cam seizing is a common problem with the festiva?

[bassman]

My buddies 92 injected had the cam seiz and we are looking to get it back on the road, it has 300 000 k and so far a $225 reman off ebay is our only option.

would this be the way to go or what would you do?

this also seems to be a common problem when I call wrekers asking about parts for these cars, is this so??

[doylerl]

Most people will tell you to just swap a b6 or something in especially with 300k on that bottom end.

[scitzz]

$225 for a remanned B3, or cam?

[blkfordsedan]

I learned my lesson with "remanufactured" heads. You get what you pay for. At $225, both the seller and the machinist are making money. You can bet the quality of the machine work is borderline at best. Even then, you'll have a $225 head on a $40 short block thats got 300K. I would buy a good used head from someone on here or do the complete lower mileage used B6 (or B3) swap.

[JPT]

For that kind of money into that engine, I'd be thinking swap.

$225.00 gets you a good low mileage B8ME around here. $150.00 will get a B6.

[neanderpaul]

My buddies 92 injected had the cam seiz and we are looking to get it back on the road, it has 300 000 k and so far a $225 reman off ebay is our only option.

would this be the way to go or what would you do?

this also seems to be a common problem when I call wrekers asking about parts for these cars, is this so??

I've never heard of a cam seizing on a festiva. It has 300,000 miles on it. What does it need to do? Sprout arms and repair itself? Just buy A wrecked festiva for $100 swap the motor and turn a profit on the rest.

[neanderpaul]

http://bismarck.craigslist.org/cto/2163758190.html

[batstiva]

I've never heard of a cam seizing on a festiva. It has 300,000 miles on it. What does it need to do? Sprout arms and repair itself? Just buy A wrecked festiva for $100 swap the motor and turn a profit on the rest.

Ditto. BTW, it has 300,000 Km, which works out to 186K miles. Not exactly high miles for these cars. Simplest thing would be find a used, lower mileage B3, or SOHC B6. B8ME would be next easiest.

I've seen some abused Festivas before, but never seen a cam seize.

[mattman]

thats pretty low miles my 91 had 475 thousand on it when i sold it in 97 an it is still being driven by the guy i think he lives in AZ now

[hotfordcat]

Never heard of a seized cam. I have 240,000 on one and the only problem is a leaky cam seal.

[neanderpaul]

Oops. I saw K. K means thousand. 300 K. But didn't think about him being in Canada.
That's low miles for that to happen. It's a rare fluke.

[blkfordsedan]

My guess would be there is an oiling issue if the cam to siezed in the journals. Oil pump failure or ran it out of oil? In which case, the rest of the motor could be junk, I would try to find a lower mile B3 or B6. Swapping the whole engine will almost be less work by the time you clean the block and swap all the accessories over to the new head.

[econoaddict]

Never heard of a seized cam.

It happens, usually a blocked oil passage or lack of prelube when putting the cam back in.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=33092

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=33071

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...light=camshaft

[bassman]

looks like a local machine shop will do it right for $350 plus install.

[htchbck]

Cam seizing isn't a common problem, but this isn't the first I've heard of. The red car I had af FM4 (or maybe 3, can't remember) came to me with a siezed cam and a sheared cam gear bolt. It also came with a spare cam and gear, so I put that in but I could tell something wasn't right still (which I figured it would be that way anyway). So after looking at the original cam I found out which one of the cam journals was scored, cleaned it up with a dremel and a wire wheel and put it all back together. It squeeked a little for about 50 miles, after that no problems. I got about 50K out of that motor after I "fixed" it. Finally it died because it had a pretty bad bottom end oil leak and when a buddy of mine borrowed it he forgot to top the oil off and boom, threw a rod.