Diesel Festy (youtube)

[Damkid]

i don't think you'd be able to do much about the gearing with still using a festiva tranny

[Safety Guy]

Drew asked:

"Yes, the gearing is all wrong. Any ideas how I could change it, or at least the final drive? I have access to at least 2 more Festy transaxles."

What tire size are you running now? They looked like stock 12" wheels.

For a larger effective final drive ratio, increase the diameter of your doughnuts!

Get a set of 13" wheels and put on 155/80-13 tires. Unless your springs have sagged with age, these should fit with no problems. Geo Metro 13" rims should work.

If I'm understanding the problem right, your problem is engine speed. You should have plenty of torque. Larger tires should help a bit and would be a relatively cheap way to "change gearing."

Are you getting to your engine's 3600 rpm speed? If not, you need a larger engine, right?

Aren't there larger diesel 2 or 3 cylinders available for a decent price?

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Well, I know this costs more than twice as much, but it would give you double the torque before adding a turbo:

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2232122714150560&item=28-1719&catname=

21.9 HP 3400 RPM KUBOTA DIESEL ENGINE
New, KUBOTA Super Mini Series model D902 three cylinder in-line industrial diesel engine. Ideal replacement engine for many mobile applications or for building diesel powered equipment. Features include indirect fuel injection, variable speed mechanical governor, pressurized water cooling, 12 volt DC fuel pump, 12 VDC starter, 40 amp alternator, glow plugs for cold weather starting, 12 volt DC fuel shutoff for engine stop, fuel filters and radiator kit. No air cleaner or muffler. Engine meets 2007 Tier 2 emission regulations for US EPA and California off-road compression-ignition engines.

It's 0.9 liters and has 41.3 ft./lbs. of torque at 3400 rpm for $1899.

Shipping weight is listed as 270 pounds.

Hmmmm.

One other idea is...

Diesel electric! You could probably use your current cheap diesel for that application.

Karl

[Kraig]

Neat project! I've gotten 56.7 out of my Festiva before with much effort at being conservative! Have you checked out gassavers.org or ecomodder ? There's a diesel metro that gets over 90mpg somewhere on the web. It uses a Kubota 3 banger diesel..