1989 festiva carb swap

[Hobbycardman]

I have a 1989 frod festiva that I want to swap out the carb getting rid of the stock POS. I seen an adapter plate on ebay that will accept a weber carb, and it appears this will eliminate the speghetti vacuum hoses. What I am wondering is what weber carb do I need? Any siggestions? I think the adapter stated 32/36 weber? Has anyone done this mod and if so how did it work for you? What did you use and how costly was the mod? Problems? Any help is greatly appriciated, my other vehicle is killing me on gas!

[Rick the Quick]

Hello, can't believe nobody chimed in on this. Did everyone leave here for Facebook? If you look on this forum you will probably find your answer. There's a mountain of information on here if you can find it. Try searching for carb swaps or Weber carb swaps and something should show up. I have noticed that the stock carbs do not have a very good reputation. My first Festiva was an '88 and the carb never gave me any trouble. I did replace a bunch of dry rotted vacuum hoses but beyond that, no problems. I did install several Webers on 2.0 Pinto's and had good luck with them. I don't remember the exact model of Weber but they were down draft, progressive 2 stage, 2 barrels and they worked well. I don't remember more than 1 or 2 vacuum lines on the Weber. One for the vacuum advance mechanism and I believe one for the choke break. Most all the vacuum lines on your original carb can be capped at the intake manifold. You'll figure it out. Good luck.

[ricko1966]

Rick your pinto would have had an almost identical carb to the 32/36 factory,that carb was made by weber but also by Holley/Motorcraft. It was a Holley 5200 or 5210 IDRC I used to go to the bone yard and pull them off ford 4 cylinders. There was a period in my life where I used them on everything,then the weber 32/36s,due to circumstances to lengthy to go into. The stock festiva carbs have a bad reputation because of all the vacuum snafu,but everybody just says replace them instead of trying to work out the real problem. They worked new,and they worked well. Anyways I've had all 3,stock carb, weber 32/36 dfev swapped and escort swapped. If I did it again,if I just could not use my festiva carbureator, I'd use a carbureated rabbit carbureated base plate circa 1984 and a piece of aluminum plate to mount it to the festy manifold,and an h30/31 solex VW bug carbureator. But I'm a good fabricator. For that matter you know,short of buying a kit,nothings going to just bolt on,hook up and work. There will be fabrication for throttle linkage at minimum, probably jet changes to make it run optimal as well. To answer your question the 32/36 dfev weber the used on VW bugs is the common one I did that swap,wasn't impressed,did the Escort swap it was better,but I think the bug/rabbit combo I mentioned would be better than either.

[theastronaut]

The stock Festiva carb will not run without the vacuum mess, it's a feedback carb that relies on the O2 sensor and ecu to correct the air/fuel ratio via the vacuum mess- external of the carb. Diagnosing the vacuum/ecu/feedback system isn't really possible, there are something like 46-47 sensors, vacuum operated switches, dashpots, ect that all have to be working, not to mention the carb itself has to be working properly, along with the O2 sensor, ecu, and wiring. It's a nightmare system and best deleted/converted to a simpler standalone carb.


The 81-86 1.6 Escort carb (Weber DFTA/Holley 740) is the best option straight out of the box, the jetting is very good to use as-is. You can pick up a NOS one on ebay for cheap. Weber carbs (DGE/DFE) will need to be rejetted.

[ccreddell]

Any Ideas on where to start in jetting a 32/36?

[ricko1966]

Do you already have the carb?

[ccreddell]

Yes, got the adapter too. Also wondered if you could throw a wideband into the stock O2 bung to facilitate tuning.

[ccreddell]

Yes, got the adapter too. Also wondered if you could throw a wideband into the stock O2 bung to facilitate tuning.

[theastronaut]

Yes, got the adapter too. Also wondered if you could throw a wideband into the stock O2 bung to facilitate tuning.

Farther away from the manifold is better.

[ccreddell]

Yes, got the adapter too. Also wondered if you could throw a wideband into the stock O2 bung to facilitate tuning.