A little work today

Today was in the low 30's so I worked on the sound deadening on the Festiva I was only able to get half of the passenger rear floorboard section done as it wasn't quite cold enough for the thicker sections to flake off easily I spent about an hour on a 12"x18" section. I also did some work on the B6T. When I drove the Capri home I noticed that it had a rough idle and would miss under boost until the engine warmed up. I had reservations on what it might be and with all the emissions i feared a long slow trouble shooting process, I knew that for the last 5 years the car only ran 87 octane so I ran the tank to about empty and filled up with premium and saw a smoother idle but still had problems under boost. So being the environmentally friendly person I am I next cut the catalytic converter off held it up to the sun and proclaimed "Well there's your problem". Now now more miss at idle or boost even when cold and this engine sounds mean with only an open downpipe.

Weight Reduction

Today I did some prep work on the Festiva. The interior is now free of unwanted fat. rear seats, carpet and interior panels are gone. I have also relocated the battery to the back right side of  the car to help with weight distribution. As soon as I get a day in the teens I will try to get the sound deadening off of the floorboards (cold weather is cheaper than dry ice!). I don't have any way to weigh what I have removed but I estimate it to be close to 200lbs which should get me down to 1500lb overall and once the cage and swap are done I am hoping to be setting around 2000lb. With the stock B6T this will get me at 132 hp/ton.

Cars acquired!

   Within the past two weeks I have purchased a 1988 Ford Festiva with 200k miles on it for $900 it has a carbuerated 1.3 SOHC and 4 speed manual transmission. the body is in overall good shape for the year and mileage. the "frame rails" are completely rotted and will need replaced but the floorboard and body are in excellent condition. It is rather quite odd looking at the frame rails as it looks like someone had a perfectly good car and slapped  little sheet metal rails underneath. I will probably not worry about them as the cage will take the stress from that area not that by looking at the frame rails they did anything productive anyways.
    I have also picked up a 1991 Mercury Capri XR2 with 125k miles on it for $600, it has the Mazda B6T engine and 5 speed transmission I need for the swap. The Capri has a rough idle but runs very strong. I actually am a bit concerned of having too much power in the Festiva now as even with the Capri almost 1000lb heavier it is quick for what it is. I would actually compare it to a B16 swapped civic (that is my main motivation for this swap is I miss my 92 B18C1 turboed hatch, but I don't miss the cost of Honda parts) On a side note have you ever bought a donor car that was better shape than the project car?

What I'm trying to accomplish

This is the outline of what my plans are for my 1988 Ford Festiva. I want to build a rally car with intentions in competing in local Rally cross and regional stage rally events. I know that my engine of choice will put me in a very competitive class but I have never owned a turbo car and this may be the best way to do so. The engine will be 1.6l DOHC turbo with 5 speed transmission. Suspension and brakes will be from a ford aspire with a later upgrade to escort GT brakes. Additional upgrades will be a short throw shift from early Honda, rims and rally tires (4x100 bolt pattern). I will fab a skid plate, an 8 point FIA spec cage, and mud flaps. Aftermarket steering wheel will be from an RX7. Racing seats and 5 point harness. Rally computer. I will attempt to find an lsd but does not look hopeful. I will attempt to budget $2,400 per year for the project. I will build the car in stages. Stage 1 will be brakes and suspension. Stage 2 will be the engine swap. Stage three will be the cage and body prep. Stage 4 will be completing the package and making the brakes, suspension, and engine all work together. I don’t want the car to feel pieced together but I don’t want to have everything custom made so if I need to replace something the parts store will have it. That being said, by no means is this a show car so I will make it work first then make it pretty!
    For the suspension I have read of people using VW mk2/3 suspension but I think I will attempt to upgrade the ford aspire suspension to its full potential first. I will need suspension and brake components from a Ford Aspire consisting of the front springs, struts, hub assembly, lower control arm, tie-rod ends and sway bar and from the rear I need the struts, springs, trailing arms, beam assembly and sway bar. This setup will give me a taller stiffer suspension, a wider stance and better choice of wheels, all good things for a rally car. After further reading I feel that my best course of action is to use the springs and struts from the aspire which will gain me a half to full inch of right height upgrading the struts to a stiffer valuing should be possible as even a slight improvement on the aspire (2000lb) will be a big improvement on the Festiva (1700lb). Selecting the springs will be the ultimate challenge though as I will have much research to do on cars that don’t get a lot of attention to find spring rates that will provide a near 50/50 balance on the Festiva with aspire suspension. The good news is that Ford/Mazda/Kia doesn’t like to make new parts for a new car and often use many existing components from early brand’s, this is why I can fit the entire suspension from a car built in the late 90’s on a car built in the mid 80’s.
    For the brakes I will use the aspire brakes that come with my suspension which is disc in the front and drums in the back. I can upgrade the rear to disc brakes from a Ford escort but will need a bracket to bolt onto the Aspire hubs. The brakes will be on the suspension from the Aspire so no worries there I will get the Aspire master cylinder and brake booster though I may opt to use the Festiva booster as I like the feel of stiffer brakes. The rear brakes can be upgraded to discs by using the rear brakes from a Ford Escort thought not necessarily needed it comes down to I just don’t like drum brakes.

    For the engine I will swap in a Mazda B6t and 5 speed transmission from a Mercury Capri XR2. The B6t is a 1.6L DOHC turbocharged engine producing 132hp/136lb torque (stock Festiva is 63hp/73lb). The engine and transmission is a semi bolt in swap with only two of the three mounts needing modified. I will need a donor car for the swap as the wiring is completely different. The axles will be Capri inner axles with Festiva outer joints and shafts. The wiring for the most part will be straight forward as the Entire harness from the Capri will be used. Problems I will run into though will be due to the fact that my car is carbureted which means my dash gauges may not work and my fuel tank may need to be swapped from a fuel injected car. One thing I know for sure is that the fuel lines will have to be replaced. One other thing that I am unsure of is if the shift linkage will need shortened from the XR2 transmission.
    To reiterate I am building a rally car using a Ford Festiva body with Capri engine and Aspire suspension. I could potentially build this car using 90% of the parts from a junkyard but experience shows that this will only get me a car that feels like three junkyard cars glued together and as such will be very limited on the performance to be had. On the other hand I can buy those same parts from the parts store and still be in the same situation while being out of a lot of money. What I will do is source as many useable parts from junkyards to keep cost down while replacing worn parts with new allowing for ease of tuning maintenance and trouble shooting. Just to be clear I don’t plan to have the car to stage 4 in the near future but would like to have the engine and suspension done in 2011. Stage 3 will happen as the project progresses but the roll cage and final tuning will hopefully be completed in 2012.