A few questions...

[Glitch]

Hi all,
Just found this site. Still doing a bunch of reading. Lots of good info.
I am the proud owner of an 89 Festiva. I have had it for 3 weeks. I work at a Ford dealership and I was talking to the sales manager when I saw one of the salesmen drive up in this little car. Several other salesmen were out there also. I asked the manager how much for the car? He said $201. Not sure why the extra $1. I told him sold. Anyhow that is how I got the car and now I am hooked on driving it. Saves me a ton of miles and gas on my truck. Fun to drive.
The old couple that traded it in bought it new from the dealership. It is red with a/c and 91k miles on it. It is an automatic. Runs great but has what I would call a rod knock.Had it up on the hoist with it running and at an idle there is a knocking noise coming from the oil pan. Not very loud. I put new axle shafts,front brake pads,2 new tires, flushed the radiator,deglazed the rotors and drums,new fuel filter and a fresh oil change. The oil level was very low and very dirty when I got it.
Anyhow, about the knock. I did buy a set of rod bearings and a pan gasket. It looks like I can change out the bearings without pulling the engine?Is this true? Do most also change the oil pump too when doing this?
The e brake pulls up but does not seem to work. ????

Great forum.
Thanks for any input and if there is anything else to check please let me know.

Terry,

[packrat427]

Welcome to the board

That is a Amazing looking car !!!!
I would for sure do the pump while it is down , I am not sure if you can do the rod brgs while in the car , Good luck and post more pics soon

[Festy46]

You can check to verify the rod knock by starting the engine and pulling one spark plug wire off at a time. If it is a rod knocking, when you pull the wire for the cylinder with the bad rod bearing, it should quiet down considerably. Pull the spark plug wires out of the distributor, not off the plugs or you will get a "shocking" experience. You should have waited to buy the rod bearings until you can carefully measure the crankshaft in case it is worn or undersize. As far as the oil pump, that is going to be a lot of extra work since it fits over the end of the crankshaft. You will need to pull the timing covers, crankshaft pulleys, timing belt, and timing sprocket to get to the oil pump. Personally, if I were not pulling the engine, I would leave the pump alone and hope for the best since it has reasonably low miles.

[5.0zone]

Terry,
Great find you have there and welcome to the forum.
These engines usually don't have rod bearing problems.
If you keep the oil changed regularly they will go +250k miles without any major problems.

I think you should be able to change the rod bearings with it in the car and do change the timing belt while you're in there.

Torque specs:
rod bolts - 22-25 lb-ft
main bolts - 40-43 lb-ft

[freshtiva]

Nice looking car :!: Rarely see one without all the dents. Aren't you glad it found you ?

[Glitch]

Thanks a bunch for all the info.
Did not know about the pump location. Thought it mite just be a couple of bolts and off it goes once the pan was off. I will buy a timing belt also. Who knows if it has ever been changed. I will warm it up today and try the spark plug trick to see if it really is a rod.
The car does have dents and dings in it but are not bad. The picture does not show them well. The people who had it before most likely had it parked outside near some kind of building. The roof was faded orange and there was a section on the 1/4 panel that was also faded orange. Could not see were it had ever been painted on. The good thing is I work in a body shop. The other day I pulled it in and quickly painted the 1/4 and roof just to make it look a little better.Made a big difference. I think it would be fun to put some kind of body kit on it and paint the whole thing. Maybe this coming summer?
The car is so much fun. The guys at work all want me to drive at lunch.
Everyone of them has also told me if I sell it they want it :lol: I am glad it found me!!! Truth is I bought it for my Daughter but when I drove it I could not give it up. I ended up getting her a Buick..Blaaa.
Roof before.

After quick paint job. I do mean quick.

[htchbck]

^^^^^ WOW!!! where are you located? cause my blue car is also going to need a quick paint job pretty soon!

[25Horseplay]

Nice car! Hopefully a set of bearings fixes it. If you have to replace the engine it would be a great time to upgrade it! There are several swaps that will work, search the site and you will see how much you can actually do to these great cars! I see it had the factory Festiva site originally, there is a member her who had a few factory stripe kits if you were interested.

[packrat427]

I see something else in the garage that looks like FUN !!!!

Nice job on the roof

[Glitch]

Ya, the dune buggy is fun but eats all of my $$$$$$ up.Makes it not so fun if you know what I mean. I kind of went crazy with it. Trying not to do that with the Festiva. After painting the roof and left 1/4, it really makes me want to take all the dents and dings out and paint it. A spoiler on the rear would also look good.Maybe tint the windows and some cool rims. I will put the bearings and belt in first and then go from there. Maybe put the factory strips back on after the repaint. Who knows. For now I just love driving it. Who would have thought I would like this little car so much.Lot of fun.

[25Horseplay]

^^Oh Oh he addicted^^ Will you be able to contain your self??

[Tom]

If you are driving that with a rod pounding you are ruining the crank.

You might not have a rod knock though I don't know what it might be, my rods started knocking on an 89 when it ran low , almost out of oil and I had a bunch of junk in the dash covering the red light and didn't see it until it was to late and already knocking.