1988 Festiva LX 'Red' (diesel conversion)

[Frank Lee]

Yes, he's going to have to lighten it as the brake balance will be upset. I think he may even need to add a set of wheelie bars in the front! Or convert to rear drive with of course a full IRS setup from a Jag or Vette.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Lightening a Festiva? Would you be working around body panels made with cardboard and old rags soaked on glue?

There's about 80 pounds of weight reductions to be had without getting into major stuff.. Considering they are about 1800lbs stock that's a pretty good %

[Christ]

What I typically do for weight reducing is clean things up, mostly. There'll be a be a great bit of excess wiring that needs to be cleaned up when installing a 1 wire engine, as there are no sensors, vacuum related inputs, etc. Wheels are an area of slight concern, since its infeasible to acquire 12" tires that are codt effective, I'm currently running 13" front and 14" rear (long story)that will. eventually be swapped for matching sizes and light wheels, perhaps HX/VX wheels or early CRX Si.

When I put new parts on, I always compare weights, remove casting marks, clean areas where there is excess material, etc. The new engine is only slightly heavier than the old one, and I plan on "upgrading" to Aspire front brakes both to complement the rears (already swapped) and for the relative ease of removable rotors. There's a slight weight increase there. Part of the mods I also intend to do is removing the crross member for rust repair on the radiator lower support, but the cross member will be replaced with individual front and rear mounts, saving some weight there. In addition, I will be using the smallest capacity radiator I can find with a direct forced air vent through it. The Festiva's OE radiator is technically overkill for the small gas engine, it'll be even worse for the already cooler running diesel, despite a slight increase in displacement.

Another mod I like the looks of is adding HID lights feom a 2000ish Ranger in place of the OEM glass/metal frames. Reduces weight, increases lighting, saves power.

Long story short, "I got this, bros."

[Christ]

So I finally found someone willing to do the mill work on the flywheel for me, so I don't have to go buy a bunch of tooling I can't afford and set it up myself, possibly fail miserably, and end up with a bunch of tools I'll never use again and a screwed up flywheel.

He's also willing to not charge me $75/hr to do it, so that's a bonus.

Now I just gotta come up with his fee plus the money I owe other people. I'm starting to lose hope that this is gonna be finished before winter at this point... :/

[deejaaa]

have you checked a college or trade school to see if they have a machine shop?

[Christ]

Nothing around here that I can find that will help me with something like this, because it requires 'custom' work, apparently. I tried getting BOCES, they're not interested, and the local Vo-Tech program allows students to bring in personal projects, but they appraently aren't taking outside stuff from what I hear.

[Christ]

Just ordered the pilot bearing.

Pulled the transmission out of the car today and sorta cleaned 15 lbs of grease and dirt off it, had to disassemble the CV inners to plug back into the transmission because it's gona be sitting 'open' for awhile.

Transmission is sitting on the back of the engine right now, waiting for me to get a piece of steel or alum and make an adapter plate for it.

Looking at the clock angle the engine is supposed to be installed, I'm not really positive it's even going to fit... But that's why I got the nickname 'Thor'

[skyking]

That's my style of body work too! Get a bigger hammer

[Christ]

Well, this engine is supposed to be clocked back about 15*... and the intake and exhaust are both on the back of the engine as well.. Thinking something's gonna hit and require modification, but I'm ready for that.

[Christ]

The next couple pics I take are going to reveal what the engine is anyway, so I'm gonna come right out and say it here:

I pulled the engine from my '86 VW Golf IDI, it's a 1.6L 58HP diesel.

This engine currently has north of 250,000 miles on it, and it still runs and starts fine, but it will need to be pulled and gone over sometime. Right now, I'm more interested in getting it all sorted and in the car. I'll do the 'details' later on, after I know everything's working correctly.