What I'm doing lately (kind of an ecomod)
 

What do you do when you have these two cars sitting around doing nothing:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1-18173331.jpg

93 Ford Festiva L and 93 Mercury Capri Xr2 (turbo)


Well, you build a "Fastiva" of course.

Okay putting a higher power engine in a car that already gets 45+ mpg isnt exactly an 'ecomod', but think of it as taking the engine out of a car that gets 35 mpg, and moving it to a lighter body that has more mpg potential ;)

The Capri is a decent little car, pretty fun, and probably good for mid-15's at 85-90mph, and I got 35-38mpg when I was driving it, but it had a rotted out chunk of frame rail that took a sizable amount of floor with it.

But at 1800lbs (or less) the Festiva is over 700lbs lighter than the Capri. Put 2+2 together, even if I leave the Capri engine (Mazda B6T 1.6L DOHC turbo) at a stock 132hp and 136lb-ft of torque, the Festiva is probably still good for mid to high-14's and should be able to get at least 40mpg still (I routinely got 48mpg on average in the Festiva). Nobody keeps a turbo engine bone stock though, and 200hp is *too* easy to get to on these engines.

Sounds like a killer daily driver to me.

My progress so far...

I started off by pulling the B6T and G25MR trans out of the Capri. I also pulled the entire engine harness including where it runs through the firewall into the interior. Inside it ends with three plugs to the ECU and then a plug you splice into the Festiva's wiring for things like ignition power and starter trigger.

Heres the Capri engine bay before I yanked the motor... I had gotten started on freeing up the harness and such things here.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_York2010.jpg

And then the next day or so I had the engine ready to pull...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_York2010.jpg


And the next day or so I had it out...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_York2010.jpg


Only a couple things I need from the Capri now, the intercooler (Its really not that great but I'll use it for now), and the interior part of the harness (I'm trying to trace it up through the dash so I dont have to extend the wires). I may end up using the brakes off the car as they are a HUGE upgrade to the tiny Festiva brakes. After that the rest of the car will be up for parts.


And now today I started on the Festiva, and got the 63hp Mazda B3 (1.3L) pulled.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_York2010.jpg

Even with 181,000 miles and sitting the last year or so the engine ran awesome. It ran a 17.95 at 76.1mph in a car under one ton. I also averaged 48mpg. Probably one of the most reliable engines ever, does its job perfectly. Heres a quick video of its final run, for the record. And incase anyone happens to want it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6weaiVV5u2c

Thats all for now though, I'm hoping to get some more done tomorrow, but its a 40 minute drive to my dads... if not for that, I probably would have it done by now.

Sounds like an interesting project.
Keep us updated.
You took a 1.3L Festiva to the drag strip ??? How long until the laughing stopped?

There was no laughing that I knew of. Its not all that uncommon to take a slow car down a drag strip. Its more for fun than anything, and you can even win bracket races in a slow car.

Some of todays progress...

Got the last of the wiring I needed out of the Capri. The big one is what plugs into the engine harness and then gets wired to the Festiva's ignition switch wiring. The small bundle of wires pointing north is all I need. Two wires deliver current to the fuel pump, a big blue wire for +12v constant, a wire for switched +12v, a wire for the check engine light, and a couple grounds. That big bundle pointing east is unused.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...3-08165750.jpg

The smaller plug with the three wires also plugs into the engine harness, but under the hood. Two wires go to the coil connection and provide tach signal, and one goes to the big main power fuse.


I also ordered a new clutch set off ebay, the old one is toast...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...3-08171200.jpg

The new one is a "XTD Stage 3 Race Clutch", its a 6 puck disc with 'copper ceramic' friction material. Best part is under $160 shipped. I've been told they hold up really well for being a "cheap ebay" setup.

cool project.

nice project cant wait to see it done

Cool!
Just for my interest:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...w_York2010.jpg

Is that motor in some way related to Toyota? it sure looks like it to me.

I can vouch for XTD clutches. I used to beat the stage 2 in my Civic, then switched it for a solid 4 puck and used to beat that even harder, and it never slipped, even in violent burns all the way through 2nd gear. At the end of 2nd, I'd grab third, get a good chirp, and launch like I should have 2 gears ago. :)

Nope its a Mazda B6T (Mazda B engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Good to hear good things about the clutch. Unfortunately Ive also read the throwout bearing that comes with it wont work with my Capri trans... I'll probably have to get that separate.

Haven't had any good progress lately because of the weather. Still working on getting the trans mounted first. Theres actually someone selling taller 5th gears for the trans that I may look into. Stock Capri 5th is .8 I think and this one is .71 I think.

I also need a 2.5" hole saw to cut a hole in the firewall for the wire harness...

I don't have them handy to show you ATM, but often, the only reason a release bearing won't work is the attachment method. They're usually a bearing within a case, attached to a backing plate by 4 bent tabs.

I've rebuilt enough of them on enough cars to figure out that if you need a specific size that you can't find for a specific car, it's not hard to self-manufacture one by taking the old one from that car and making the backing plate fit into the bearing case.

If yours are anything like that, maybe you can make the new one work using the mount plate from the old one?

I won 5 rounds at a drag strip with my 96 3 banger Geo running 19.9s at 65 while leaving at 3500 rpm and shifting at 5700. I was shifting into 4th right at the mph timing light (starts timing for mph at finish line) and on the [pass that I didn't shift into 4th it ran the 19.84 at 66 mph. The 1/8 miles were all in the 12.57-12.59 range at 57 mph. Two more rounds and I would have won $1000!!!!! The car was bone stock mechanically but lightened up 100 lbs.
I beat one 14 second car and the rest ran 9-11 seconds in the 1/4...my regular car (05 SRT4 Neon...now in the 12s) was sitting with a broken axle.
I use this as a daily driver and a delivery behicle for rims/tires that I sell.

You can check out photos of my cars and those I race against here:

My SRT4 Neon
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
Me giving a .14 second head start to a much modified Mustang...check out his tires!
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
Me giving a head start to a wheelie popping Mustang
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
Me giving a near 2 second head start to a SHARP old school Camaro
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
Me closer to stock
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
Even the 3 cylinder Geo gets action
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography
The White Gnat strikes again
Hyper-Performance Motorsports Inc. Photography

NHRA Div 3 ET Finals pics
DSC_0681 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Ditto
DSC_0679 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Left front corner of hood
DSC_0677 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

As far as taking a larger motor into a lighter car...that will improve the gas mileage of the bigger motor set up in the heavier car for sure if the gear ratio/tire sizes remain the same. I have not done a motor swap on my 3 banger Geo BUT taking 100 lbs out of it saw a 1 mpg mpg improvement on the hiway. If I deliver a set of rims at 100 lbs the mpg goes back to the original. If I deliver the maximum load of 8 rims/tires then I loose 4 mpg due to the extra 400 lbs and you can really feel the performance difference...almost as if the car is not running correctly!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjjRCx_oOA0

tada

Nice!

Ive put like 6000 miles on this thing in two months, have gotten a best of 40.1mpg out of it, and just the other day found out I've been running on 3 cylinders the whole time. The wires for one of the injector plugs were loose. Now I'm pretty sure this is why I was getting abysmal mpg with the o2 sensor plugged in, like 32 mpg. I would get 38-39 without the o2. I would imagine missing a whole cylinder worth of fuel would look quite lean to the o2 sensor and tell it to dump in as much fuel as possible.

I thought the car was quick already but holy crap this thing screams now. It will rip the tires off in 1st and half of 2nd and has no trouble maxing out the 85mph speedo. I only have a few issues now, one of which is the rear suspension is worn and is squatting under hard acceleration allowing the front end to come up and spin the tires. Another thing is Im running open exhaust now (hearing that turbo whistle coming from a FESTIVA is awesome) and theres too much flow basically, the wastegate cant bypass enough, so it creeps up to the 11psi overboost cutout, which you can see in my video. I need a chip for the ecu that allows you to go over 11psi.

Heres a video of me ricing around, don't mind the granny shifting, overboost cut, or oil light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY-ngHZPYDg

ON THE FLIP SIDE OF THINGS (the more mpg friendly side)

Its REALLY friendly to drive ecomodder style. This thing lugs down to idle. I can seriously drive around in 5th at 25mph, about 1000 rpm, and then get up to 55 just fine without downshifting. Theres gobs of low end torque for low rpm acceleration and cruising, and Im finding that its pointless to row thru all 5 gears when I just end up shifting every 5mph (which is every half a second or so lol). I could probably skip 1st, and just go 2-4-5. I swapped the .8 5th gear thats stock in the capri trans to a .71 from a 626. It runs about 2200-2300 rpm at 55. It could probably cruise 55 at 1500. I think I have the tallest 5th gear that came in any G25MR transmission though. The engine just seems to work so much less in the 1800lb festiva than the 2500lb capri. I only wish I could still run the little 12 inch festiva wheels instead of the heavy 15 inch capri wheels.

Now that I have all 4 cylinders working Ive plugged the o2 sensor back in. Im hoping to maintain 40mpg (If I can keep the right foot relaxed), and I'd be super happy if I can get 45 out of it. I averaged 34.5 in the Capri with a best of 38.5. I averaged 47-48 in the stock festiva with a best of 53. So I think logically this should get somewhere between that. I'll keep y'all posted on it.