1988 Festiva LX 'Red' (diesel conversion)

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Cobb

I had hoped to get an 85 golf diesel, but it too had rust. The drivers seat was sticking through the floor and countless other problems. THe bracket that held the petals was broken, front engine mount busted, alt bracket broke, 5th gear stripped. Now when it was driving the owner said it got 43 mpg.

Think Ill go back surfing diesel generators....

Yea, you'll find a ton of them like that. Sometimes it's cheaper to convert something using a junk diesel car and a decent chassis from something else, especially if you're talking about fixing up a VW, it seems. I've never seen such outrageous part prices, even in the 'heavily used' market.

I've honestly seen people selling 300k mile TDi's for $5000, even seen a few MK3 Golf D's actually sell for $3000ish. It's stupid the prices people will pay for things.

My '96 Passat TDi has 301,500 on it. I paid $400, did a little brake work [need to do more] and put a plate on it the next day. It fired right up with a battery after sitting in a field for 3 years and haven't had any troubles with it other than severe cold start issues and the 'normal' maintenance woes of a 20ish year old car with insane mileage.

My Golf wasn't actually all that bad. It was still driveable when I took it off the road, but after I broke the gauge cluster, I'd kind of had it with the car and it's little 'issues' always popping up. Same thing that happened to my Civic years ago... went out to start it on a relatively nice day and had left the dome light on, battery was weak. I ended up pop starting it out of the driveway, parked it out back and parted it out over a matter of 4 weeks. I'm rather unkind to cars that don't do as commanded.

[deejaaa]

I can squeeze upper 50's with my 02 5 speed jetta. great engine to transplant.

[Christ]

So I'm still on this. Kinda anxious for warmer weather so I can try out my new idea, which is going to simplify this whole swap by miles.

The idea is to take a Member, hubs, and LCA from the donor car, and bolt them in under the Festival... which basically completes the swap, because it leaves one motor/starter mount to adapt, a shift linkage to connect, and various smaller tasks that don't require custom work.

Doing it this way also opens the platform up for other attractive swaps, such as the venerable VR6 engine, the efficient 2.0 gas, and the 'more fun than it should be' 1.8T, since they all bolt to the same Members using their own mounts. Beyond that, wiring is the only issue for any of them, and VW engine management wiring is pretty much always a simple harness and ECM location that can be pulled along with the engine/ trans easily enough.

Imagine a PumpeDeuse in a Festiva...

[Christ]

Ended up moving the car down into the area behind the house so I can clean out the driveway and put a pass-thru garage there... brought the rear engine mount/crossmember from the VW [even though it's rusty and broken] so I can mock it up for the bolt locations under the Festy... now I gotta lift up the Festy and put it on horses so I can get underneath it and finish stripping the rest of the front end off it.

Everything needs to come off... steering rack, LCA's, hubs and shocks, every bracket and mount under the hood... the hood and fenders, bumper, basically anything that can be removed will be.

On the plus side, the stock LCA's mount to the frame, which will give me a reference point to line up the final position of the new brace and ball joints/LCA's from the VW crossmember, ensuring that camber/caster settings will remain pretty close to stock.

[Christ]

Acme 7001 Juicerator

I also picked up one of these using my eBay bucks... paid $52 shipped for it with no cash outlay on my part.

The point of this unit is that it's a small centrifuge that works pretty well for a hobbyist to clean oil for use as recycled fuel... I already know that the VW IDI's will burn oil without any problems, and the engine I'm using has run on it in the last vehicle it was in, this means I'll be able to clean oil and run it that way instead of running it black. The disposal of the 'remainder' of the soot and carbon etc that comes out will go into buckets that will be delivered to a local AutoZone to be sent to whoever buys their bulk used oil.

This unit is the precursor to a larger centrifuge build I will end up doing if I decide I need more cleaning capacity.

[rusefi]

I always smile when I see a Festiva This car has taught me a lot.

[Christ]

So... looks like I'll be putting around on this over the weekend, weather permitting.

Plan is to finish the oil cooler on the F250 I got awhile back [IDI], do a little tinkering on the TDi Passat, along with playing with a few other things, and intermittently strip out the entire front end of the Festiva so I can line up the new crossmember and mark the bolt locations etc.

Realistically speaking, I don't expect much in the line of actual progress to take place, but I'll be sure to take some pics anyway and detail what's actually going on.

[Christ]

This is the car I was going to do the VW swap into, but I'm financially incapable of completing it, and have essentially lost interest in the Festiva world altogether.
As of right now, I have everything to put the car back together as stock except for the axles [they're there but need rebuilt], the clutch kit, and one headlight.
The A/C components are inside, I have a clear title, and it has a 4x100 swap on the back, but not the front.
With everything included that I have for the car, including a clear title, I'm asking $500. There is either zero rust, or as close to zero rust as can be on this car. I also have a few random spares that can go with it.
Obviously it will need to be trailered home.
I'm also willing to part it out, as well as selling the VW parts that were set aside for it [almost a complete kit for swap purposes], if anyone is interested in parts.
570.529.1478 call/txt
Guys, I need to get this thing out of my sight immediately. I'll be needing money for another [much more interesting] project, and if it comes right down to it, I'll crush this car to get the hundred or so bucks I can get from the chassis and give my dad whatever's useful from it.

[Frank Lee]

Too bad you're so far away.

[Christ]

I could meet you if you had extra money for fuel, but that's about the only way feasible in my current situation, and that's provided my truck would actually make it that far [I don't really doubt that it would... but it's fun to doubt the truck.]