The Canadiana build thread

[ryanprins13]

Wow, i did so much work to this car that i never had the time to post about, it was just a mad rush to get ready for the trip and make those rear suspension bushings. We finished our trip and the car did fantastic. I made some mistakes with the car and wrecked the motor. I put a B6 in it when we got home. But we made it to the west coast, Alaska, Niagra falls and the east coast. 29,000km pulling a 2000 pound trailer and 4 of us in the car. The trip was 3.5 months and was awesome. Super busy now that we are back home though. I wish i wasnt so far behind on this thread... i will try and figure out where i left off and keep this going at some point.

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[Dragonhealer]

Having just hauled 600 puonds (+ 400 pound trailer) with Ethel (1.3/5 speed) the engine is not happy below 3300rpm under load. Likes 3400 to 3800 best. At 3000 it's not really up on the cam yet.
Rick's description is a good one, wish I could be that clear.

[ryanprins13]

Ryan, dragonhealer said it well and BTW it's good to hear the dragonhealer on here. Find your engines happy spot. On a B3 2,500 -4,000 rpms give you decent power. Obviously as you change up to the higher gears you need to keep the minimum rpms progressively higher. Pulling a trailer at 2,500 in 5th going up a hill is too low. But then again I don't believe running constantly above 4,000 rpm should be necessary either. When I'm not in a hurry or running uphill I regularly go into 5th gear at around 40 mph. That's with the B6ME. 40 in 5th is just under 1700 rpm. On flat land with light traffic and no extra weight it will run all day happily at 1700 in 5th. Would I put the pedal to the metal? Hell no. I can however feather the gas and get it up to 55 fairly quick and easily. As long as the car responds to light throttle you are good. When I'm driving in traffic that is running 40 then up to 55 then back down to 40, etc I will keep 'er in 4th. I will never run at a constant speed in any gear if the engine protests when I give it throttle. In my opinion regardless of the weight you are pulling try to use the highest gear possible. In other words where you can give the engine a little throttle and it responds immediately and it sounds happy doing it. This should also keep your exhaust temperatures down.

Thanks. I do the same thing you described with my car empty all the time. Holding a speed at 37mph is not a problem, nor is very slowly accelerating, but the engine tells you to change gears for anything more than about 12in hg in 5th at that speed.
When I was test pulling my trailer 5th at 100kmh seemed like slightly low for rpm, but not much and 4th seemed excessive like i was being too light on the throttle and the rpm was too high. But maybe i'm too used to how old diesel farm machinery feels - you run at full throttle and pick the fastest gear you can that keeps you below 2000 rpm.
I will probably just stick to 4th gear like Ryal said unless its a slight downhill. Anything thats downhill enough that im not accelerating ill want in 4th or third anyway for the engine braking.
With this trailer loaded it doesn't matter what gear your in at 60mph, full throttle doesn't respond immediately, lol. But i understand what you mean.
A pyrometer, AFR gauge and one of those instant fuel economy readouts would make quick work of deciding what gear to run But pyrometers are more costly than I had hoped.

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[Rick the Quick]

Ryan, dragonhealer said it well and BTW it's good to hear the dragonhealer on here. Find your engines happy spot. On a B3 2,500 -4,000 rpms give you decent power. Obviously as you change up to the higher gears you need to keep the minimum rpms progressively higher. Pulling a trailer at 2,500 in 5th going up a hill is too low. But then again I don't believe running constantly above 4,000 rpm should be necessary either. When I'm not in a hurry or running uphill I regularly go into 5th gear at around 40 mph. That's with the B6ME. 40 in 5th is just under 1700 rpm. On flat land with light traffic and no extra weight it will run all day happily at 1700 in 5th. Would I put the pedal to the metal? Hell no. I can however feather the gas and get it up to 55 fairly quick and easily. As long as the car responds to light throttle you are good. When I'm driving in traffic that is running 40 then up to 55 then back down to 40, etc I will keep 'er in 4th. I will never run at a constant speed in any gear if the engine protests when I give it throttle. In my opinion regardless of the weight you are pulling try to use the highest gear possible. In other words where you can give the engine a little throttle and it responds immediately and it sounds happy doing it. This should also keep your exhaust temperatures down.

[william]

I didnt get very good photos but i just posted what i did in this thread here: https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61083
Post #11
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Thanks for sharing!

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[ryanprins13]

Your car is coming along great, your trip will be a trip of a life time. Can't wait to see alll the pictures of it.
When you do the headlight up grade will if get some pictures of it? I've seen the relays done on older cars that all the power runs through the headlight switch but not on a car that is already relayed. I'm interested to see the results. My headlights are pretty good for stock festiva lights , I found 2 good oem housings and aimed them properly and they seam fine but I'm all about more light that won't blind oncoming drivers like a drop in hid kit.

I didnt get very good photos but i just posted what i did in this thread here: https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61083
Post #11
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[ryanprins13]

Great questions here! I wish I had time to answer some of them fully.
But in short, run in a gear with a throttle setting that makes the engine happy for the load that is on it at that time.
Prolonged deep throttle settings are a sure way to kill an engine in a street car.

Ok, I will make a note of that for myself. I have 7 months though! So if you end up with free time in that period just ask me what my questions were again

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[Dragonhealer]

Oh yes, i had forgotten about that somehow. Not too long ago i was talking with sam about how to keep the exhaust temps down on the mitsubishi delica and started thinking that i wanted a pyrometer on my car [emoji14]
So low rpm full throttle wastes fuel obviously, what rpm would you say is too low?
In 4th 55mph is about 3000rpm and the 62mph speed limit which will be most common where we are driveing is about 3400rpm.
After you said this i started looking up whats economical and all i see is people arguing. Some say low rpm and higher throttle is better because the injectors open less often, there is no engine vaccum to work against and friction is reduced. Others say higher rpm and less throttle because you get a more complete burn and the other group doesnt understand that afr changes.

So at roughly what point in the rpm range does a properly tuned up b3 at full throttle start burning all the fuel its getting?

For the stressing the motor part- i understand that lower rpm and full throttle on a turbo diesel will increase the egt over higher rpm and less throttle, but i am not sure how much transferrs to an n/a gasoline engine. If i sit at full throttle @ 3000 rpm for half an hour will my exhaust get too hot? I had thought that had more to do with the turbo and the percentage of extra fuel a diesel recieves at wot.

Are there other stresses? From say bad harmonics or something? I know that really low rpm and full throttle is bad but i had assumed 2700-3500rpm was fine.
(I slowly stalled out my first festiva in second gear with the throttle wide open. The noises it made were incredible and im suprised nothing broke. Ive heard audio of a prop plane engine stalling at full throttle from a guy i used to work for that was a pilot. Also sounds horrific and i would never want to do that in the sky...)
So what is happening to an n/a gas motor at lower rpm's under high load and at around what rpm level do the problems go away?

I still think it would be cool to have a pyrometer but i have half a feeling that the exhaust doesnt get that hot on an na gas motor. Or am i wrong? Probably best/only place to put it would be here:





Thanks! It sure will be and we will do our best to post photos and videos somewhere as we go.
I will, not sure where i will do it as it wont be on this blue car first but it will be on this forum. Still waiting on parts to arrive in the mail.
Im glad you dont like hid or led kits
We started talking about it in this thread and i will likely post the resukts of whatbi do in there: https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61083


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Great questions here! I wish I had time to answer some of them fully.
But in short, run in a gear with a throttle setting that makes the engine happy for the load that is on it at that time.
Prolonged deep throttle settings are a sure way to kill an engine in a street car.

[ryanprins13]

When I took the tires off to put the good ones on for towing the trailer home in post #87 there I found out why my car had started shaking worse. Check this video out, its pretty funny:

https://youtu.be/8WIiZ0sAfyA

and this one if you want to see it up closer:

https://youtu.be/5w7P41Hku7M

[ryanprins13]

Do you have the Coilover Kit in the Back or just stock suspension? That is the cheapest part of of the Advance Suspension swap and it makes the rear of the car a lot more stable and you could even go up a little on the spring rates if you needed to so that it doesn't transfer the weight as much.

I missed this earlier, sorry. In the back I have aspire kyb's that were made into coilovers with 150 pound springs and tall bump stops. To level the car I just need to adjust my springs up a ways which I will do just before our trip. I was just too lazy to do it for this drive and put them right back again when i got home and disconnected the trailer. Rear suspension felt quite good on the drive home, very comfortable over bumps. The real test will be with the car and trailer full though

[ryanprins13]

The trans is fine, most of your towing will be in 4th, just saying you don't want to be full throttle in 4th or 5th when towing, it's just too hard on the engine, (to say nothing of the wasted fuel)

Oh yes, i had forgotten about that somehow. Not too long ago i was talking with sam about how to keep the exhaust temps down on the mitsubishi delica and started thinking that i wanted a pyrometer on my car [emoji14]
So low rpm full throttle wastes fuel obviously, what rpm would you say is too low?
In 4th 55mph is about 3000rpm and the 62mph speed limit which will be most common where we are driveing is about 3400rpm.
After you said this i started looking up whats economical and all i see is people arguing. Some say low rpm and higher throttle is better because the injectors open less often, there is no engine vaccum to work against and friction is reduced. Others say higher rpm and less throttle because you get a more complete burn and the other group doesnt understand that afr changes.

So at roughly what point in the rpm range does a properly tuned up b3 at full throttle start burning all the fuel its getting?

For the stressing the motor part- i understand that lower rpm and full throttle on a turbo diesel will increase the egt over higher rpm and less throttle, but i am not sure how much transferrs to an n/a gasoline engine. If i sit at full throttle @ 3000 rpm for half an hour will my exhaust get too hot? I had thought that had more to do with the turbo and the percentage of extra fuel a diesel recieves at wot.

Are there other stresses? From say bad harmonics or something? I know that really low rpm and full throttle is bad but i had assumed 2700-3500rpm was fine.
(I slowly stalled out my first festiva in second gear with the throttle wide open. The noises it made were incredible and im suprised nothing broke. Ive heard audio of a prop plane engine stalling at full throttle from a guy i used to work for that was a pilot. Also sounds horrific and i would never want to do that in the sky...)
So what is happening to an n/a gas motor at lower rpm's under high load and at around what rpm level do the problems go away?

I still think it would be cool to have a pyrometer but i have half a feeling that the exhaust doesnt get that hot on an na gas motor. Or am i wrong? Probably best/only place to put it would be here:

Your car is coming along great, your trip will be a trip of a life time. Can't wait to see alll the pictures of it.
When you do the headlight up grade will if get some pictures of it? I've seen the relays done on older cars that all the power runs through the headlight switch but not on a car that is already relayed. I'm interested to see the results. My headlights are pretty good for stock festiva lights , I found 2 good oem housings and aimed them properly and they seam fine but I'm all about more light that won't blind oncoming drivers like a drop in hid kit.

Thanks! It sure will be and we will do our best to post photos and videos somewhere as we go.
I will, not sure where i will do it as it wont be on this blue car first but it will be on this forum. Still waiting on parts to arrive in the mail.
Im glad you dont like hid or led kits
We started talking about it in this thread and i will likely post the resukts of whatbi do in there: https://fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61083


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[william]

Your car is coming along great, your trip will be a trip of a life time. Can't wait to see alll the pictures of it.
When you do the headlight up grade will if get some pictures of it? I've seen the relays done on older cars that all the power runs through the headlight switch but not on a car that is already relayed. I'm interested to see the results. My headlights are pretty good for stock festiva lights , I found 2 good oem housings and aimed them properly and they seam fine but I'm all about more light that won't blind oncoming drivers like a drop in hid kit.

[Dragonhealer]

The trans is fine, most of your towing will be in 4th, just saying you don't want to be full throttle in 4th or 5th when towing, it's just too hard on the engine, (to say nothing of the wasted fuel)

[firebush357]

Do you have the Coilover Kit in the Back or just stock suspension? That is the cheapest part of of the Advance Suspension swap and it makes the rear of the car a lot more stable and you could even go up a little on the spring rates if you needed to so that it doesn't transfer the weight as much.

[ryanprins13]

I think I have less braking problem when towing as I have Aspire rear brakes (and beam w/torsion bar cut out).
It would be cool if there was an easy way to switch out rear brake pressure limiting when towing. As we know toung weight takes weight off of the front tyres.
5th gear is only used light throttle on the level or shallow downhill when towing. Don't use heavy throttle in any gear higher than 3rd.
A load leveler (load transfer system) would help a lot, but would be totally custom in this application, and put a lot of stress on the hitch mountings!

It would be really cool to be able to increase the pressure to the rear brakes!

Its funny because someone was just talking to me about that, but the last thing i need is more stress on the hitch


I will try the trailer again in the spring when its warmer, with more weight in it, with a level trailer and car. I am hoping that will fix it enough. Also i will have installed the new drums, shoes, cylinders, hardware and lubricated the adjusters by then in the rear.

Right now with the trailer pointing down and the rear of the car also down the weight transfer lifts the front even more when braking i think. With a level trailer and car the weight should transfer much more to the front of the car i think and hopefully improve braking.
If not i will have to look at aspire rear brakes.
Yes, i only used 5th like that for a bit to see what it would do. I wasnt planning to use 5th much, but not 4th either?? Should i be looking at a transmission swap before this trip?

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