in archilles on the front and the new 145/12's on the back. Took a downhill cloverleaf onramp thats fresh pavement and was comefortable at over 90km/hr around it. It didnt have much body roll at all. It felt almost like the back wanted to come loose but i figured i was wrong. With my other festiva on a similar but uphill onramp the front tires start plowing at 85kmh and i could do 90 but it felt like the car was gonna roll always. The car drove perfectly smooth until i took that corner, It was shaking just slightly after I finished the onramp and the rest of the way back.
Lots of Bearing noise, I think from the rear. Lots of wind noise too though because interior not installed amd drivers window came out of the track.
Steering felt good. Quite squeaky in rear and much stiffer but kinda nice. I braked hard a couple times and sped up real quick a bunch, took some bumps and jerked the wheel around a bit all in an effort to settle the suspension.

Back at the shop I checked the alignment.
Moved front toe, It was 3/32 inch toe in and when i adjusted it it ended up a zero. I figured i would see what zero toe felt like to drive.

Ride hight Front is 1/2inch higher and rear is 3/8 higher when the car is empty as compared to blown struts and oem springs that were in before.

Rear springs are 10inches long. when top nuts tightened and the car is on the ground with no weight in it the rear spring is compressed 1 5/8inch, so its 8 3/8 long.
There is 3/4inch of travel to bump stop with car empty in rear.
About -0.5 degrees camber in the rear and 5/16inch toe in.

Put 400 pounds in the back and 350 pounds in the front and the ride hights lower by 3/4inch on the front wheels, 1 5/8inch at the back fenderwells. Measured at tow hitch to floor it drops 2.5inches from empty hight which is 2.5 inches higher than with stock suspension. Looks much better if you compare it to the same photo with stock suspension!


Rear spring hight is 7 1/16, so 3in drop total and 1 5/16 from empty.

Camber in front goes .35 degrees more negative while camber and toe in rear do not change.

I measured the angle change of the rear beam.

With the alignment measured I loosened the rear bearings until they had a little play so I would be sure it was or wasn't them making the noise. I Installed my old 175/70 R13 tires on the rear.

Went out, did the same loop and i started the onramp at 80km/hr and the back end instantly came loose. Swung out the entire length of the cloverleaf. Was a little scary till I realized the front wasn't going anywhere.
Zero toe felt no different on that short trip. Car shakes slightly more, most likely rear tires aren't balanced that great. Bearing noise less for sure but hard to tell if its actually gone or where its coming from. Tons more road noise with the 13in tires, no interior in the back, it had gotten incredibly windy out and my drivers window was off its track....
I got back, cleaned up the shop and did a forum post on removing rear suspension. think I got home at 1.30am

This is how it looks now.


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