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Brought it out of storage tonight for a wash. Feels pretty good, but I’ve yet to get it on twisty roads.



That's looking really great, you've got some great work put into it. I really appreciate what you're doing and the effort you're putting into it. The car had a pretty cool presence with the height, wheels, and tires like that.
 
Discussion starter · #307 ·
Finally got the car out on some twisty roads tonight, and it is an absolute blast to toss around! Can’t wait to get some more power into it.






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Discussion starter · #311 ·
From one hopped-up economy car nerd to another, well done!

I can’t wait to hear about it after the heart transplant! :)
Thanks! Took the long way home tonight along the coast of Lake Erie and really beat on it, this thing sticks like glue! I’m very happy with the end result, and I’m sure it could be made better with some fine adjustments by someone who knows what their doing, but for now it’s great!


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That’s a great feeling. :) I’ve upgraded mine similarly.

...Well, in spirit anyway, even if the hardware is completely different and the traction limits are lower. :D First the handling, then the brakes, then the horsepower. :thumbup:
 
Discussion starter · #313 ·
Been greatly enjoying beating the hell out of this thing on the twisty backroads!



Been enjoying it so much, I bought another one. For the princely sum of $500 Canadian dollars, I got a ‘91 Festiva with a 1.8L BP engine out of a Ford Escort GT.







Came with the following parts:

Rust free hood
Good LF Fender
Rust free drivers door
Rust free hatch
Rusty hatch that has a wiper in it
Aspire knuckles
Aspire rear beam
All new aspire brakes except drums
Orange tach cluster
Grant steering wheel
G series trans
Another stock Festiva 5spd
Set of front buckets out of some rare early 90’s Japanese car
Boxes of odds and ends

Its sat for several years, was last started two years ago. Ive our a couple hours into trying to get it run without success, no power to fuel pump relay and no spark. No time this weekend to screw around with it, so it will have to wait till next weekend. Now the big question is what to do with it. Track pig? Clean it up and sell it? Strip and inventory for parts?


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Thanks! Took the long way home tonight along the coast of Lake Erie and really beat on it, this thing sticks like glue! I’m very happy with the end result, and I’m sure it could be made better with some fine adjustments by someone who knows what their doing, but for now it’s great!
Mostly unrelated, might I ask what part of Onterrible you live in? We're in the Detroit area, and I think at one point you mentioned getting parts or something from our side of the river.

Been enjoying it so much, I bought another one. For the princely sum of $500 Canadian dollars, I got a ‘91 Festiva with a 1.8L BP engine out of a Ford Escort GT.


That's an awesome donor for other than the engine, too, if that what it comes to.

Bringing home another is going so deep down that rabbit hole... :laugh:

:beer:
 
Discussion starter · #316 ·
Mostly unrelated, might I ask what part of Onterrible you live in? We're in the Detroit area, and I think at one point you mentioned getting parts or something from our side of the river.
I’m from Hamilton, currently living along the coast of Lake Erie (think Dunnville/Port Dover). We drove to Grand Rapids to get the Aspire parts that were swapped into the silver car (drove our 800,000km Volvo 240 wagon, it also has a build thread in TCL if your interested).


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Discussion starter · #317 ·
So, finally had a chance to work on the swap car today. The main power relay is toast, as bypassing it produced a functional fuel pump. I pumped as much old gas out as I could then put in about 15L of premium. Nothing. Check for spark, nothing. Went over everything I could think of, all looks good, found a wee bit of corrosion in the wire run from the distributor to the Ecu, repaired it, put everything back together, voila! Theres spark, but no starting.

Pull the plugs, they are soaked and in disgusting condition, so my friend picked me up a set while he was in town. While I was waiting, I did a a compression test, it’s around 70-75psi across the board, rather low in my opinion, but it has been sitting for several years, so I figure it’s stuck rings or lack of oil on the cylinder walls. Put in new plugs along with a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder, cranks but won’t fire. Pull plugs, all soaked with fuel.

Here’s where it gets weird, noticed a Smokey mist coming out of the VAF when cranking, Mist smells like raw fuel. If you hold your hand over the VAF while cranking, the engine is pressurizing the intake system. Go around to the back of the car, there is air being blown out the exhaust tip while cranking but there is no fuel smell in it at all.

Checked the timing, looks good up top anyways, can’t get to the bottom with out pulling the wheel/tire/engine mount, which wasn’t in the cards today.






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Discussion starter · #319 ·
Cool score! Have you checked the timing?

Pressurization in the intake is odd. Maybe a cylinder has intake valves stuck open?
Timing checked as far as I could go without major surgery. Have to remove wheel/shields/engine mount to get the lower covers/crank pulley off. Will do sometime this week when I’m more motivated.

We were thinking stuck intake valves, however I wouldn’t have any compression if they were stuck far enough open to cause what is happening.


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Timing checked as far as I could go without major surgery. Have to remove wheel/shields/engine mount to get the lower covers/crank pulley off. Will do sometime this week when I’m more motivated.

We were thinking stuck intake valves, however I wouldn’t have any compression if they were stuck far enough open to cause what is happening.
I was just re-reading your post and tried to ninja-edit on the timing question.

Good point, if compression is consistent across the board that should rule out sticking valves.

Sounds like focusing on the spark is the route to go for now. If you get spark sorted and start getting backfires out the intake then I'd be worried and go back to investigate.
 
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