Aspire Engine in Festiva?

[jjk1224]

Hey all, new to the forum.
I recently picked up a 1992 Festiva GL with a good body but very bad engine (93k miles). Basically, the previous owner snapped off a sparkplug and had it taken to a shop to be removed. They ended up taking the head off and upon reassembly, it was timed wrong. Not only that but I found a good sized hole rusted straight through the block under a freeze plug. Anyway, I was wondering if there is any major difference between the 1.3l that is in the Festiva compared to the Aspire? I plan on just finding a used engine at a junk yard or from a donor on craigslist and slapping it in.

[devon527]

Aspire motors will work

[jjk1224]

Thanks, I take it they are identical?

[devon527]

Yeah they are, I think the aspire has hydraulic rockers or lifters or whatever but itss the same motor and everything will bolt on

[sasquatch]

anyone know if the compression is the same? for some reason i think they raised it on the aspire?...

[zoe60]

Crank pulley is different but you should be OK with a '92. You'll want to get the aspire alternator and the water pump pulley. Also your air conditioner pulley won't work if you have air. They say you can put a ribbed pulley on the original alternator but it wouldn't work for me. Mine is an '89 and carbed so lots of things were difficult. The intake and exhaust manifolds will bolt right on though, and mine ran great for 3 years until I got a B6. Good luck! '93 Festy's have a crank pulley that fits an Aspire motor.

[zoe60]

Far as I could tell Aspire engines are pretty much exactly the same except for the bigger crank, the roller rocker arms, and the cam is different because of the rockers. Also it doesn't have a lobe for a mechanical fuel pump which won't matter on a '92.

[Team Lightning]

You need to change the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, and distributor according to what's been told on here.

[Occhty]

You can use the aspire exaust manifold, but it's welded tube. Festy is cast iron. You have to change the intake manifold, and fuel rail, and distributor, and engine wiring harness and engine sensors. Aspire engines have a serpentine belt system, festys don't. You can go either way, if you use the serpentine system you need the alternator and air-condition pump. If you use the festy v belt system then use the festy alternator and air-condition pump, then change out the remaining pulleys.

[nitrofarm]

Aspires run Mass Air right?

[htchbck]

^ Yes, but in swapping one into a festiva you'd just swap the whole festiva intake onto it. Basically, intake, exhaust, dist all go on the Aspire motor. Then you have to figure out what to do with the crank. If you don't have AC you can just use the Aspire ribbed alt and WP setup provided the aspire alt is still functioning and on the motor. Sometimes you can swap the alt pulleys, sometimes not. If you have AC or for some other reason need a v-belt pulley setup then you will be wanting to find the crank pulleys from a '93 festiva, which will bolt straight up to the aspire crank

[jjk1224]

So from my understanding, all I need to do for the swap is use my festiva exhaust and intake mani? Will all the sensors properly connect up to my festiva harness? I obviously have everything off of my original engine, so swapping parts between them isn't a problem as long as that's all I need to do.

By the way, mine does not have A/C.

[Team Lightning]

Also have to change the distributor.

[htchbck]

Basically, intake, exhaust, dist all go on the Aspire motor.

Also, I forgot to mention that you will probably want to switch over the water inlets and outlets. The bottom one (inlet) is at a different angle I believe and also the aspire one is slightly bigger. The top one (outlet) is also slightly bigger on the aspire, and does not have the temp switch for the fan on it that the festiva uses (you will see what I'm talking about when you look at it). Other than that, should be plug and play. Most of the other plugs you have to worry about are on the intake itself, so all that will be festiva stuff anyway once you swap intakes.

Crank should be no problem as long as the aspire motor has a good alt on it (should plug right up to the festi harness)

[sasquatch]

what everyone is trying to say is you need an aspire long block...