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

[67ChevyRedneck]

I have to agree, that's pretty freakin' cool!

[jayoldschool]

Just read the entire thread. Almost picked up a Festy about ten years ago. Neighbours had a MINT black one that was loaded. Auto, so I did all the homework on a manual swap. Figured since I did a T56 in my Impala SS, converting the Festiva would be easy. Car sold before I could even stop to see it.

Looking forward to updates!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by 69gmcc10

Seriously excellent work being done here! Good knowledge, fun videos, outside of the norm; this is my favorite build on the forum. please keep it up!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rusty76

Never in a million a years did I think there would be so much to do with a Festiva. Lol. Cool work.

Oh yeah, there are Festiva meets all around the US throughout the year and there are new products being developed all the time.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

That some serious suspension you got going on there...

It's all pretty simple and cheap really, I have maybe $700 in all of it. The suspension design and lightweight body doesn't need much help to make it handle really well.

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

I have to agree, that's pretty freakin' cool!

Thanks Jesse, come out to the Clemson autocross sometime and I'll let you ride in it!

Originally Posted by jayoldschool

Just read the entire thread. Almost picked up a Festy about ten years ago. Neighbours had a MINT black one that was loaded. Auto, so I did all the homework on a manual swap. Figured since I did a T56 in my Impala SS, converting the Festiva would be easy. Car sold before I could even stop to see it.

Looking forward to updates!

Thanks for checking in Jay, too bad the neighbor's car was gone before you had a chance to buy it. Manual swaps aren't too difficult and make the car much more fun... the three speed auto is a pretty lame transmission.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Thanks Jesse, come out to the Clemson autocross sometime and I'll let you ride in it!

I see the next one is Oct, 27, that prob. won't work being halloween weekend. The next one is Nov. 10th but that may collide with the truck club toy drive, it should be somewhere around there.

What "hours" does it run, and would I need to bring a helmet (I don't have one.)

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

I see the next one is Oct, 27, that prob. won't work being halloween weekend. The next one is Nov. 10th but that may collide with the truck club toy drive, it should be somewhere around there.

What "hours" does it run, and would I need to bring a helmet (I don't have one.)

Usually runs 9-3ish and they have loaner helmets.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Usually runs 9-3ish and they have loaner helmets.

Nice! I'll follow up with you on facespace if I'm able to make any of those!

[theastronaut]

I made it to the Festiva show in Raleigh, just not in the red car. The starter was grinding badly and shimming the solenoid didn't help. It also leaked antifreeze from a drain plug, so I had to remove the header to change it out. I didn't have the rear axle built or in yet either.


We had a great turnout with 52 cars and what seemed like the most people of the last three events I've been to.






I was able to finally pick up the sliding sunroof at the show. The cover is in good shape, just needs cleaning. It'll need a new headliner but dad said that it would be an easy fix. It's dark grey so it'll blend in well with the bumpers, side trim, and wheels.




I plumbed the lines for both manifold and ported vaccum (the distributor uses both). Not the best looking but I'm not building a show car. It may need a vaccum tank to smooth out the pulses from each runner, won't know until I start driving it.




The leaking freeze plug. Someone had put JB Weld over it in the past.




I finished reshaping and welding the downpipe and installed it in the car. There's still a short section of original exhaust pipe that'll be replaced once I can drive it to the muffler shop. I'm pretty happy with how the header and downpipe fit since they were originally for a completely different car. The downpipe actually tucked up a little higher than the transmission crossmember so ground clearance won't be a issue.






I stripped and painted the rear axle last night, and assembled the passenger side brakes and camber spacer tonight. I should have the axle done and in the car tomorrow night, so I can roll it out and attempt to crank it for the first time!








Not related to the red car, but the white '89 rolled over to 167K today. It had 150k when I bought it last November. Mechanically it's been 99% problem free since swapping in the freshened-up engine and five speed back in February, 14k miles ago. It averages 30 mpg around town (driving it hard), and I get 35-37 on the interstate. It would get a bit better mileage without the roof rack and if I leaned out the idle jets.

[MP&C]

John, you're just having too much fun!

[jhrusk]

Cool to see a following of these cars. Your level of detail in everything you do is cool. Any work on the 69??

[rusty76]

Very nice. Great turn out at the show. Wished I could’ve made it. I ended up working.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by MP&C

John, you're just having too much fun!

Yep!

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Cool to see a following of these cars. Your level of detail in everything you do is cool. Any work on the 69??

There's not that much detail work going on with this one since it's just going to be a driver. Some of it is rough looking to be honest. The '69 is ready to crank once I rebuild the carb and get the tank back from being cleaned out. I've patina matched the door and hood, and have cleaned up everything in the engine compartment. The brakes are done other than the two front hoses and bleeding them. I started the body/paint on a '65 C10 bed and fenders a few weeks ago so I haven't spent any time on the '69 lately.

Originally Posted by rusty76

Very nice. Great turn out at the show. Wished I could’ve made it. I ended up working.

Hopefully you can make it there next year! Or go ahead and buy one and bring it to Arizona for our track event in February

[theastronaut]

I got the rear suspension finished and installed, bled the brakes, and swapped the wheel over from the white car so it would roll. Also started polishing the velocity stacks.

[rusty76]

I was haunted by a blue Festiva this morning. Couldn’t seem to escape it. Lol

[theastronaut]

Not much to update other than I've flushed the gas tank and started the engine for the first time. The initial setup of the carbs carbs seems to be off; it's running very rich at idle, enough so that it actually runs best with all four idle mixture screws closed. I'll check the float heights and fuel pressure first, hopefully its something that simple.

My brother in law works for Michelin and signed us up for an autocross on the 18th at Michelin's Laurens Proving Grounds. From the sign up list there will be some pretty stout competition- a 2012 Nissan GT-R, numerous BMW M cars, a Pro-Touring Chevelle, etc... Time to buckle down and get it sorted so it's ready to race!

Festiva Running & Revving - YouTube

[theastronaut]

I drove the car around the school parking lot beside the shop for the first time a couple weekends ago... needs serious tuning to make it run smoothly. Right now it's slower than my white '89.

I went over the carbs- checked the float level, fuel level in the bowl, adjusted the accelerator pump linkage, and reset the butterflies in the barrel so both barrels close completely at the same time. It idles much better now but there is still a dead spot. After searching arouind a bit I found that I have the wrong emulsion tubes- the current one are meant to lean out the mixture as it transitions to the main jets which is exactly what seems to be happening. I ordered the correct tubes from Italy with expidited shipping, they should be here tomorrow. Hopefully that fixes the dead spot and it'll run decent enough to take to the Michelin autocross this weekend.

I tried to take the distributor apart to modify it for more centrifugal advance but was unsuccessful. I thought maybe the capri/b6d advance parts would fit in the b3 distributor but that didn't work either. The b3 distributor only advances 17 degrees compared to the b6d's 25 degrees so it'll be down on power until I get that straightened out. Miata guys with basically the same engine are running 28-30* for max power. I also started plumbing the engine for an air/oil separator, and began wiring the AFR gauge. I'll spend a few nights this week going over everything on the suspension- dialing in the ride height and alignment, and double checking all bolts/fasteners before I get it out on the road. Still need to go to the dmv to register it, get the bumper/hood/grill installed, and hook up the e-brake too.


First pic of all three together.




b3 advance mechanism.

[rusty76]

Hope you do well this weekend.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Hope you do well this weekend.

Thanks!

The carb parts didn't come in til yesterday so I only got to take the white Festiva to the autocross. Jacob (my BIL that works at Michelin) had been ribbing his boss that a Festiva was going to outrun his pro-touring Chevelle, and we thought we'd need the red car to get the job done. We were dissapointed when the parts didn't show in time. I swapped the 13's with R888's back on the white one and took the roof rack and spare tire/jack out to shed extra weight but didn't do anything else to prep it.

We took turns driving and Jacob was catching on pretty quickly. It started puking oil from the valve cover breather after the third run; the base of it had split and it was leaking badly. We had to make an Oreilly's run to get parts to fix it, hose to remote-mount the new breather/filter, and brake cleaner/towels to wash off all the oil that had leaked everywhere. We missed seven morning runs but was able to get back in time to get lunch with the group and make all of the evening runs.

There were some pretty serious cars and drivers at the event. 1-6th place were all either Michelin drivers or were with the SCCA club that setup the event the day before with the same layout so they had more practice. The Evo was a fully built time attack race car that was trailered there, the Z06 was a streetable racecar with sponsor decals covering it, the Subarus were modified, the Mini was modified and on slicks... these guys weren't playing!

Jacob's boss ended up bringing his newer Camaro SS with Detroit Speed susupension parts, engine work, and sticky tires which I figured would be even quicker than the Chevelle. He placed 20th out of 45 entries with a 56.612. My best was a 54.114 which put me in 10th... very suprising for not getting all the runs in to learn the track, having completely blown front coilovers, and only around 75 hp. They're supposed to have two autocrosses next year so hopefully we can go back with the red car and maybe place even better!







Link to full res results:

https://imgur.com/appbz5D

[rusty76]

Was this past meet at the Michelin plant? We came through there not long ago and man that place looks massive. Between it and the BMW plant. Awesome on your finish of tenth. That’s really cool.

[jhrusk]

Looks like a good time John. I suppose goldilocks might need a little therapy after the festiva take over. Lol.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Was this past meet at the Michelin plant? We came through there not long ago and man that place looks massive. Between it and the BMW plant. Awesome on your finish of tenth. That’s really cool.

Yes, it was their test track near Laurens SC. The autocross pad was huge, big enough that when we were working the track we could see cars braking for the stop box but it sounded like they were still accelerating.


We were on the rectangle pad all the way to the left side of the pic.

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Looks like a good time John. I suppose goldilocks might need a little therapy after the festiva take over. Lol.

Goldilocks is jealous for sure. I can apply a lot of what I've learned from the Festiva on the truck though!

[rusty76]

Huge complex. That’s cool. We passed through on our way to Fort Benning GA. I kept wondering if that’s were the meet was. Wished we could’ve timed where we were passing by and the meet was going on so I could’ve checked it out. My wife wouldn’t been into it but my mom would’ve loved it. Lol.

[theastronaut]

Didn't realize it's been so long since I updated this. The red car is munching oil and fouling plugs on two cylinders so I haven't been able to drive it any since getting it running. I need to check to see if it's the rings or just valve stem seals but it's been too cold to mess with it and I've been having too much fun with the white car...

I took the white car to Arizona again for the Festiva Insanity track event from Feb 2-3rd. The total trip was 5,257 miles with no major problems. I had a flat tire in Texas on the way out and the shifter linkage bolt at the shifter came loose in Alambama on the way home. I averaged 30 mpg at 90-95 mph, mid 30's at 80-85, and 39-40 mpg at 65-75 mph. It used about two quarts of oil over the 5200 miles trip, including what was blown into the catch can on the track; the original engine venting wasn't made to handle 4-6000 rpm for 300+ miles


I left SC on Saturday morning and arrived in Phoenix on Monday night. The hotels I stayed in each night were super friendly and let me bring my race tires in took keep them from dropping below freezing on my way out. My sister and brother in law flew out and met me on tuesday night to do some sightseeing before heading to the track on Friday. We took 89a from Prescott, through Sedona on our way to Flagstaff, then spent all of the next day the Grand Canyon National Park.












I ran a best of 2:17.14 on 120tw 165/50-15 Nankang NS2R street/track tires last year. This year's best was a 2:14.75 on softer 80tw 185/60-13 Nankang AR-1 dot legal track tires. The new wheel/tire package was about 43 pounds lighter for the set than last year's set, plus I've added a cam and header which added a few mph on the longest straights. I put in 312 miles on the track over two days, and it rained the second day so it was super fun to practice sliding and drifting the car (next to last pic) at lower grip levels without chewing the tires up.
















Also, my BIL has been wanting a Festiva so I gave him one of mine for his birthday last month. It's complete and will run on starting fluid so it shouldn't be much of a project to get it back on the road. We pulled the interior out this weekend to start the cleaning/detailing process.

[mongocanfly]

Looks like a nice trip....did you win the long haul award?haha...

[rusty76]

Awesome trip. Looks like you had tons of fun.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I followed along on facespace. In July 2018 my wife and I flew to AZ, drove to the grand canyon, spent 2.5 days all around the park and walking the rim trails, then went to hoover dam, vegas, and socal for the 4th. Epic trip. I don't know if I could have driven all the way out and back... that's a looooooooooooong drive!