The FASTiva

[twistedwankel]

So the Fastiva has stiffy seat belts, stiffy seats, stiffy brakes, stiffy suspension, stiffy tires, stiffy drivers BUT no stiffy motor? Hmmm.

Talk to Tim about a used stiffy motor.

[Loren]

Oh, if we kept driving it, I'm sure this engine would become very stiff.

[twistedwankel]

Oh, if we kept driving it, I'm sure this engine would become very stiff.

Oh shit I just read that Tim is putting the old stiffy back into the car.....arrrrrg. The heavens are disrupted once again.

How long does it take to rebuild a limp Fastiva 4 banger that gets Ben home?

[twistedwankel]

I'm curious.

All that stiffy cone lifting rear, bigger sticky tire g's, spins, what does that do to the oil pickup's ability to slurp lube?

[Jamie]

I'm curious.

All that stiffy cone lifting rear, bigger sticky tire g's, spins, what does that do to the oil pickup's ability to slurp lube?

In this case, no effect -- it's not pulling that much force around the corners to starve the pickup.

[Loren]

If engine #2 suffers the same fate as engine #1, we'll give that serious consideration, Doug!

Meanwhile, we did an engine swap complete with timing belt and waterpump replacement today in just under 12 hours. The FASTiva lives on...

[ImpostorDan]

Wow, congrats on the hard working day!

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[Inspecta]

Wow! That's awesome.


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[Carracer]

Some pictures from the day.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskspdiaC

[nathanwilliams617]

Congrats on the transplant. Sooo was the replacement engine exactly the same as what came out?

[ImpostorDan]

Some pictures from the day.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskspdiaC

This cat should get a sticker for every garage it visits...

[Loren]

Sooo was the replacement engine exactly the same as what came out?

One year newer, 60,000 more miles, sludge in the cam cover, and no rod knock. Close enough!

[Native]

Close enough indeed! Well done.

[Loren]

Did I mention that we only paid $150 for the replacement engine? If it gets us through the season, we'll be happy. We can reassess the project at that point.

[dbeng]

Great job guys, well done.
Dan

[friskyflea]

Some pictures from the day.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskspdiaC

So many *really* good captions come to mind...

whose shinny Ninja (I think?) in the back room?

[Loren]

Andy LaChance let us do the swap in his garage (his roomie sold us the engine, he's got a Festiva that he's doing a 1.8 swap on). The bike and the Mustang belong to him.

BTW, for all of the people who said, "the AC doesn't work, why don't you take it out and save some weight?" WE FINALLY DID!

[Loren]

The latest:

The new engine is running well, but at its first autocross outing on Jan 16, it immediately got a bad case of hydraulic lifter tick (sounded like a typical Miata in grid, maybe a little louder), and the oil light was coming on mid-run. We called it quits after 4 runs in an effort to not destroy another engine.

We knew the engine was gunky inside, like it was owned by one of those people who had never heard of an oil change. So, the lifter tick was no big surprise. My guess is that the low oil pressure was caused by the oil pressure relief valve sticking open at high RPM when it exceeded "normal" pressure.

Ben changed the oil again (we had changed it when we first installed the engine a week earlier) and it came out very black... which is good, it means some crud is being dissolved. Also, no visible metal in the drained oil. We decided to put fresh oil in with a shot of Seafoam and drive it for a week to flush it.

Yesterday, we worked on the car a little, installed some slightly taller and slightly softer front springs. (front end is no longer "in da weeds") And beat on the car a little bit while we were at it. Couldn't get the lifters to tick again, and never saw a hint of the oil light, so unless we've already done some bearing damage, we may be in the clear! The oil is just beginning to turn brownish, so we're definitely making progress and cleaning out the oil system. Will change the oil again before Saturday's autocross and hope for the best.

[twistedwankel]

Out of curiosity did you get a chance to pull the covers off the old engine for a look see? It went thru a lot of runs/floggings on the old ticker.

I totally "second" that sea foam in the oil flush. Worked miracles on my '81 Suzuki 750 engine and clutch pack (common pan)!! Beat the crap out of it for 40k miles then sold it to another biker running perfectly still. Can you still get high zinc oil for those old motors?

Doug

[Loren]

No, we didn't look at the old engine. I'm sure it's just eating some main bearings.

The 1.3 Festiva engine isn't really that "old" from a technical standpoint. It's basically a 1.6 Miata engine with one less cam and a smaller bore. Same hydraulic lifters, same block, same basic design other than the head.