Clunkerball Run in a 1990 Festiva

[Clunkerball Run]

At the stroke of Midnight on March 7th, we are driving our newly acquired 1990 Festiva in the Clunkerball Run. We start in NY and have to make it to the Santa Monica CA pier in less than 2 days. Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/notes/clunke...20384817990467. We bought our 1990 Festiva for $400 and this beast has 232,000 miles on it. The water pump is leaking but other than that, she runs great. On top of changing the water pump and timing belt, we are going to change the plugs, wires, oil, fuel filter, coolant, air filter and battery. Anything else we should change (the clutch and tranny are good)? What should we be prepared for during our 3,000 mile journey?

Hammer Down,

Leadfoot Chuck

[kellen302]

Rear wheel bearings or a seized and dragging ebrake. Easy fix. Get a haynes manual and a FSM if you can.

[Pu241]

I'd purge the coolant system and refill with fresh 50/50 solution.

purge the brake fluid and refill with DOT4

Add a bottle of some dry gas particularly one based on Isopropanol.

Swap out the fusible links under the hood behind the battery for the cartridge style fuses.

Check steering and suspension for worn parts and replace as necessary.

[Charlie1717]

Join the Festiva in trouble database and add this to your phone or laptop shortcut

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34932&highlight=fit+database

So if you get stranded on the way you can get festy help quick!

Don't forget to check the tires. 12" tires can be a bit of a pain/expensive to obtain. Might benefit from some metro steel rims 13" from a junk yard.

[TominMO]

Awesome! Keep us posted--on the way if possible.

The 13" tires will give you better hwy mileage too, since they raise the overall gearing.

Make sure you don't have any oil seal leaks, like valve cover, camshaft seal or the crank seals.

[Clunkerball Run]

You guys rock! Swapping the water pump and doing most of the work this weekend. I will let everyone know how she turns out. Oh yeah, we are painting it camo too to honor Wounded Warriors (that is the charity we usually do racing events for). I will post pics after its painted.

Hammer Down!

[Clunkerball Run]

Oh one more question. Got a lifter tick'n. Any thoughts on that one?

[FestYboy]

run some Seafoam and fresh oil in it, that lifter will eventually quiet down. you REALLY want to pay attention to the rear brakes and bearings. and at 230+k miles, a new DENSO o2 sensor can't hurt. they're less than $20 if you look for them.

[crazyrog17]

purge the brake fluid and refill with DOT4

Yes, but be sure to spray the bleeder screws with PB Blaster for a few days beforehand

Add a bottle of some dry gas particularly one based on Isopropanol.

Can't hurt, especially if you're going to be cycling the tank a lot on a highway trip

Swap out the fusible links under the hood behind the battery for the cartridge style fuses.

Spray the crap out of these too or you'll have a lot of electrical work you didn't want to do on your hands (speaking from experience)

Check steering and suspension for worn parts and replace as necessary.

Critical. You don't want to bust a lower-control-arm ball joint or tie rod end on the freeway.

Thanks PU241 for the list, just wanted to add a couple pennies.

[Movin]

Lifters do not like heavy oil, I like 0 w 40 . Replace the seals behind the
timing belt while you are there. A ding in the bottom of the oil pan
can cause lifter noise because the restricted sump screen will
cause the oil pump to suck in air bubbles. course all air bubbles
go to the first lifter and vent through it and cause it to collapse
and tick!!

Subaru's, the worst engine ever made, are noted for seals at the
oil pump ( front seal ) causing this problem.





Not, they are great, but noted for seals, oil leaks...

[htchbck]

Awesome! Keep us posted--on the way if possible.

The 13" tires will give you better hwy mileage too, since they raise the overall gearing.

Make sure you don't have any oil seal leaks, like valve cover, camshaft seal or the crank seals.

I second the call to move to 13s if finances allow. Geo Metro 13s can be found in many junkyards and are a direct bolt on. 155/80R13 tires are cheap and very easy to find if you were to need one on the road. Hate not to make it because you have a damaged tire and have to wait three days for a tire shop to order a spare. If you do go to 13s I'd suggest keeping the best two 12s as spares instead of the mini-doughnut the car comes with. In line with the tire suggestions make sure you have a breaker bar with a 14mm socket and functioning jack. Very important on a cross country trek! Good luck, and as others have said, keep us updated whenever possible, there is WiFi everywhere!

[Charlie1717]

I second the call to move to 13s if finances allow. Geo Metro 13s can be found in many junkyards and are a direct bolt on. 155/80R13 tires are cheap and very easy to find if you were to need one on the road. Hate not to make it because you have a damaged tire and have to wait three days for a tire shop to order a spare. If you do go to 13s I'd suggest keeping the best two 12s as spares instead of the mini-doughnut the car comes with. In line with the tire suggestions make sure you have a breaker bar with a 14mm socket and functioning jack. Very important on a cross country trek! Good luck, and as others have said, keep us updated whenever possible, there is WiFi everywhere!

While you grab the 14mm might as well bring along a nice little metric socket set. You can pretty much take apart the car with 4 sockets ha

[htchbck]

^^ 10, 12, 14, 17

[DriverOne]

If you're going to do 3,000 miles in two days, that's 1500 miles roughly per day, and in order to do that you'll have to have an average speed of 62.5mph if you drive non-stop. If you stop for one hour per day (fillups) you'll keep an average of 65.2mph. I assume this is with a partner, because in order to do this, you'll need to drive 12 consecutive hours while your partner sleeps and vice versa. I suggest you remove the rear seat to lose a bit of weight. To be entirely serious, you're going to need onboard "urine solutions" and a 10-gallon fuel cell T'd into the fuel fill hose (port located under the carpet on the driver's side rear seat floor) with a shut-off valve to double your travel time. My wife's EFI Festiva gets 44.9mpg running an average of 52.8mph. I'll use 38mpg as a marker (66mph avg). At 1500 miles the first day, you'll consume 39.7 gallons. If you have double the fuel capacity, that's taking only 60-70% of the time it would normally take to fuel. I say this because even though you're filling up 20 gallons at a time, you've only had to get to the gas station twice instead of almost four times, which means that your average time off the road is less, keeping your total average up. Keep in mind that most of the Festivas’ fuel gauges show you being empty just after 8 gallons.

Pre-trip preventative maintenance is key, for sure. If you can pack a few tools, try to pack modular tools that do multifunctional jobs without taking up much space. If you do go to 13 inch wheels, do your best to use the lightest wheels you can.

Take a GOOD CB radio (Cobra 25 or 29 peaked and tuned), a scanner, two GPS units (one for constant average monitoring, one for directions), a decent radar detector, and a laptop/tablet/smartphone with Google and a 4G card. In order to avoid blowing any fuses critical to the car, mount a fuse block in the glove box area wired directly from the battery and run your extra electronics off of it. Plan your route ahead of time, checking to see where the construction is and where known speed traps are. Just in case, carry a trucker’s atlas. The larger maps make for quick reading.

Tune the crap out of that car for MPG’s. Get NGK sparks, good wires, a clean filter, carry an extra fuel filter just in case, replace the PCV, carry a bottle of antifreeze, and a jack that was intended for a larger vehicle. That should raise your car more quickly in case you need to use your spare. In the case that you’ll need a spare, I’d definitely say use a full-size spare. Replace your rear springs with Aspire springs, replace your sway bar with the Aspire sway bar (mind you, you’ll need to alter the lower radiator hose if you mount it in the way it was intended), and replace your BMC with the Aspire unit as well. This light assistance with take-off, handling, and braking will be a large increase.

The quickest time this run was successfully attempted in occurred in 2006 by Alexander Roy in a Gumball 3000-spec BMW M3. He did it in 32 hours, 7 minutes time. Good luck to you.

[htchbck]

Dustin is a truck driver so def take everything he said to heart he knows a thing or two (or more) about driving long distances. My great-uncle use to run from San Fran to Nashville tn straight through for a family reunion once a year. I think that run took him about 30 or so hours with no copilot! Also, my great-uncle was a freak of nature lol.