93 Festiva issues need help

[heavyMetal]

Gentleman:
New to the site and am in need of some techno help for a 93 thats kinda chappin my henie,LOL!

Here the deal my girl friend owns this 93 festiva, claims she paid a guy 2K to rebuild motor but never finished the smog for CA registration.

It sat for 3 years in her ex's yard and then we decided that was a bad place for it.

Went to AAA and ante'd up past due fees and got some one days to move it around. First time I see this thing is a week ago!

Hard to start, won't idle, but once warmed up no issue with starting. changed oil and filter sent her to smog it,....it failed.

Timing off, air filter system wrong, and to make matter worse it's leaking like a sieve fron the rear main!

So here's what I could use help with:

Crank pully timing marks, I found one mark painted blue, not white, on the current pulley. I can't make heads or tails of the "scale" built into the lower timing belt cover. Book says two marks on crank pulley.

Could sure use a picture of a pulley off the car with both TDC mark and 10 degree plainly marked

Could sure use a picture of the lower timing belt cover off the car with the correct "pin" / time to mark plainly marked.

My new Haynes manual shows none of this, nice buy, LOL!

I bought a complete air filter system off E bay which included the hoses and reserve air chamber so I should be able to "clear up" the wrong intake issue.

A plus for this is I believe the smog hoses are set up worng and this thing is actually pressurizing the crank case forcing oil past the rear main. I hope set up correctly our leak will go away.

I have a new throttle body gasket on order and paln to replace a bunch of vacuum hose, you can hear the leak and the idle smooths right up with a spritz or two of WD 40!

Once I get this info I should be able to straighten this puppy out just getting frustrated with the lack of info on the net!

Lots of hotrodded Festiva's by the way just nothing that I need to fix this one.

Car runs good once it's warmed up, if I was in another state I could time by ear but here in Cali it has to be spot on or they won't pass the visual, so I think her "mechanic" did the engine right He either had the same problem I had or just last interest in it.

In any case I got 900 of my hard earned bucks in this thing and need to finish it so it can be sold!

Any and all help appreciated.

[bravekozak]

Here ya go!

Vacuum leak?

Good luck.

[Safety Guy]

Dude, you are so lucky. That's what I'm working on now. Plus, I have extras off the car.

Behold the longshot with white marker pen:



Close-up:



I just colored the point and graph on the lower cover before I took the picture this morning. This is from the B6 off the car, which should be the same as any B3. Since this is from a '94 B6 and the lower pulley is from a '93 Festiva, they are both large crank snouts. If your '93 has the original engine it should be a large snout too.

If you are having a hard time seeing the yellow and white crank pulley markings, they are at the 2:30 clock position on the right. They aren't as crisp as I'd like, especially for the photo. The yellow mark is over the white mark. You use the white mark for your timing light.

I believe the yellow mark is used solely to line up the pulley with the pointer for TDC without having to take off the lower timing cover to match crank and cam arrows.

Karl

[heavyMetal]

safetyguy:
That's what I'm looking for! What a nice Pic of the timing marks on the cover not sure I can make out the marks on the pulley but I now have a reference point for searching when I get to it on Sat. morning.

Not sure what is on this thing, I hate coming in behind an amatur and trying to figue out what they did wrong, once bought a chevy C-10 with a new motor and found the timing mark at the 6 O'clock position on the damper with the truck running! Fool put the timing chain on with the marks 180 out pulled the cover and had to reset to get it to smog!

Those were the day, thats a 45 minute job on a 68 C-10.

I may have to pull the pulley and check marks keep thoise spares handy I may make you an offer for them, LOL!

Thanks

[Safety Guy]

You're welcome!

Just remember the marks are above where the fifth (line up post) smaller hole is and to its left.

If you need it, I can get a better close up of the pulley marks.

And these ain't for sale. They go to my spare B6, which is the one I will be rebuilding. My first rebuild!

Karl

[heavyMetal]

Safety guy
a better picture would sure help, I can reference the marks to the bolt pattern if need be.

In the picture you did post I think I see both yellow and white marks in the upper right of the pully but they are darn faint!

If the pully was flat on the ground with white lines drawn on the pully, from each mark to the center of the pulley this would give me a 12 O'clock / 6 O'clock reference point so I can either find the marks that are thier or make new ones!

I also appreciate your efforts, thanks

[heavyMetal]

OK got her done, kinda sorta, LOL!

Found I had a bad throttle body gasket, previous owner "glued" the throttle body on with RTV and the old, bad, gasket.

Had a nice whislte to it by the way!

Bought gasket, morons suppling autozone put the worng gasket in the package they sold me, replacement will be in tomorrow.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out my timing marks.

Thanks again safety guy for supplying the pic of the timing cover, I marked my 10 degree line with a white paint pen it will show just fine under a timing light.

Then i went looking for the marks on the pully.

Haynes manual say later model Festiva's align the yellow mark with a pointer on the lower timing cover, my luck I got a blue mark on my pully, no yellow or white, just Blue.

So pulled the plugs and with a friends help rotated the motor to TDC by matching compression, the old thumb over the spark plug hole trick, and watching the rotor come up to dead center on the number one plug wire.

Sure enough the Blue dot, with a small notch in the center, lined up on the pointer on the cover. I also checked the cam alignment marks on the cam shaft belt pully, they were spot on so thwe cam is timed right.

I rotated the pulley so I coulds shine a strong flashlight and a magnifiying glass on the pully and found a second, unmarked small notch cut into the pulley about 10 degrees behind my "belt timing mark" Figure this must be my elusive engine timing mark and used the same white paint pen to fill it in and drew a line clear across the fan belt as well!

Should be pretty easy to pick up tomorrow with my light, after I ground out the sti wire.

I am once again remind why I hate front wheel drive rubber band motor cars! The bad part is there is plenty of room under the hood in this thing for the "engineers" to have moved the whole engine / trans toward the drivers side fender about 2 inchs, which would have made this car incredibly easy to work on!

Sadly this kind of thinking has made itself a mainstay of just about every econo car on the road today, which is why may last purchase was a 6 banger Jeep!

But bashing car makers won't change the way things are done so I'll move on, and off my soap box, to seeing where this goes in the morning.

Another plus is the air filter inlet I bought showed up Thursday and is exactly correct for this Festiva! worked out the correct location of the "breather" hose's and I am real sure this thing had the hose's routed wrong and was pressurizing the crank case causing oil to blow past the rear seal.

I'll run her tomorrow and find out for sure, stay tuned I may be pulling a transmission, LOL!!

[heavyMetal]

TBI gasket fixed the idle at cold start issue. But can't find STI plug to save my life

Need picture if possible and PM sent to Safety guy but need help fast if someone has real picture I need it!

[bravekozak]

I am guessing it is in between the brake master cylinder and the inner LF strut tower.

[heavyMetal]

Looked around pretty good with a flash light this afternoon, didn't see anything remotely resembling what the books say the STI should look like.

Safety guy is having the same issue?? I migt get pic's from him tomorrow or so but bad weather in his area might make that tough to do.

I'll bottom line it and go to the Ford dealer tomorrow if I can make the time, sales meeting and a visit to the Doc's for a "probeing"

If I get anything out of Ford I'll post it.

[Safety Guy]

I just went out to take pics. Here are Aqua's connectors, with the clear one (yellow and green wire) above the black STI connector I'm touching:



Here are Pretty's connectors, with the black STI connector at my fingertips:



At tihis point I'll go outside and carefully cut one of the black STI connector wire cover to see what colors it has.

BTW, Aqua is a '91L and Pretty is a '93GL.

Be back soon.

Cut it. The single wire is green and yellow!

Questions:

Is this black connector the STI one? Why is the wire color different?

When grounded, will we be able to tell any difference by sound or engine speed?

I'm stumped.

Karl

[heavyMetal]

Safety Guy

I really like the Pic's thanks!

I've used the clear plud green and yellow wire connector it does nbothing, books internet say the engine shoudl run a little rough when the STI is grounded the clear green yellow does not do that nor could I change timing with a light.

Your pic's show a wire that is not in my engine harness but I did talk to a ford parts guy that owns a 91.

Down side of that conversation was he's got 81K and has never touched the timing so has no idea about the STI plug but he did tell me that Ford has a nasty habit of buring these kinds of connectors in the wireing harness and taping them over!

Searched engine bay last night did not find it but went under dasah and found several wires that run into the bulkhead fitting into the fender well but nevr came out in the engine bay!

Ran out of time / light but tonight I will pull the front tire and the inner fender well and see if this STI plug is in there!

As for your car, yep ground out that black wire and set your timing which is what I plan to so as soon as I find it, yours should be a Black / Yellow color code if you need to check it before you ground it.

[Safety Guy]

It's not a black and yellow though. It's green and yellow! I cut the wire cover and found that out.

So I should hear a change in engine rpm or idle quality when I ground it?

I just mowed most of my yard and have to get to bed. It may be a few days of rain before I can put the timing light back on. In the meantime I should come up with a better grounding wire to use instead of a plain multistrand wire that doesn't plug in very well.

Time for me to learn the soldering iron!

Karl

[bravekozak]

Time for me to learn the soldering iron!

Better yet, time to buy an open barrel crimper.
Everyone who does their own electrical work should own one.

[Safety Guy]

Olay, any recommendations as to brand, type, etc?

Including brand of connectors as well. Quality ones.

I just bought some HF crimp type connectors. I could practice on those, or use them for minor projects.

Karl