'94 Aspire to '88 Festiva engine swap

[invader_star]

So my friend and I have been working on swapping a '94 Aspire B3 into my '88 Festiva for the past few weeks. My father and I came here with questions back in January, and I finally got around to going ahead with the endeavor once I picked up my Blue '88 "Blue Steal". The engine and tranny seemed to be in rough shape, along with the vehicle. For $264.85 you can't complain too much, but since it was going to become my DD, it had to be done.
Everything has gone fairly well. We got the engine completely installed, only to find out that the camshaft on the Aspire engine didn't have the lobe for the manual fuel pump! We of course discovered this after I tried to start it up for the first time to a very disappointing nothing. Begrudgingly we tore the engine down a bit, swapped the cams with the old motor, slapped a bunch of crap back on and we were ready to fire it up once again. Success!!! SHE LIVES! Only one or two of the rockers were contacting the '88 valve cover... and this is where I must ask for guidance.

When we placed the Aspire valve cover back on the head and started it, there wasn't any knocking. This makes sense; aspire rockers, aspire cover. We thought about using the Aspire cover instead of the '88 by fabricating a mount for the accelerator cable, but a lot of time and effort was put in to making the '88 valve cover nice and clean on the inside. I spent extra to get the gasket that installs underneath the plate as well, so using the '88 valve cover is preferred. Can I swap the rockers from the '88 to the '94 to eliminate the clearance issue? Or would it be wise to use the Aspire rockers with the Aspire cover and figure out how to mount the accelerator cable? It made sense to me that they would swap without issue; same exact head and valves, they should be spec'd the same, but I figured I'd ask the question.

Thanks in advance everyone! Once I get everything running smoothly I'll bother with doing a nice write up of my restoration It's been quite the journey so far. Festiva for life!

[93festiva]

I don't have a definative answer for you, but do have some other observations from my experience with Festy and Aspire engines. We swapped in a 97 Aspire engine into my son's 93 Festy and have painted the cam cover from the engine that was out and available. So I know that 93 Festy [non-roller] and 97 Aspire [roller] cam covers swap without any clearance problems. There is a bolt style issue that must be kept cam cover specific, but no big deal. My concern for you is if the rockers are hitting the cam cover they may also be over lifting the valves and possibly going coil bound, it may run but will not be a long term runner. I would put the Aspire head back together stock and go with a 3.5 psi electric fuel pump. A separate toggle switch for the pump also provides some theft security, at least for someone not familar with the car. My .02 cents worth.

Bill

[econoaddict]

Pull the valve cover and look inside to see where it is hitting, may just be tapping on a small rib inside. If this is the case then grab a die grinder and grind enough to stop the hitting.

[zoe60]

Mine ran great with the Festy cam and the Aspire roller rockers for about 5000 miles. I knew it wasn't supposed to be that way so I eventually found some '91 Festy rockers. No big change but it made me feel better. (I sure wasn't going back to those crappy adjustable ones.) I never had any Clearance issues with my Festiva valve cover. I think there must be another issue. Just my .02. Oh yeah, I had a '94 Aspire engine in an '89 Festiva. Drove it about 20000 miles and then went to a B6. IIRC all the parts are pretty much have the exact same dimensions, except for mounting brackets, HLA's vs rollers vs adjustable, etc.

[invader_star]

So, I ended up swapping on the Festiva rockers. I spaced them correctly, put everything back together and fired it up. She idled real nice. I went for a test run, pulled out of the drive way fine, rev'd up in first and started moving. However shortly after, my engine was no longer putting out any power and it died. For the moment she will not start anymore. I tested the fuel pump, and fuel is getting to the carb. I put a timing light onto the first plug wire and cranked the engine, but no flashing occurred. So from this, I appear to be having some sort of electrical issue? Everything is hooked up correctly... so I'm totally lost..

Thanks for the help guys..

[RitzyFestiva]

I don't have a definative answer for you, but do have some other observations from my experience with Festy and Aspire engines. We swapped in a 97 Aspire engine into my son's 93 Festy and have painted the cam cover from the engine that was out and available. So I know that 93 Festy [non-roller] and 97 Aspire [roller] cam covers swap without any clearance problems. There is a bolt style issue that must be kept cam cover specific, but no big deal. My concern for you is if the rockers are hitting the cam cover they may also be over lifting the valves and possibly going coil bound, it may run but will not be a long term runner. I would put the Aspire head back together stock and go with a 3.5 psi electric fuel pump. A separate toggle switch for the pump also provides some theft security, at least for someone not familar with the car. My .02 cents worth.

Bill

Interesting insight, but you swapped a fuel injected engine with a fuel injected engine. Not the case here. The issue here is not so much the fuel pump (gr8 idea and we will look into this as well) as the cause of no fuel was discovered to be the "missing mystery cam". The issue with the cam cover seems that the Aspire engine has different type rockers and they do sit a bit higher which using the FEstiva cam cover from the 88 allows the rockers to hit the bottom of the cam cover on the right side. We removed the Festiva cam cover bolts the placed the cover back on the head and then I had my son bump the engine. The cam cover on the right side would not fully seat flush with the head and when the engine rolled over the cover would "walk" forward and back. The 88 engine cover has a full length under cover that screws into place and appears to be used for emissions controls, while the Aspire has two smaller seperate covers, one on either end of the cam cover. The Aspire cover also lack the mounting holes to mount the throttle cable bracket as well as having an area that has been removed on the left back side of the cover. The Aspire casing seems to no longer need this area to be as high as the rest of the cover. It is a "notched" area about 8 inches long and sightly beveled. So using tthe Aspire cover will require fabicating some sort of bolts mounted to the cover in order to attach the throttle linkage mounting plate.

As stated, there is now an issue with the engine not starting, at least this is what I believe the issue here must be related to either fuel or electrical. We have determined that fuel appears to be getting to the carb but then again, could use some assistance in determining what isn't firing or sending power to the plugs, how to test for spark/electrical components that may be affecting the operation. Seems a bit strange it would just quit like that after idling for 10+ minutes without issue. So any insights, suggestions or known/potential issues would sure be a gr8 help for him. His frustration level is about maxed out!

I just don't have the experience with these little cars, or mechanics in general but it has been amazing watching him and seeing what he has done with nothing more then my tool box, engine hoist, his factory shop manual and a buddy to help, even his girl friend was helping to clean engine parts! Pretty kewl! Thanks guys,

[zoe60]

Sounds like ignition system.

[invader_star]

Sounds like ignition system.

And you would be correct! My ignition coil went out on me; swapped in the one from my other Festy and voila! She runs solid Now I just have to time my distributor..
Any tips on timing my B3 with the Aspire pulleys? The timing cover doesn't have the same timing marks as the Festiva's, so I'm not sure.

Thanks for the guidance, everyone

[koRnhead]

Yes, but by using an add on fuel pump. You could have simply left the top end of the motor alone. And not needed all the extra work of swapping cams around.