Hi! Just bought a Festiva, figured I found the place to talk about it

[CyberEric]

1. No point doing anything to the intake at all without also doing an exhaust header too. The one thing you can do, which is also free, is drill holes in the bottom airbox piece to increase airflow/improve breathing at higher rpm, like over 4000 or so. A cone filter does nothing that drilling the holes doesn't already do. Even the stock filter has plenty of airflow capability if clean, and unrestricted by the airbox itself.

2. A gen1 (1986 - 89) B6 SOHC exhaust manifold bolts directly to the B3 head, and flows better. That could be the basis for a very cheap, noticeably improved exhaust system for a B3, like with 2.25" pipe for example. The later B6 head has its upper, outer exhaust manifold studs in a slightly more outboard location than the early manifolds, by about 1/2" IIRC, so not usable for a B3.

TominMO, that's fantastic information, thank you very much! Exactly the type of tip I was looking for!

Is that an exhaust manifold from a first-gen B6 from any car, be it Mazda, Ford or Kia?

[TominMO]

Thanks, that's what I figured. I might do a custom intake or something myself. I like this little engine, and it's got low miles, so I hate to pull it already. Maybe when I have more income I'll try the custom header.

Any idea if a B6 head would fit on the B3 without valve clearance issues?

1. No point doing anything to the intake at all without also doing an exhaust header too. The one thing you can do, which is also free, is drill holes in the bottom airbox piece to increase airflow/improve breathing at higher rpm, like over 4000 or so. A cone filter does nothing that drilling the holes doesn't already do. Even the stock filter has plenty of airflow capability if clean, and unrestricted by the airbox itself.

2. A gen1 (1986 - 89) B6 SOHC exhaust manifold bolts directly to the B3 head, and flows better. That could be the basis for a very cheap, noticeably improved exhaust system for a B3, like with 2.25" pipe for example. The later B6 head has its upper, outer exhaust manifold studs in a slightly more outboard location than the early manifolds, by about 1/2" IIRC, so not usable for a B3.

[CyberEric]

Thanks, that's what I figured. I might do a custom intake or something myself. I like this little engine, and it's got low miles, so I hate to pull it already. Maybe when I have more income I'll try the custom header.

Any idea if a B6 head would fit on the B3 without valve clearance issues?

[ryanprins13]

Thanks!

What are the go-to power mods for this car, if there are any? I mean bolt-ons, not swaps. This engine has pretty low miles so I'd like to keep it and tweak it. After all, just 12 hp is a 20% increase!

Hardly anyone does work to the stock engine. Its pretty difficult and/or expensive to get more power out of it. the only bolt ons would be custom intake and exhaust manifolds that might togeather get you 12-15% for like $300 a piece plus shipping.
what most do for more power is a swap to a b6. 35% power increase, its bolt in and usually cheap. everything runs off festiva parts.

[CyberEric]

Thanks!

What are the go-to power mods for this car, if there are any? I mean bolt-ons, not swaps. This engine has pretty low miles so I'd like to keep it and tweak it. After all, just 12 hp is a 20% increase!

[ryanprins13]

Rockauto. Takes a little bit of work to set, but you measure the toe and camber you have, pick the toe and camber you want on the paper you get with the shim and it shows you where to cut the shims.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1993,festiva,1.3l+l4,1128248,suspension,alignment+shim,10657

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[CyberEric]

Gotcha, thanks!

Where do you get the shims for the rear?

[ryanprins13]

It could definitely be toe. I haven't had the alignment checked yet. Yeah, I like a lot of neg camber up front on McStrut cars, used to have camber plates on an old BMW and it really woke up the handling. The picture you have is of the back though, do run higher neg camber in the back too?

Thanks for the tip on the distributor. Once I get things cleaned up around there, I'll have a better idea.

Are you asking if i also run it in the front or does it not look like much in the rear to you?
I have -2 degrees on all the tires. Thats all i could easily get from the stock festiva front struts. And the plastic shims you buy for the rear also got me to -2. Doing the modifications was easy, but this was my first diy wheel alignment and that took forever, lol.


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[CyberEric]

It could definitely be toe. I haven't had the alignment checked yet. Yeah, I like a lot of neg camber up front on McStrut cars, used to have camber plates on an old BMW and it really woke up the handling. The picture you have is of the back though, do run higher neg camber in the back too?

Thanks for the tip on the distributor. Once I get things cleaned up around there, I'll have a better idea.

[ryanprins13]

Whats funny is the post just below yours is a guy selling plates so you can run -5deg camber
You will get tire wear driving that on the street though. But from what i hear its the bees knees on the track.


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[ryanprins13]

(fronts have inner wear from neg camber).

The leak appears to be coming from the head gasket or maybe even the distributor. I need to clean it to be sure. I'll take pics when I have more time.
!

Would have to be a fair bit of negative camber to do that. A bunch of us run -3.5 degrees and are prettymuch fine. i had -2 degrees all last summer on my daily driver and it was fine. It hardly takes any toe in however to scrub the insides of these tires very, very quickly.

Distributor is a common leak point. There is like a $2 O-ring that seals it and after 25yrs they dry out and leak. Super easy to change. Determine what it is first but If you need part numbers or instructions on how to replace it just search the forum or ask.

This is my car with -2 deg camber. I think i did 20,000km last summer and loved the difference it made in handling. Looks real goofy with 12in tires though.

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[CyberEric]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

Radi8u, I like those weheels. I'll keep my eye out for some 13" wheels, but I sort of need to move quickly as the rain is a little scary right now. I might just put the backs on the front, they look to be in better shape (fronts have inner wear from neg camber).

Grizzly5984, I'd love to hear how the Federals work.

I took another quick look yesterday (didn't have the light for photos) and the valve cover gasket looks dry. The leak appears to be coming from the head gasket or maybe even the distributor. I need to clean it to be sure. I'll take pics when I have more time.

I like to do my own work, but I'm in grad school so I don't have a ton of time right now.

Again, thanks for all the tips everyone! Happy to be here!

[radi8u]

Like Tom said, 13" Geo Metro wheels are a cheap and easy upgrade and definitely makes tire buying easier. That's what was on my car when I first got it, but then I found some vintage American Racing wheels for it. It's a silver '91 as well! Some don't like how they look, but I think they're cool.

Do you do your own maintenance and repairs on your vehicles?? If you do change the valve cover gasket yourself you may have clearance issues between the throttle body and rocker arms when removing the valve cover. Just turn the engine over by hand until the offending drop down and give you room.

A Chilton's manual is also a good thing to have, but there is a link to a PDF of a factory service manual on here somewhere.

festy with wheels.jpg

[ryanprins13]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! I'm loving the car so far. I've had it about two weeks. Only thing I've noticed is that it needs new front tires, which may be hard to find in stock size. I think I'll have to pony up for the Yokohamas since everything else sounds like it's crap according to what I'm reading here. It's a bit scary in the wet right now.

The headgasket also appears to be weeping some oil unfortunately. Nothing major, but it's not ideal. The previous owner, who was a really nice guy and had two of these cars, put synthetic oil in the car out of nowhere, so I'm thinking of going back to conventional oil and see if that changes anything. Anyone have experience switching between the two in these cars? I thought it was something you did gradually, and he sort of did it out of nowhere, so that doesn't seem great...

All told, I'm thrilled so far. Got 41 mpg on my second tank, and I love driving it!

Yokohamas are just the best by far. I have never had them, driven on other brands of 12in for 11yrs. I was fine with the lesser quality and the shake. All depends what you want out of it.
If your willing to buy or get other rims you get tons of good tire options. I got these rims from my brother and the tires are cheap in the usa. Handles real nice!

And yes, where is the oil leaking from, can you take a photo showing us?

I have switched from dino oil to synthetic and back to dino with no issues on other vehicles but not the festiva. No need to do it gradually that im aware of. I never have.


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[TominMO]

A common, cheap and easy tire/wheel upgrade is Geo/Chevy Metro 13" wheels (from 1995 on IIRC), which gives you a large selection of actual good-quality 13" tires. Not much good is available in 12". You can mix and match 12" and 13" tires with no handling ill effects, so if you have 155/80-13s on front and the original 12s on the rear, no worries. Keep one of the old stock 12" tires in the trunk, in place of your space saver tire. I would recommend this one for a better size. Slightly wider, slightly lower sidewall profile. Pretty much the ideal all-around tire size for Festiva general driving. Only fractionally taller than a 155/80-12, so the speedo will still be accurate. It will even fit in the spare tire well, if you have five of them.

Head gasket or (more likely) valve cover gasket? Cheap and easy to change it out.

Changing to dino oil will help with the oil leakage. Just do a normal oil change, no worries. Modern synthetic is compatible with dino oil. Go with 10W-30, not 5W.