It finally happened...

[zoom zoom]

Don't worry, none of this crap is permanent! I just did what I had to do to make it move! Spent 2.29/ft for 2 foot of that smaller lower radiator hose, I will be replacing that soon, the hose got real soft and hot as soon as the engine fired up. For some reason this engine runs hot, the valve cover gets hot to the touch. I might try a new/different thermostat. I had it running, mostly idling for probably 2 hours this evening. A couple 20 minute warm UPS screwing with things, then run hard first to third, adjust disty, run hard, adjust disty... Sat down to eat and do it again..I only put about 10 miles on it here in town but I feel confident enough to try to drive it 20 miles to work tomorrow.

Had to zip tie the VAF, even though I swapped ecus I'm still.running a.b3 VAF?! It will be swapped for the b6 VAF when I make a bracket to mount the cone filter solid somewhere.

Also had to zip tie the slimfan to the stock radiator..that will probably stay the same for awhile.

Can't wait to hit the car wash!!!

[Safety Guy]

Is that a kink in your lower rad hose? If so, could that be restricting coolant flow?

I have the correct t-stats, BTW, if you need one. Two stage.

Karl

[zoom zoom]

Haha, yea, that's a kink! I have the.b3 housings laying around and easy access to some if I can't find mine, but for now its still just b6 housings. I'll probably buy one of those 2 stagers off you when I get a chance to come up, the car runs a little hot right now(I think...the wiring in the engine bay is still fubar so ill be swapping that out soon.I.e. no temp gauge.)


I have some suspension issues to work out, a couple engine issues, and still a lot of work ahead of me to work out these kinks.



Pics of the cluster you hooked me up with Karl, thanks!!!!!!

Also, pics of the new tracer steering column, I have to go back and get the doors/hatch locks! it didn't "just bolt in" and it sticks out a hair further than a stock steering column, but its nothing a grinder couldn't fix real quick. All the tracer plugs would have plugged in but I had to use the Festy ignition harness because the tracer wiring was too short......anyway, I spliced in the little box thing and it turns out that its a buzzer every time my door opens or I turn the key on without a seat belt plugged in it buzzes at me lol.. I think I'm gonna try out the tracer steering wheel, it just feels better!

[zoom zoom]

Ok so here's my problem with the suspension...I put a NEW axle in like...2-3 weeks ago, shortly after I started having steering issues. Also swapped out lcas with a good one. I remember having a hard time getting the lower ball joint in but it didn't register at the time that something was really wrong. Ive also reamed out the lower hole on the RIO struts to get into negative camber. Can anyone tell me what is going on here? I've got an idea but I don't know how to go about fixing it Haha...

The outter toe rods/ball joints don't flex upward enough to screw into the inner rods, that's where my problem has been. Since I have the Rio struts (totally stock) which are about an inch and a half TALLER than stock Festiva struts, AND I reamed out the holes, its putting the ball joints in a bind. Keep in mind I'm riding as high as I can on stock everything but the taller Rio struts. The erratic steering was comming from acceleration, when the suspension is highest in the front, and the ball joints were binding. So...to find a fix for the outter tie rod, use a aspire lca, and keep my look.....or to swap the Rio springs onto Festiva struts and lose some lift it will at least add a little rake so I suppose it might not be toooo bad.

There was a dude yelling at me at a light today complimenting my car, then I had two guys in a parking lot wanting to talk about it. People really seem to like it riding high with these wheels and tires!!


Oh, and I kept up with a Mercedes today! This guy was in front of me eyeballing the car in his mirrors, gave me a thumbs up(must have liked it? Haha..) and when he took off he gunned it, hard. We got up to about 70 and he couldn't pull away from me!!! I did have to stay out of the petal to keep from rearending him though ^.^ it was like a c300 or something IIRC.


I picked up knuckles from the tracer today too. They should fit, stuff is piling up quick though I still need to install my seats and swap out the dash!!!! Ooh, and I've also upgraded to the 323 ecu it did just plug.and play! I pulled the stock ecu while swapping steering columns and swapped the b3 bracketry to.the b6 ecu and mounted it in the stock location like it was stock!

[Safety Guy]

You're having too much fun Matt!

I finally loaded up my pics.

Here's Matt, probably missing a part and looking around to see if he can find something--anything!--that even looks like he could use it:


Fiona waiting...


And waiting...


Ah, the B6 is up in the air, with Matt's proprietary engine lift and yellow fibrous load balancer (most of us call it a "rope")!


Gotta love them 7" wide ARs; the way they stick out and scream "Hot Wheels! Collect them all!"


It's going in!


NEED. FENDER. FLARES.


See that single wire sticking out of the TPS?


That's it. For now anyways.

Karl

[zoom zoom]

haha, hey thanks Karl, good pics!

I like the yellow fibrous load balancer, I've been trying to come up with a good name for it, and I think we've found it!



I put the rio springs on stock struts, mixed and matched bump stops so I should end up with about 2" of suspension travel, stuck the knuckle on the car, and the lower ball joint still doesn't want to line up!!! Remember I reamed out the strut-knuckle holes in the strut to adjust for - camber...well if I knock those loose and twist the knuckle into positive camber I can get both ball joints in! ...so it looks like I won't be able to keep that much lift AND keep the camber as negative as I had it..they actually angled upward quite a bit, probably too much anyway. I'll probably just leave it as close to 0 camber as I can and have it professionally aligned, it's worth it now since all my suspension components are like new.. I can get the printout and know what to do with these rear camber shims from there.

[zoom zoom]

been thinking about the car... maybe it's running hot because I haven't swapped out the vaf's...car running lean could cause it to run hot right? Also the rotor button needs replaced. I wonder if all b3 ecu's say bp01 on the bottom or if this is actually a disty off of a bp and somebody put the b3 rotor button on it which is causing the slop.
More things to work on tomorrow, I really wish I was driving the festy and calling it reliable already still too many kinks to work out.

[shadetree]

I run the b3 vaf on four b6 engine all day every day and have no issue

[zoom zoom]

They don't run hot or anything? Mine idles way high and only drops down to 900 after a good 5-10 minutes of warm up idling. Hit the gas and it stays up at 1300 idle for 30 secs to a minute before it will drop back down to 900. When I plugged in the b6 vaf it automatically idled at 900, then dropped to 7-800 after it warmed up. I don't want to mess with the idle screw since I know it's already set up for a stock b6 vaf and I'll only have to get the disty timing right when I plug in a good vaf...the engine also sounds a LOT better when idling with the b6 vaf. I think it's running too lean with the b3 vaf.

I'm gonna take out the thermostat and see if maybe it's stuck shut or something, I've put about 80 miles on the car and it hasn't overheated but the engine does run pretty hot...the valve cover is hot to the touch, it could just be me but it really seems like it's hotter than it should be....my temp gauge still doesn't work I need a festiva engine wiring harness to replace mine...that should fix it without having to go through the hassle of figuring out what was cut where and re splicing it back together.

I just don't understand why the vaf isn't working right, at 1500 rpm it acts like it's not getting enough fuel, it spits and sputters from 15 up to 3k and I don't even want to rev past that because I know it's out of time and have no desire to blow the head gasket. Think it could have something to do with comming out of an auto car going into a 5 speed? I don't remember having this problem in the junk yard but it had really bad gas so that could have been masking this issue??

[Safety Guy]

Matt, you got a cat in that?

Wow, rhyming! I'm poetically golden, of course.

Karl

[zoom zoom]

Nope no cat. I was rockin the 12" steelies all weekend, the steering was nice and tight felt great, then I swapped the other wheels back on and its pulling left on acceleration and right when I hit the clutch at 5k rpm. Shifting normal its barely noticable if it happens at all.

[Safety Guy]

I think the large negative offset is adding extra leverage of sorts and creating that pulling. You've significantly changed the front suspension geometry with those wheels.

You've made it look cool, but you now have a "side effect."

I think the best thing would be to have those wheels for off road and "cool" use, but switch to more normal wheels for daily driving.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I also wonder if your bearings are being worn in the wrong way as well.

Here, read about "scrub radius." This may be your issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_radius

Some variation on original specs will not be noticeable most of the time. Large changes may be more noticeable. Yours is a large change so it's not surprising you can feel it more than usual.

Karl

[nitrofarm]

Running Hot- Kinked suction hose that is collapsing even more as it heats up restricting flow.(taking in to consideration your water pump/radiator is good.
Idle not wanting to come down after reving and just high in general. Make sure when you set base timing & engine idle speed engine is HOT & you have the jumper wire on. The computer wont know you changed settings and it further exacerbates problems.
For trouble shooting purposes.Get "BASE TIMING" at exactly 10 deg after engine is hot and idle speed is 750 rpm,from now till you get everything dialed in (Otherwise you may be a dog chasing a tail).Also make sure engine temp sensor has a good connection, and the sensor is mint. This can also cause you to chase your tail.
Matt I know talk is cheap but I have years tuning holly carbs,and two stroke Nitro engines. Your running HOT isnt a lean condition,its a coolant deficiency . You have to remember your car has a liquid coolant system with a thermostat. There is no way in HADES you are getting it lean enough to cause over heating issues under the conditions you describe. (I'd bet an ounce of Labrador on it) :thumbs_up:
Lastly your VAF is leaning towards a vertical position,so that might be a small issue(but I dont think its the major one).
You can do what you want(I know your stubborn in a good way). But if it was my situation I would get the Timing/Idle Speed set with a light after each change you do. Good luck,and HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

[zoom zoom]

Haha, well, running anything but these wheels is just out of the question :p I like them too much! I'll just keep rolling on them till something breaks. I'm ordering a rear transmission mount this week and I want to get those tracer knuckles mounted soon, larger vented rotors just sound like fun.

I put a hose clamp where it was bending for support, it isn't getting kinked like it was. I'm going to attempt to stuff a bigger radiator in sometime, mine is leaking (very small leak) from the top seam..and I want to see if a new thermostat will help anything.


To be honest, I can't even find the DLC box!! I was looking in the haynes manual and it shows a cluster of wires for an 88/89 engine with three sockets, I may or may not have those? Gonna grab the whole engine harness from the junk yard Festy Tuesday and get it swapped in to see if my temp gauge starts working in the cluster.

[Safety Guy]

Matt, what's a "DLC box?"

Karl