Considering Festiva as project car

[danwheeler]

Hi All,
I currently have an 02 Subaru WRX that I am bored to death with. I'm looking for a fun project car that I can actually play with and do some mods. My ideal candidate is something small that is easy to take into the city, gets good gas mileage and stands out as something a little different maybe even a little dorky. Which brings me here... the things I want to know are 1) are the engines simple, reliable and easy to work on. 2) are there any major achilles heels 3) is parts availability good and cheap? 4) are there certain model years that are better than others? I guess thats about it... the rest of it should be pretty easy. Sounds like the B6 swap is the way to go eventually.

any other info I should know about these cars is appreciated.

oh, did they make a festiva in 81? thats the cutoff date for emissions in Washington I think. I'd rather not have to deal with that.

if there are any other similar type cars you would recommend I would like to hear about those too.

my other car (truck) is an 86 Mitsubishi Montero which is pretty well modified for off-road. I find myself driving it more often than the Blubaru because it's so much more interesting and I've put so much more love and hard work into it. Looking for the same in a car.

thanks,
dan

[jrally]

Dan,
They started make Festivas in '88 and stoped in '93, then the Aspires were '94 to '97. The cars are extremely simple, and the B6 swap is the basically just like pulling out the stock engine and then putting it back in. The parts are starting to become a little more scarce, but still available from you local parts stores, not from Ford anymore. It's a good choice, and tons of used parts lying around the country, I rarely by new parts.

Good luck, Jon R.

[oxbrain]

If you're looking for a festiva, go for a fuel injected. The carb festivas are harder to swap a b6 into because you have to change out the gas tank. Unless you're planning on an extensive mod like rwd, then get whats cheapest. Other than that the options are the usual, a/c, rear wiper, ect.

As a project car it's hard to beat the festiva in cost and originality. Junkyards usually have a couple sitting around and since so few people want the parts they are cheap. A lot of parts from other cars will bolt across. They are pretty easy to work on too.

One thing that has suprised me since I got the festiva, it's really fun to drive compared to other "sporty" cars I've driven. Not the fastest by far, but the most fun. Hard second gear corners in the festiva are sure to put a smile on your face. Might be a sideways smile till you get the body roll under control, but still fun.

-Ox

[danwheeler]

thanks for the info guys - i'm getting pretty excited. I've got my eye on this one:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/84459501.html

looks clean and pretty cheap i guess. I think it has 145,000 miles.

[BossMan]

Hey Dan,

Just be aware that once you start throwing some personal mods and tweeks on these cars, it's kinda hard to stop! Borderline addicting even!

They are allot of fun, and very easy to work on. I have a '92 Tropical blue that is really "Boss". In fact, I have made my paint scheme to even mimic a "Boss" mustang. Including cool hood scoop. I will post a pic or two soon.

Really though, this is a great site for info and the guys and gals are really cool.

Good luck with your project and keep us posted as you update and modify!

8)

PS
I drove mine to San Antonio (1300 mi round trip) and I ran 46 MPG! Not too bad! I would advise though to have AC if driving in the summer out there! Damn it got hot!

[qaking]

Festivas multiple like rabbits also... :shock:

First 1, then before you know it, you have 4...

[Rumnhammer]

festiva project

Dan, other then automatic seatbelts, and fuel injection there are few differences between years. 88 and 89's are carberated easily spotted by the smooth tail lights and the grill without a "nose". The 88-90 had factory tachs, that plug right in to all year cars and the 90 models are the most popular because they are the only year that was white letter the earlier models had orange lettering. For swaps the fuel injected cars are the easiest, to do, but if you get a good deal on a carbed car, you can always convert a fuel injected engine to carbs without too much trouble.
One I would like to do is a B6 DOHC with either webers or motorcycle carbs. 88-89's also only have a 4 spd manual gearbox, although the 5 speed easily takes it's place. That's a strong point of festivas is that they didn' t change the tooling, or the wiring harness for the most part just added new stuff as production continued, so it is easy to update or back date between cars. It all literally bolts on.

The Mazda B series engines are very strong, the DOHC models are way over built, in fact one of the strongest most reliable family of engines in the world. They are pretty well optimized from the factory, so getting more power follows the thousand dollar rule of diminishing returns. In other words you'll make a small amount of additional power with the first 1000 bucks, or so then making more power gets much more expensive. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it shows the engine is well optimized from the factory. So just don't expect to make huge power without the help of a turbo. The good thing is the festiva is so lightweight that putting any of the larger then stock B series engines into it makes a huge difference even at stock hp levels.
In addition to being strong the engines are simple, and easy to work on. and they are cheap and easy to find. Although B6T's are beginning to get expensive and harder to find, The BP is still plentiful and since it came in more cars, should remain that way. more people are starting to use the BP because of this even at stock hp levels the BP (from an escort GT or protege) makes about the same hp as a stock B6T. As far as weaknesses the gearbox is the weak link mainly after swapping in a B6T or BP, for a normally aspirated B6 it should be fine.

The suspension is very simple McPherson struts on the front and a torson beam rear with coil over shocks. virtually the same as a Volkswagen rabbit, or a early sentra, the Aspire suspension swaps right over, and is a great upgrade as you get bigger brakes and a more common bolt pattern on the wheels as well. Also the Aspire front disks go on hat style instead of having to be pressed off the spindle like the festiva ones do, so that makes changing the rotors even easier.
Festivas with a bit of suspension work handle very well, they respond to all handling mods, and with the worn out state of most festiva bushings even replacing the stock stuff will help the handling.

Parts are very easy to find most parts stores still carry most things, and if you strike out there, then look on ebay or a junkyard, perhaps the biggest problem is not part availability but the fact that most people treated these cars like disposable lighters and beat the hell out of them, so you may need to replace quite a bit when you get your car. A good rule of thumb is to buy the best car you can afford. It doesn't make any sense to pay $100 for a car that needs $1000 of work to be roadworthy.

These cars are tough, and for the most part are pretty good at resisting rust, although cars from the rust belt will sometimes get some, usually on the rear hatch or the front leading edge of the hood. They sometimes will get some rust on the lower rear quarter panels mostly after they get some minor collision damage. Other then that they are remarkably rust free with no real regular spots of corrosion. Perhaps the one other real weak spot is the rear wheel bearings, they tend to go pretty regularly, you will hear them howling when they need work.
hope this info helps
Chris Rummel

[oxbrain]

hey, you must live near me. I was looking at that car too as a secondary. It's got A/C.

You might see my red festiva flying around the area.

[danwheeler]

if I buy it, you can have the AC. I dont need no stinking AC. Anything that is not absolutely necessary is getting ripped out.

Chris, thanks very much for the valuable info. :!:

[CryptokiD]

dan, the festiva is probably the lightest cheapest most addordable car on the road. that is why it makes a good platform for a project car.

lets face it, how many other cars are on the road today which weigh under 1500lbs stripped, cost less than $500, and have reasonably good and cheap parts support. i cant think of any other car that fits those 3 criteria.

being so lightweight, its a damn quick car after its been gutted and had an engine swap. and if you wreck it, youre only out a couple hundred bucks so you can throw it away and get another one!

its the perfect car in that respect.

[Rumnhammer]

project car

I agree for the most part, the festiva is a good base for a project car, provided you have some decent mechanical ability and as long as you don't expect to have as easy a time as if you were to start with a civic.
This isn't a car that you can easily modify just by picking up the phone and using a credit card. Yes you can call FMS, for stuff but lets face it, that's pretty much it for vendors, the day is coming when every ones bio will have pretty much all the same stuff on their cars. As Roger gets optional stuff from other markets that were not offered here and nobody is making anything new for the festiva, so unless you do some stuff custom, everyone will be sporting all the same gear.
For the most part it is a pretty good car for a project car, as a stock car pretty much the only thing the car didn't do well was have decent power, that and the way people look down their noses at the car. Mostly the people that do that though never owned a festiva, since the people that have never seem to have much to complain about aside from the lack of power. it's a shame the GTX was never offered in the States, perhaps more people would have had more respect for it and more aftermarket attention would have been given to it as well.
Chris Rummel

[danwheeler]

Like i said, my other car is an 86 Mitubishi Montero. I'm no stranger to lack of aftermarket parts. FMS looks to have a plethora of parts available compared to anything i've seen for my mitz. I have a welder and a garage with all the tools and I haven't read about anything I can't do yet.

most importantly are the experts on this board

[oxbrain]

You don't happen to work at cascade autosport do you?

[danwheeler]

You don't happen to work at cascade autosport do you?

nope.

I've been reading about the B6P... I'm not positive if the B6P is a turbo or NA engine. Maybe it's both? How much horsepower can I expect out of a NA B6P? How much extra trouble is it to go with the B6P turbo?

Chris, do you recommend the B6P turbo or NA? and what is roughly the HP difference between the two? (assuming both exist)

Are there any engine rebuilders that have a good reputation on this board that I could purchase a rebuilt B6P from?

thanks,
dan

[danwheeler]

OK, I think i got this figured out:

http://www.answers.com/topic/mazda-b-engine

So i think i wanna go with a BP DOHC. This will bolt up to a festiva right? And if I find that it's too slow, I can add a turbo later right?