The Trade In- '89 L Driver, Clean Up & Upgrades

[theastronaut]

I found a Momo Course seat with sliders on Facebook Marketplace for $40 bucks and picked it up last night. It needed cleaning and new foam but it'll be good enough for autocross and track use. I probably won't leave it in for everyday use.

[theastronaut]

I got the old engine and trans pulled and cleaned up under the hood while it was out. Found out that the noise I thought was the water pump was actually the crank pulley hub rattling. The keyway is chewed up so the crank and hub are trashed. It was a leaker so everything was soaked with oil and road grime. Don't have to worry about it rusting... Only things left to do are install the axles, fill the trans, torque/loctite the crank pulley bolt, set the timing, and redo the front alignment.















After pressure washing and scrubbing with Purple Power.











Engine back together with all new seals/gasket and rebuilt cylinder head, along with the 5 speed from my parts car.





New set of Nankang NS-2R's to burn off at Insanity.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

This is an awesome build

[theastronaut]

This is an awesome build

Thanks! I guess I should update it...

[Thebrandonbeezy]

I agree, you should!! Lol

[theastronaut]

Had some trouble with vacuum leaks, and I didn't find out that the idle mixture screw was blocked until after I'd installed the carb. I also forgot to trim the fuel cut solenoid stem so the car wouldn't idle at first... doh! I finally got it running right the day before we left for Insanity and put about 80 test miles before loading it on the tow dolly.









So I barely had the car ready to go in time but had no wheels for the track tires I bought. I had ordered 165/55-14's so I could use the wheels I already had but found out that they were backordered until late Feb. So I ordered a set of 165/50-15's and started looking for 15" wheels that would fit. Found a set of Riken mesh wheels that were the perfect offset and size but the seller kept making excuses when I tried to meet him to pick them up. Ended up leaving out for Arizona with tires but no wheels, so I was constantly checking craigslist along the way out. I found a set of Audi 100 wheels in Arkansas not far off the interstate and was able to buy them and get the tires mounted before we arrived at the track.


My sister and brother in law came along on the trip. We used his tow dolly to pull the car most of the way, though I did take it off in New Mexico to get some more miles on it before going straight to the track.









We arrived in Phoenix wednesday night and everyone started working on getting Charlie's track car ready.

[theastronaut]

We left out of Phoenix Friday afternoon to go to the track with a convoy of 17 Festivas.








I was busy driving so I didn't take many pics while at the track, and my camera mount broke so I wasn't able to get any videos from inside the car. I got about 200 miles in on the track.





Tires after the first day on the track. They held up very well, especially compared to a few other guys who were running summer or all season tires that didn't make it through both days. They wore evenly from inside to outside so the alignment was good. I'm runnning -3* camber and zero toe all arouind, caster isn't adjustable. I run the same alignment on the street and there was no noticeable tire wear from driving the car back home from Arizona.

[theastronaut]

A bit of info from the lap timer app. The car ran very consistant lap times when I wasn't entering/exiting the track or slowed down by traffic. There were a few times where I had no traffic and was able to click off 4-5 laps within a second of each other.






The app keeps up with your best time over sections of the track, and pieces your best sections together to create your best possible "virtual lap time". Theoretically the car had a 2:16.85 in it, so I'm really happy with my 2:17.14, only three tenths slower.




The car was pulling over 1.2g's in the corners, which is very impressive on a set of tires that only cost $382 shipped and will last 10,000 miles on the street with a few autocrosses on them.




Street tires after the trip home.




3,419 miles total on the trip.




My best mileage was 35.4 mpg in Atlanta traffic. This will go up once I rejet the carb, it's running a bit rich.

[theastronaut]

I bought a stainless unequal length header from Bryan Harsel on the FB group. The unequal primary lengths change the exhause pulse timing so it sounds completely different than a normal Festiva.





I'm also still running the fancy air filter I scabbed together in Charlie's parking lot, and the zip-tied rag around the valve cover vent. I need to build a breather box/catch can to vent the block better (factory block venting doesn't like 6k+ on the track) and make a permanant air filter assembly.







I found a parts Festiva on craigslist last Saturday so I drove over to check it out and ended up buying it. The shell seems to be very solid and straight and the engine/five speed are both supposed to be good. The owner is on here but I forgot to get his username.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

Thats like a 180° header on like a v8, makes a like a 351c in a pantera sound like a v12. Super awesome set up. It'll probably sound like a newerish r1 with that thumpy exhaust they do

[theastronaut]

I ran into a local guy a few weeks ago at a car show in Myrtle Beach and he told me about a Festiva in a scrap yard. I was needing to scrap the Capri leftovers so I went Saturday to drop off Capri and check to see if they still had the Festiva.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf7zRyT8sKw

They said the car had been there for years and was in a back corner, and were willing to sell it whole at current scrap price. It's an 88 or 89 L, four speed with A/C, seemed really straight and had no rust that I could see. I'll try to go back this week with the trailer and bring it home.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

You're making that little carby work man, love it

[theastronaut]

You're making that little carby work man, love it

It does pretty good for a b3! I'm guessing it make around 75 hp now.

Here's a vid Joe posted from INDE. You can see me up ahead at 11:20 and 27:30, I think those shots are from the first day. My favorite part is 35:40, shot on the second day after we've figured the track out. Joe has a B6d swap so hes faster on the straights but is running Federal 595 SS tires with less grip. Our best lap times were around .7 seconds apart, with Joe being quicker.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

thats awesome man

[Eviljimchicken]

I was just about to buy the trans from the $150 parts festiva! looks like I was too slow lol.