say hey to the new guy?

[96blackgt54]

Wow! Ive been browsing the forum and I have to say..wow! What a great community! You guys are positive towards all ideas keeping no trade secrets or hidding the mysteries of these awesome cars!

Im a big sn95 mustang enthusiast, having my share of modifications along with bolt on performance upgrades to engine swaps, but my main expertise is engine building. I enjoy the more technical tolerances mainly because Ive been in machining since birth.

I have acquired a second job thats roughly a 30mile drive one way and my daily drivers now would cost me nearly $20 a day in fuel. Im not having that! I need a gas saver thats equally fun to drive even if I have to build it.(evilgrin) Im really digging the festivas and love how some on the forums look!! So this leads me to my first question....i ask patients for my second question....please give me a run down of "best case scenario" with the festivas. Such as the better years made, engine capability, tranny strength, and i also see alot of different type engine swaps that apparently bolt up to the same stock tranny? Anyhow, yall get what i mean...surely im not the first to ask these..lol. Im in the market for one and cant wait to start modding! Ive loved these little machines since i can remember along with fiats, mini coopers, beetles...etc. I love the mazda 121 (?)
Thanks guys

And any of you from ky...post up!

[Gomez]

88-89 1/2 were carbies in auto or 4 speed manual. The 89 1/2 autos and all 90-93 were fi (the 89 fi's were throttle bodied). The 89 fi auto cars are bastards to work on some will say but I have no experience with them. The 88-89 manuals were all carbed. 90-93 fi cars were available in 5 speed or 3 speed auto.

The 93 Festiva has the big nose crank. They all had the b3 engine that is probably the most bulletproof engine out there. They just like to leak though. All of the manual 5 speeds use the e series tranny. Crap loads of people use them with the 1.8L BP swap having near 130 hp with good luck but you have to be careful/easy on it (no high rpm clutch dumping). Next would be the F series tranny and then the G series. The G's are supposedly good to upwards of 300 HP in stock trim but many guys have grenaded them on less and many have had good luck with the stocker in 7 grand full boost clutch dumps for months w/o failure. B6, B6M-E, B6D, B6T, B8, and the BP are all very popular swaps. Several guys have done more labor intensive swaps with good luck. There are also several guys that are always looking for newer better cooler stuff with the Mazda engines and trannies.

The most common brake upgrades are the Aspire front and rear, Capri and Rio Fronts. Most seem to like the full rear Aspire swap but there are a few holdouts on the stock rear end. 01-02 and 03-05 Kia Rio front swaps seem to be trending very well atm. Several have done the Capri or Escort GT rear disk swap with a little custom work. The Aspire booster and M/C's are a good solid switch if you upgrade the brakes too.

A few guys have done some really good thorough research on suspension upgrades. 01-02 Rio front struts and cut springs are also pretty popular. Stiffer but still popular. There are are a couple really good suspension threads floating near the top of the search results page.

From there I suggest being your own pioneer of sorts. Use the available info then ask educated questions and you will be very happy with the forum for the most part.

The 90 LX is the one that tends to be the most desirable option-wise but that has kinda went to the wayside with oem parts sites like fourgreen.com to name one. Rare options are not so rare anymore, with the exceptions being the holey headrests and swoopie mirrors. That is a taste thing though.

Basically if it is Mazda based from the mid late 80's to the late 90's you are good to have fun with sourcing parts from it. Some newer Kia stuff has been pretty promising as well.

If it were me I would say get a 93 GL with a 5 speed. But hey it's my post and I'm sticking to it.

We like pics very much. The mentality goes like this..."it didn't happen if you don't have pics". LOL Welcome and enjoy when you find your first Festiva.

[Advancedynamix]

If you want to have a fun, but fuel efficient car your best bet is to get a 90-93 5 speed car and swap in a 1.6. There are several different options of 1.6 mazda power plants, and they all have their positives and negatives, but people have found that fuel mileage is retained, while fun factor gets a nice boost. The stock transmission will take 140ft.lbs if driven with respect, but the stock clutch starts slipping somewhere around 110ft.lbs. There are 3 stronger options that come from other ford/mazda vehicles, but if your going for a gas miser, you'll probably want to retain the stock transmission. Luckily, 110ft.lbs in a Festiva will frustrate many mustang owners while getting great gas mileage.
Ideally, if you are comfortable with wiring, a 1.5 or 1.6 protege z series engine (base model late 90's to mid 2000's) with complete obd2 engine management would provide you with more than enough HP and the same gas milage as stock (40+mpg). These engines are now very common in salvage yards and nobody wants them, so they are cheap. There isn't much information on this swap on this site, but that may change in the near future. For more info on many common engine swaps you can use the search button. These are pretty amazing little cars, and the chassis is pretty impressive when fine tuned a little. It's capable of pulling around 3 gs in corners with a set of coil overs and some r-compound tires. Corner speeds that will fling most super cars off the track.

Hope you find a nice Festiva and give it some love.

[bravekozak]

welcomsign Welcome black. Everyone needs a fast, small, light, fuel efficient, sixty miles per day grocery getter. I happen to have a set of twins you might like.

[Bert]

You make no mention of where you live. My Festys are for sale (all three of them) and all are EFI and two are MTX 93s with LX interiors.

[96blackgt54]

Dang! You guys know your kia's! So ...basically i need to look for a 90-93 festy 5spd cause fuel injection is a must and manual is a must. Then I need to polish it up real nice while taking plenty of pics for you guys to drool over?....start a build thread? Then consider swapping to an ohc engine?

Ok wait next question...are the stock engines ohc? Aluminum? Cast iron? Both? Does any one have the internal engine specs? Like piston size, stroke, rod length? Are cams follower or rockers? Or do I just need to swap to abetter engine?

[bhazard]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_B_engine

[Gomez]

perfect Brad

[Safety Guy]

Hi new guy!!

Karl

[96blackgt54]

Cool. That helps with alot of questions.
Thanks for the welcomes!!

[muleskinner]

Hey, new guy!

Welcome!

[crazyrog17]

Pretty intriguing what was said about the z series protege engine..

Welcome new guy!

[96blackgt54]

Next question!! And you guys are great with warm welcomes! Keep'em coming!

How easy is it to swap automatic over to a manual tranny? I found a craigslist jewel but had a broke 4th/5th gear....how difficult is a tranny repair?

[Gomez]

Tranny swap is easy as long as you get ALL of the parts from the donor. It would be easier and cheaper to find a good tranny to begin with though. BUT with all of the guys lately wanting a good auto tranny, I'd bet you could find someone willing to trade ya.

[96blackgt54]

Excellent idea Gomez ...thank you.

Someone in S. Carolina has a white festy with a swapped engine for $3000 on craigslist...is this anyone here?