New member and new to festivas.

[boosted_eclpse]

Hello everybody. My name is ben and I just recently sold out on my DSMs. I was down and out for awhile untill I spotted this cute little 1992 ford festiva L. Its blue in color with a grey door. It was sitting way back in the weeds and was loaded down with a bunch of junk stuff. I traded my 1993 yamaha yz125 for this little car and I am kinda glad I did.

First thing I found out was it didnt have any brakes. The guy said the master cylinder was bad. I tried the E--brake and that didnt work either. No worries, so I asked if it ran and he said he didnt know. I said to hell with it I am taking it home. After about a day of major cleaning inside and out I desided to see if it would start. To my surprise it fired right up after installing a new battery.

It has perfect oil pressure and doesnt overheat. It does smoke alittle but I think maybe its because the 2 year old gas thats in it. I inspected the engine for any oil leaks and couldnt find any because the engine is pretty grimy. It only has 137,765 miles on it. I highly doubt the engine has ever been washed.

I have been reading about these cars and the diffrent engines that can be installed. I am a huge turbo guru because of the DSMs I have raised. These little motors look pretty simple, but is there anything important I should know. Are they interfearence or non interfearence engines?

I was also wondering what can be used to convert to RWD? I read something about a RWD. Regular maintence is being done now before I start into mods.

Thanks for reading. BTW Nice forum.

[resuwrecked]

Welcome to the site! Mazda b-series engines are non interference.

[boosted_eclpse]

Welcome to the site! Mazda b-series engines are non interference.

Thank you good sir. Knowing that makes me less cautious about the future mods. I currently have a few things that will be installed once I get started back to work. I have a really nice set of 15" momo racing wheels wrapped with kumho ecstas 205/55/r15's that I am hoping to install later. I already found out that they will need a adapter to fit because the bolt pattern is 100 and the festiva is 114. That being said I am hoping that the 1" adapter will clear the strut but I understand fender cutting and flaring my be needed.

I adjusted the E-brake cable alittle while ago hoping to gain some stopping power but I think the pads are so far gone that they cant stop the car. I inspected the cable to make sure it wasnt stretched or broke. Everything checked out good. Exhaust looked alittle old a rusty.

[shorestiva]

do the aspire swap its 4x100 and you get better brakes

[cubstiva1]

you should be able to do a full aspire swap and use the rims you have, although they might be a tad big and require some modification of your fender openings



shore you beat me to it

[boosted_eclpse]

Cool that would save me almost 400 bucks just for adapters on ebay. The fender openings I figure will complicate things but I am ready for that. I have torches, grinders, and welder so I hope something fabricated will work. I will also be going with some 3" drop coilovers I bought for a old Geo storm I once owned. I wont be dropping it no 3" though. I have some spare strut bars left over also from that car that might work. Front and back should tighten the suspension no?

[ketchup]

stock festiva e brakes never work or work poorly. i support the aspire brake swap.use the search for more info. also i support the bp 1.8l mazda protege or escort gt motor swap..Bolts to the stock trans. I have the first ever front engine rear wheel drive festiva that i know of and i believe if you were to do a RWD conversion then you should do a mid rear with the 1.8l and a front wheel drive trans with the escort front control arms. kinda like a shogun but i believe better and less work and lighter weight, turbo of course..unless you are doing one like NOVASS a member here his shogun is going to be epic..

[boosted_eclpse]

stock festiva e brakes never work or work poorly. i support the aspire brake swap.. the aspire front knuckles swap right over and to do the rear you would swap the entire rear u bar and brakes. search for more info. also i support the bp 1.8l mazda protege or escort gt motor swap..Bolts to the stock trans. I have the first ever front engine rear wheel drive festiva that i know of and i believe if you were to do a RWD conversion then you should do a mid rear with the 1.8l and a front wheel drive trans less work and lighter weight..

I read about the 1.8l motor swaps and that may be a future idea. I was wondering about a turbo b3? I know there small compared to the others and require fabrication to make them turbo, but how much can really be done to them? I have experience in tuning with SAFC-1 and 2 and some with the neo. I am sure tuning wouldnt be hard but what could the motor handle? BTW this is future disscusion. I am still trying to work out some major electrical issues that are really complicated. Half of my electrical is ran off toggle switches. BTW, do these cars have a seperate computer that controls circuitry for all the lights and so forth?

[FB71]

These cars have A computer, and it is heavily taxed just running the engine. Only fuel delivery and ignition advance are controlled by the ECM. Everything else is directly controlled by switches or relays.

[boosted_eclpse]

These cars have A computer, and it is heavily taxed just running the engine. Only fuel delivery and ignition advance are controlled by the ECM. Everything else is directly controlled by switches or relays.

Thank you very much. The guy told me that another guy had crossed he battery terminals and fried the computer resulting in non working lights,wipers, ect. I have never heard of any kind of computer running lights and all that besides maybe the newer cars.

What would you guys reccomend when it comes to wiring everything back the way it was? I know new switches are a must. Possibly relays aswell. He had every electrical thing marked in the repair book that had been cut and hard wired. I am hoping that I can just do the reverse that he done and wiring everything back up the way it was. I have a multi-meter that will help me on this quest.

I have a 88 model parts car lined up for free if I could just get there and pick it up.

[ketchup]

ill sell you a turbo log manifold for the 1.3 i am the only one that makes them..t3 flange we ran 10 psi on one of ours. now i just sell the manifolds.. im building a few right now.

[boosted_eclpse]

What all mods were done to the engine to run 10psi?

[ruppenduro]

you may be interested in this:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14732

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15906

[boosted_eclpse]

No freaking way bro! I sat and starred at my festiva for about a hour and desided that my fully built 6-bolt 4g63t was just way to big to even fit in there untill I seen this. I was making 25psi of boost and had 355hp at the wheels when the motor was pulled. I am running a Evo 3 big 16g turbocharger with a open o2 dump just for that scary sound.


I cant believe this. I have a complete car for front end parts and everything. That is some heavy fabrication though. WOW!

[ruppenduro]

i know first hand that a 350+hp dsm is one of the coolest things on wheels. it would be almost scary to have that much hp in a festy. there is a guy on here (evogun) who swapped a complete pulsar gtir awd engine/tranny into his festy (and it runs with working awd!)