'88 F*rd Festiva Autocross/Track/Daily Driver Build

[theastronaut]

I finally got around to painting my spare set of wheels that the 120 treadwear NS-2R's are mounted on and swapped them onto the car for the summer. They're not quite scrubbed in yet but the extra grip is already very evident. After getting used to the Festiva with these tires I jumped back into the Miata (on coilovers and 260 TW Nitto's) and it was hanging on for dear life at corner speeds that the Festiva shrugged at. Can't wait until the next autocross!




Since I sold the blue '66 C10 I've had to use the Festiva as a truck. Not quite as easy to load up but it works.

[rusty76]

Glad to see some updates on this one. I've been all ears on this little car.

[dug224]

Fun project. Thanks for sharing...

[MalibuSSwagon]

pretty cool!

[theastronaut]

Bought an '88 LX with A/C to drive while this one is down for the swap. Been getting it cleaned up and ready to drive, still need to charge the A/C and swap out the master cylinder and swap to the Escort wheels I took off my other '88.

[Maximus]

Thats alot of little compact love! I always thought an old GTI would be a neat project, but the closest I got was my e36 BMW, I just couldnt commit to FWD, I like to kick the rear out... Every day your having fun is a good day, keep on enjoying those little compacts.

I cant believe there is a Festiva Festival. who would have thought...

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Maximus

Thats alot of little compact love! I always thought an old GTI would be a neat project, but the closest I got was my e36 BMW, I just couldnt commit to FWD, I like to kick the rear out... Every day your having fun is a good day, keep on enjoying those little compacts.

I cant believe there is a Festiva Festival. who would have thought...

I always though fwd would be stupid too, but this car has proved me wrong. It'll rotate the back around off throttle or trail braking, then you keep it from looping with the throttle. More throttle equals less oversteer. So the fast way through a corner is set it up to slide it into the apex, and stay on the gas to pull it through the slide, and power out. The front suspension design plants the tires under power so it doesn't have the usual fwd push coming out of corners.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I always though fwd would be stupid too, but this car has proved me wrong. It'll rotate the back around off throttle or trail braking, then you keep it from looping with the throttle. More throttle equals less oversteer. So the fast way through a corner is set it up to slide it into the apex, and stay on the gas to pull it through the slide, and power out. The front suspension design plants the tires under power so it doesn't have the usual fwd push coming out of corners.

I get it!
Had a few Forest Service roads that felt the wrath of my Dads VW Rabbit!
(when I was young)

[rusty76]

Cool. I keep an eye out every now and then to see if any pop up for sell.

[theastronaut]

I'm off work all week so I pulled the blue '88 into the shop to finish making the engine/trans mounts.

Started by pulling the Capri b6t out and pressure washing the engine compartment.




Then set it up level to within about 1/2* on jack stands.







Pulled the timing cover, belt, water pump, alternator, and Capri engine mount bracket off so I could mount the B3 bracket with spacers. It's spaced 2.125" from the block, and there is a 3/8" spacer between the bracket and the mount to match the 3/8" dropped trasmission crossmember.




I had an Energy Suspension urethane GM transmission mount laying around for my '66 C10 so I grabbed it and thought I might could make it work. Ended up buying another at Oreilly and used them for the front and rear trans mounts.




Rear mount bolted in the factory hole. I'd rather it been turned 90* but it interfered with the shift linkage that way.






Engine leveled, and squared front to back, then I tacked the factory Capri trans mount bracket to the spacer plate that comes with the E/S urethane mount.




Pulled the rear mount back off and welded a nut to the back of the spacer plate, then boxed the plate to the bracket.






Finished rear mount.

[theastronaut]

For the front mount I made a paper template, then transfered that to 1/8" steel plate.








Made a couple bends on the brake, drilled the mounting holes, and welded the plate to the spacer plate on the urethane mount.




Since the car will have air I used the plasma cutter to open up the area around the compressor. I didn't butcher it as badly as it looks, I'll make a reinforced lower radiator support to go back in.






Test fit the bumper to check clearances.




Engine bolted in it's final position with the new mounts. There's plenty of firewall clearance for air filter and syncing the carbs with a flow gauge.













I'll be busy all day tomorrow but I'll try to make the lower radiator support on Wednesday and tear down the B6ze and B6t later this week.

[rusty76]

Thanks for the updates

[theastronaut]

Got a good start on the lower radiator support. The driver side is pretty much finished, passenger side needs more work. The plate over the passenger side bumper mount needs more trimming around the A/C compressor but I'll wait until it's on the other car and I have the Sanden compressor to finish trimming it. A lot of guys use an aftermarket aluminum Civic radiator so I'll pick one up and make mounts for that.








I also found the flange measurements for a Honda F22 header to compare to the B6d. I can't find a readily available fwd B6d header but the measurements between the F22 and B6d are close enough that I should be able to buy a B6d flange and weld it onto the F22 header. I'll buy a cheap one off eBay to see if it'll work.

[theastronaut]

Finished the passenger side of the rad support today. I'll wait until it's in the other car to figure out where to drill the holes since I don't have the Sanden compressor yet.




Also pulled the Miata motor out of storage and started disassembly. I need to make some mods to my engine stand before it'll mount to it.

[theastronaut]

Disassembly didn't go so well... Looks like I'll need another crank.

[rusty76]

Ouch.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Ouch.

Definitely! Not what I was expecting to find on a "running when pulled" engine...


I have a Craigslist app with saved searches/notifications on my phone and have "festiva" and "mercury capri" saved. A '91 Capri XR2 (turbo 1.6/5 speed) for $425 popped up near Atlanta a couple weeks ago and I texted the owner about it but I didn't hear back from him and I wasn't able to go get it that weekend anyway. He texted back the next Wednesday saying that the car had to be gone by the next day. He was only asking $300 at that point so I loaded up the trailer and went to pick it up that afternoon after work. When I got there I noticed an automatic shifter in the console, so it ended up being a base Capri with a N/A 1.6, and someone had installed a XR2 spoiler/badge. The owner apologized and dropped the price to $200 since he had advertised it as a XR2 with a 5 speed.


I was kinda bummed that it wasn't a XR2 but I can use the N/A 1.6 as-is since it's basically a Miata 1.6 engine that's set up for front wheel drive. It doesn't have the "big nose" crank that the 92-93 cars have so I can't run an ATI damper. I don't know how long it'll live at higher RPMs without a damper so I'm planning on it just being a temporary engine until I can find the parts to build a hotter engine.




I've also been working on rebuilding the 40 DCOE's, just waiting on a few new parts to come in the mail and they'll be done. I'll put them on eBay and find a pair of 45 Dellorto's with around 37mm venturis instead since the 33mm venturis in the Webers will limit flow above 6000 rpm.






I've had some questions about rebuilding the Webers... it's not that difficult, just time consuming and there is a lot of cleaning. I dissasembled, then soaked the bodies and parts in a gallon can of carb cleaner, then glass bead blast the carb bodies. The brass parts are soaked in aluminum brightener acid to clean off any corrosion. I found a couple of vids on youtube that show the reassembly well.

45 DCOE 13 Weber Assembly - Part 1 - YouTube

45 DCOE 13 Weber Assembly - Part 2 - YouTube

[/QUOTE]

[ccreddell]

I'd find a Hyabusa motor for that Capri.....

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by ccreddell

I'd find a Hyabusa motor for that Capri.....

It'll probably find it's way to the crusher once I pick some parts off it. Even the Capri enthusiast don't want these cars it seems. I think there are more Festiva guys buying them for the engine/trans than there are Capri people buying them to fix up.

[rusty76]

Glad to see some updates. Sucks about the car not being what you hoped.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Glad to see some updates. Sucks about the car not being what you hoped.

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled about it but now I can put off building the Miata engine from scratch and converting it to suit the fwd setup. This one will go straight in and is identical interally. The small nose crank will hurt it some, I'll end up setting the rev limiter at 7500ish instead of 83-8500 like I'd planned. I'm not wanting to make power past 7500 but the ability to safely stretch it out farther when needed without shifting and without being stuck against a limiter can gain time on the track.

I'm still hoping to find a good deal on a decent XR2 that I can stow away until I find a clean '92/'93 GL Sport to build. I'll swap in the turbo motor and trans, do the same suspension setup as this one, but keep it all 100% factory parts under the hood so it looks like something the SVO team could have put together.

[rusty76]

Really cool stuff. I know very little about your doing but it's really cool. I feel like I've learned a ton. Because I'm a big dare to be different kinda person I really did it. Thanks for keeping us updated.

[theastronaut]

Took it to the first fall semester Clemson autocross on the 26th, first time I've autocrossed it on the Nankang tires. The fastest time of the day was a Fiesta ST with a 48.937, and I came in 8th overall (out of 56 cars) with a 51.042. I was running 5-6 seconds off the fastest times when I had the Achilles all season tires mounted, so the stickier tires helped a lot. It would have been a little quicker but at the level of grip it has now there's apparently too much fuel slosh in the float bowl and it wasn't making power coming out of longer 180* corners. I've seen an old magazine article testing a modified Festiva and they had the same problem on the skid pad. The Webers will solve that problem.

I murdered a cone on my first run... this was a 53.241 lap plus a two second penalty.

http://youtu.be/-OuMOFbAqlw


Second run, 51.59.

http://youtu.be/A_b5qToN6TE





Three wheeling into a corner.

[69gmcc10]

Thanks for sharing your story with this little car, this is so cool!

[rusty76]

Awesome.