All Hail FESTIVA!!!! LORD OF HESITATION

[archiebold]

Alrighty then.. check this out.

Ford Festiva, 93, 5sp (L?)

Going to work it over heats and decides to drop coolant fast as I put it in. I noticed that when it was hot, it wouldnt let me accelerate almost at all, sounded like it was dieing :shock:. Got it home, and diagnosed it was a small hose that ran infront of the engine from the water pump i would presume. Only about 4 inches long. Got that replaced and thought i had it all fixed. Going to work the next day and it starts over heating again, when i stopped to check it out, there is a pool of antifreeze on the PASSENGER side. The only thing I can think of is the water pump going. After all this rambling, the only question i have is do you think my engine is dead after all that overheating?? Because i was running it but the temp gauge was ony about 3/4. I was thinking it was alright untill it started to hesitate. Does the temp gauge even work when there is little or no coolant??
Thanks
RJV

[Guest]

ooh.. take the cap off and crank the engine over.. does coolant shoot out of the radiator?
Oil in the coolant?
Coolant in the oil?

[Cancer]

I'm not sure if it's the same stuff, but my DA Teg used to die alot because of overheating since when the motor was swapped someone killed the fan somehow and at the time I didn't know it. The ECU (which was OBD-0) had an automatic kill for when it was running hot. Do Festiva's have these?

[Guest]

no, the head gasket usually goes if they get too hot for too long..

[archiebold]

ooh.. take the cap off and crank the engine over.. does coolant shoot out of the radiator?
Oil in the coolant?
Coolant in the oil?

That would require me filling the entire system again ops: Hopefully I didnt blow the head gasket. I think this friday I am going to check the passenger side of the engine and make sure the water pump isnt going bad. I have put some of that coolant stop leak with the flakes in it, I kinda think that is what is putting that poor thing to an early death. There is a belt that squeals every once in a while, I am thinking the pump is so bad that it freezes every once in a while and makes the belt squeal. I think the pump going bad is why it is leaking from there. NEways, time for work 8) Will get to the festy on friday.

[oldgrezmonke]

anti freeze is slick and will make the belts squeal when it gets on them

[htchbck]

if your radiator is empty and you want to fill it just to check and see if it squirts out when you crank it (usually indicating a blown head gasket or maybe a cracked head) just fill it with water to do the test. Heck of a lot cheaper than antifreeze (like $10 a gallon last I checked) and a lot easier to clean up too. That way you aren't wasting any antifreeze. Then you can just drain the system after you're done and refill it with 50/50... good luck with the car!

[archiebold]

Ok, here is what I did. Checked where it was leaking on the passenger side, seemed like it was coming straight off the crankshaft pully. Get it into my uncles shop and get tearing the water pump out and get it all replaced good. Doesnt leak now anymore, but now it runs like a four letter "S" word :evil: It will barely keep an idle, and it has no power (apparently there is such as thing as less than 60hp :roll: ), bogs down whenever in even slightly a lower gear (ie going 60 and putting it in 5th) Also I noticed there was an oil/antifreeze mix in my intake hose, hopefully it got there when the small radiator hose blew up and covered the entire engine bay in antifreeze. I really hope it is just a bad sensor or something else stupid like that, but I have a feeling I have a bad case of "blown head gasket :shock: " I did put a compression test on each of the cylenders with a wierd result, 80 psi on one cylender, and 60 on the rest. This is inconclusive because A) I dont know how much pressure they should hold and B) the gauge I used barely worked at best.

Thanks for the time and thoughts plz pray for me and my festy

I think I will just bring it to my Ford dealership... my dad has connections there (used to work there).
Thanks
RJV

[zoe60]

A dealer will ream your butt. Youve probably blown the head gasket and possibly warped the head. Those tiny little aluminum heads just can't take much heat.

[GenevaDirt]

If the engine was covered with antifreeze....then the cap and wires could be the problem. Moisture inside the cap will bog it...and if the wires are old and soaked then they will not fire properly. Replace the cap, rotor and wires and go from there.

[freshtiva]

This thread is four months old.

[FestYboy]

blown head gasket, most likely between cylinders 2,3 and 4, with a seal leak between a water hole and oil return hole in the gasket. pull the head, take it to a machine shop and have it decked. new gasket kit for it and you should be back in business.

by the way, even if you're not that mechanicaly inclined, a headgasket change on the B3 is a piece of cake, all you need is a haynes manual and a few basic tools, and i mean BASIC: metric wrench and wratchet set and a few screwdrivers, most things being between 10 and 13mm w/ some 7mm for the small stuff.