Proud New Festiva Owner(s)

[hayden_festiva]

Hey everyone, my friend and I from the 757 of Virginia just bought a red 1992 Ford Festiva L. We're 20 years old, so we were just looking for something fun, manual transmission, and easy to work on, as this is the first time either of us have really worked on cars. Paid $650 for it on Facebook Marketplace with some issues, mainly a growing oil leak that we've been trying to find time to repair while in college. We have a new head gasket for it, it's just not the easiest job for someone as green as us lol, so this forum has been very useful. Also have to get it inspected despite a coke can being an integral part of the exhaust system lol.

Anyway, I'm sad to see this forum is fairly unactive, so I figured I'd bring a little 20 year old first-time car owner youth into it.

[WmWatt]

Great. See if you can find a copy of the Haynes manual or any general car repair manuals from early 1990's (check publication date at front of book). I got used books at church rummage sales, garage sales, and public library book sales. Also used tools. These sales should be starting up again post pandemic. In fact as students you can find a lot of useful stuff at used sales and live for 10 cents on the dollar. Have fun.

[1990new]

Welcome to the forum.
There are also other young folks in your area of Virginia with Festivas. (I sold one to a young fellow stationed in that area a couple of years ago).

Here are a couple of links to manuals for sale on ebay that would be very helpful to you.
Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting : https://www.ebay.com/itm/27518483242...YAAOSwPvlg7iYn

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255410541305?hash=item3b77a792f9:g:co4AAOSwPVJh-uOS

Oil leaks are very common on the engines when they get older and especially if they have been sitting and not driven for a long time seals dry out. Most often your leak is from the cam seal, the oring on the distributor, the front main main seal and the rear main seal. The valve cover gasket also of course. The easiest to fix is the distributor oring, follow in progression by the cam seal, the valve cover gasket, the front crank seal and the rear crank seal.

Usually your biggest leak, and the hardest to fix because you have to remove the transmission, is the rear main seal.

Head gasket is a little harder and once you have the head off you may discover other issues with the engine.
Do you know how many miles are on it?

[hayden_festiva]

Welcome to the forum.
There are also other young folks in your area of Virginia with Festivas. (I sold one to a young fellow stationed in that area a couple of years ago).

Here are a couple of links to manuals for sale on ebay that would be very helpful to you.
Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting : https://www.ebay.com/itm/27518483242...YAAOSwPvlg7iYn

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255410541305?hash=item3b77a792f9:g:co4AAOSwPVJh-uOS

Oil leaks are very common on the engines when they get older and especially if they have been sitting and not driven for a long time seals dry out. Most often your leak is from the cam seal, the oring on the distributor, the front main main seal and the rear main seal. The valve cover gasket also of course. The easiest to fix is the distributor oring, follow in progression by the cam seal, the valve cover gasket, the front crank seal and the rear crank seal.

Usually your biggest leak, and the hardest to fix because you have to remove the transmission, is the rear main seal.

Head gasket is a little harder and once you have the head off you may discover other issues with the engine.
Do you know how many miles are on it?

Thank you for the helpful response

To start, I bought a 1992 Ford Festiva Body/Chassis/Electrical/Powertrain Service Manual off of eBay, and that has been helpful.

From my recollection, the guy that we bought the Festiva from said it was the head gasket that was the culprit for the oil leak, and that seemed to be the case given the amount of oil leaking and where it was coming from. So, although it definitely has not been an easy job, that was what we went for first. The first issue (that still is an issue) is that, although it appears that I have removed all of the bolts holding the intake manifold to the head, I still can't get it off. The bigger problem however is that all 8 of the 10 cylinder head bolts are rounded off or impossible to get off with the tools I have. I tried buying some of those bolt extractor bits, but they did little to help. I also tried using a punch to pop the threads from their locked position which also did not work.

However, I will also go ahead and replace the cam seal, distributor oring, and valve cover gasket while I'm down towards the head. If you have any tips for removing rounded off cylinder head bolts without taking a drill to them (given that they are very long), that would be great.

Also, the working odometer reads 199,509 with the original engine and transmission. Thank you again for the response.

[WmWatt]

Have you tried a wire brush and penetrating oil or solvent (paint thinner, etc)? Apply every day and be patient. An impact wrench or tapping on the wrench or socket with a hammer might help break the bolts free. Sometimes putting a socket on the head of a bolt and hitting it with a hammer will get it to hold enough to turn. Also locking pliers (vice grips) can provide bite when wrenches and sockets fail. Vice grips can be enhanced with a hammer for impact.

[1990new]

Its very unlikely that you have oil leaks from the head gasket. Do some research on this before you try to remove the head to fix an oil leak.
If the gasket is blown you have other issues to worry about.

[WmWatt]

^^^ What he wrote. Does the engine turn over? If so you can charge up the battery and do a compression test with an inexpensive compression guage. You can use the compression guage over an dover until gasoline engines die out and we're all driving electric. If the engine has sat for a long time you can put a teaspoon or so of solvent or deisel fuel in the spark plug hole to disolve any crud which may have accumulated first. If you are not familiar with compression testing Mr Google will be able to tell you how to do it and how to interpret the results. You can also post results here for free advice and opinions. Hopefully they will all agree.

[1990new]

Its very unusual to have have oil leaks from the head gasket. Do some research on this before you try to remove the head to fix an oil leak.
If the head gasket is blown you will have other issues to worry about.
You would only want to remove the head if the head gasket is blown which is usually caused by a loss of coolant and the the engine was run hot or the engine was run with very low oil.
If low oil was the problem the bearings would have probably been ruined also.

To remove the head bolts you will new a 12 Point 12mm socket otherwise you will round off the bolt heads trying to remover them.

I have had success using an Erwin 1/2 inch bolt remover on head bolts before. May not work if they are stripped too bad though.


12 Point 12 MM Socket.jpg Festiva Head Bolts.jpg Irwin half inch bolt remover.jpg

[1990new]

Its great that you are doing this and learning while you are young. The best way to learn about engines in to jump in and start taking things apart.
Lessons you learn by doing it wrong the first time may take time and a little money but if you don't have an experienced mechanic handy it's what you have to do.
The lessons you learn this this way will be the ones your remember the rest of your life.
With all the information here on the forum you should be able to find all the information you need. It just takes a little digging.
If you get tired of working on that engine, I have one the garage that was running good when I remove it from a 92 Festiva (188K on it).
https://charleston.craigslist.org/pt...444270370.html

If just your head is bad.. I also have a rebuilt head sitting on the shelf.

The intake manifold should come off fairly easily if you have removed all the bolts. There are some that are are a bit hidden and hard to see. Also there is a support bar on the back that is bolted to the side of the engine block at the bottom.

[hayden_festiva]

Have you tried a wire brush and penetrating oil or solvent (paint thinner, etc)? Apply every day and be patient. An impact wrench or tapping on the wrench or socket with a hammer might help break the bolts free. Sometimes putting a socket on the head of a bolt and hitting it with a hammer will get it to hold enough to turn. Also locking pliers (vice grips) can provide bite when wrenches and sockets fail. Vice grips can be enhanced with a hammer for impact.

I haven't tried a wire brush yet, but I've been using Lucas penetrating oil which helped to get what I believe to be the last bolt on the intake off. The socket and wrench tap strategy worked on 3 of the cylinder head bolts but started rounding off the others, so I stopped doing that before I created too much of a problem for myself. I'll try the wire brush and impact wrench, I just didn't have the right bit for the bolts. I figure I might as well spend a little money now to invest in a tool arsenal for later. Thanks for the reply.

[hayden_festiva]

^^^ What he wrote. Does the engine turn over? If so you can charge up the battery and do a compression test with an inexpensive compression guage. You can use the compression guage over an dover until gasoline engines die out and we're all driving electric. If the engine has sat for a long time you can put a teaspoon or so of solvent or deisel fuel in the spark plug hole to disolve any crud which may have accumulated first. If you are not familiar with compression testing Mr Google will be able to tell you how to do it and how to interpret the results. You can also post results here for free advice and opinions. Hopefully they will all agree.

I was able to drive the car like normal before I started working on it, and I have yet to put it back together again to drive it. So yes, the engine turns over. The previous owner did a compression test and said either cylinders 2 and 3 or 2 and 4 had low compression. This is the main thing that led me to believe the head gasket was blown. However, from y'all's comments, I'd say it's pretty clear that the oil was coming from somewhere else.

[hayden_festiva]

Its very unusual to have have oil leaks from the head gasket. Do some research on this before you try to remove the head to fix an oil leak.
If the head gasket is blown you will have other issues to worry about.
You would only want to remove the head if the head gasket is blown which is usually caused by a loss of coolant and the the engine was run hot or the engine was run with very low oil.
If low oil was the problem the bearings would have probably been ruined also.

To remove the head bolts you will new a 12 Point 12mm socket otherwise you will round off the bolt heads trying to remover them.

I have had success using an Erwin 1/2 inch bolt remover on head bolts before. May not work if they are stripped too bad though.


12 Point 12 MM Socket.jpg Festiva Head Bolts.jpg Irwin half inch bolt remover.jpg

I agree now that it almost definitely is not the head gasket leaking oil. The temperature gauge on the dash (appears) fully functional, and with the amount that I drove it, though not a lot, there were zero signs of the engine being run hot. I also never ran the engine with low oil, as I was constantly checking the oil level, and when I drained the oil, close to the correct amount came out. Obviously one of the previous two owners could have run the engine with no oil and created these problems for me. Also, the coolant level appeared fine when I purchased the car and drained the coolant; however, same thing applies to me not knowing what the previous two owners have done. The first owner was an elderly man down in Florida who barely drove the car, and the second was a Navy guy who daily drove it to the Norfolk Naval Base. Navy guy was very car savvy.

I actually have that exact 1/2 inch bolt remover, but I could not get it to work for me, but my issue definitely stems from the fact that when I tried the 6-point 12 mm socket on the head bolts and it didn't fit, I moved to the 1/2 12-point socket. I may be wrong, but my guess would be that this is why I was rounding off bolts. I definitely thought it was suspicious that all of a sudden I was switching to SAE units. Anyway, thank you for the response(s).

[hayden_festiva]

Its great that you are doing this and learning while you are young. The best way to learn about engines in to jump in and start taking things apart.
Lessons you learn by doing it wrong the first time may take time and a little money but if you don't have an experienced mechanic handy it's what you have to do.
The lessons you learn this this way will be the ones your remember the rest of your life.
With all the information here on the forum you should be able to find all the information you need. It just takes a little digging.
If you get tired of working on that engine, I have one the garage that was running good when I remove it from a 92 Festiva (188K on it).
https://charleston.craigslist.org/pt...444270370.html

If just your head is bad.. I also have a rebuilt head sitting on the shelf.

The intake manifold should come off fairly easily if you have removed all the bolts. There are some that are are a bit hidden and hard to see. Also there is a support bar on the back that is bolted to the side of the engine block at the bottom.

I must have missed a bolt somewhere then; however, I did remove that support bar on the back, so that's not the culprit. Probably just something I can't see. I read somewhere else on this site that you didn't necessarily have to take the intake manifold off to get the cylinder head off, but I guess I'll find out.

[hayden_festiva]

I greatly appreciate all of the replies I have received. They truly have been helpful, and my friend and I are both very open to any and all comments and helpful suggestions y'all have as we continue through this process.

[WmWatt]

As long as the head is still on the compression can be tested. Just needs the starting motor and battery. Difference between dry and wet compression tests reveals sloppy leaking rings.

Low compression can be from valves not closing due to carbon buildup. Looking at the underside of the valve cover can show soot where exhast gas has been leaking. Chemical cleaner can dissolve carbon depostis allowing valves to close properly and raise compression back up. Been there.

A vaccuum guage is a cheap diagnostic tool. Read about it on the Intenet or a the top fo the repair help forum on this site. I use the vaccum guage to show missing which can be fixed by cleaning and gapping the spark plugs and cleaning the ignition wires and contacts. Been there too.