what would you do if you had a festiva, an aspire, and an escort?

besides invite 2 friends over for a demolition derby? lol

I bought an '88 festiva with a motor that won't start. its got a bit of frame rust but I don't care. Its carbureted but has a return fuel system. I don't know why.

Its an lx so includes such luxury as power mirrors, rear wiper, and 5 speed transmission. factory cassette somehow still in place.

I like the way the festiva looks. retro cool, box flares.. well, box everything.

I bought this thing and towed it home, then the next day a 93 escort GT with a bad transmission is advertised, so I knew it was fate. internet says the swap will work with some firewall work and a new passenger motor mount so I bite. I bring it home too. It starts up, it runs, it drives, 5th gear is gone and the pressure plate is clearly hurting but other than that its not bad. 4 wheel discs, mazda BP 1.8 liter, comfy seats, 15" alloy wheels.

Well, anyway, while researching that engine swap I find out that ford aspire suspension swaps over to give you bigger brakes and 4x100 bolt pattern, along with 13 wheels (who woulda though you couldn't buy 12" tires anymore?). So I see an aspire on craigslist, rear ended, guy is desperate to get rid of it as his town had just fined him $300 for having an abandoned car and he can't find the title to scrap it (he did have registration in his name though). In PA apparently it takes a few weeks to file for missing title. So I trade him very little money and a few vintage car stereo products I had laying around and brnig that home too. Its a rust bucket, rusted through both quarters, hatch won't close from accident damage, rear torsion beam is bent. But the fuel injected 1.3 motor starts up and purrs and the tranmission shifts great, has a brand new clutch.

So what would you guys do?

I really want to strip the suspension off the festiva and swap it onto the aspire. that will give the aspire the E36 M3y brakes and the 12" wheels.

Take the aspire front suspension and swap it onto the festiva, find a new aspire rear beam from the junkyard, and install the 13" wheels off the aspire, swap the BP motor from the escort, and drive it. scrap the stripped escort.

put 23x8x12 atv tires on the front of the aspire, cut the roof off, bounce it off trees in the woods until it dies, then scrap it too.

someone else suggested cutting the spare tire well out, swapping the whole escort gt rear subframe over, giving it IRS and rear discs with e brake. apparently escort gt frnot brakes may fit the aspire front spindles with some bracketry rigging.

I could always just swap the aspire fuel injected 1.3 into the festiva too and drive it to and from work the way it is. kinda seems boring. also I can't find as much info on the pinouts that would need to recieve 12 volts on the aspire harness. the 1.8 bp swap is fairly well documented.

what do you guys think?

A Festiva, Escort and Aspire walk into a bar. The Bartender looks up and says "What is this, a joke?"

But seriously folks... BP in Festiva. Aspire suspension in Festiva. Scrap the rest. Thats what I would do.

Three words- Rallycross Rallycross Rallycross

is suicide an option?

Is this one of those, "'Berk One, Marry One, Kill One" questions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJo86Vs7dI

It'd be like the "Trilogy of Terror".

well, even if I swap the 1.3 out of the aspire into the festiva, the escort GT is still gonna get beat on hard before it gets parted out and scrapped. lol. whatever still runs when the smoke clears that isn't the festiva (which will be my DD) will be taken to a friends farm + 40 acres with ATV trails cut in the woods. lol.

Sell...quick.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Is this one of those, "'Berk One, Marry One, Kill One" questions? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJo86Vs7dI

I laughed and mentioned this to my fiance and she said "its actually EXACTLY like that..."

Buy one of everything from CWS Tuning in Regina.

Believe it or not, Escort GTs are actually sought after by some people. I know a stage rally guy in Fl that would likely pay good money for it.

Thats the B6t.. .the BP in the escort GT is 1.8 liters and makes "127" hp flywheel stock.

Stock 88 festiva motor is like 57 hp. lol.

The whole idea behind this is that I have very very little money tied up in all three cars, so I'd like to end up turning a profit from the part out/scrap out and ending up with a nice little festiva to drive to work that will save me money on gas, since I'm driving my excursion now.

Escort. The early Brit versions were the best however.

You don't need the whole Asspire beam, just swap spindles and brakes. All the new beam would give you is a stiffer rear bar, and not enough to hold up on the wheel swap.

I can get you the wiring diagram for the Festiva, maybe the Aspire too, drop me a line off forum.

The Escort seats may work too. I used Mazda 323 ones in my Festiva, well the backs and cushions on the Festiva bottom seat pans anyway. Took an evening to swap both in and so worth it.

Sell 'em and buy a Miata

I think you definitely have the right idea!

I'd strongly suggest some junkyard GSXR ITBs for the BP too.

Strip Festiva, add Bp swap + ass-pyre hubs. Sub 1300 lbs w/120 hp should scoot.

BP swap is more involved than a B6 variant as it's physically larger than the B6/B3 - which are very similar in size. The level of extra fabrication involved is something you should look in to. I don't know the actual details, but my understanding is it doesn't just jump under the hood and bolt itself up.

Otherwise, do it and post pics.

Get $150 for the scrap metal.

I've always Aspired to an Escort that I could take to a Festiva event!

IIRC, the wiring is easier than the b6t swap. The trans is tricky. I think the preferred trans is the one from the b6t; at which point, there is some magic combo of axles/inner and outer joints. I think John Brown may have the answer there. I do know the firewall needs to be massaged, and you may need to notch the frame rail and/or swap crank pulleys.

So yeah. It's not "plug & play," but it would be a quick, nimble little badass.

andrave wrote: besides invite 2 friends over for a demolition derby? lol

I'll be honest, that was my first thought.

But rallycross/"back 40" are good options too.

If you put a Marine is a room with a Fiesta, an Aspire and an Escort; he would eat one, berk one and lose one.

Sell two to finance the Hyabusa swap into the third?

Swap the BP into Festiva with Aspire bits. Scrap remains. Bring Festiva to challenge.

oldopelguy wrote: You don't need the whole Asspire beam, just swap spindles and brakes. All the new beam would give you is a stiffer rear bar, and not enough to hold up on the wheel swap.

My beam is bent, so if i could swap spindles that would work, however someone told me that the bearings were different. I also read that the aspire would give a slightly wider rear track.

oldopelguy wrote: I can get you the wiring diagram for the Festiva, maybe the Aspire too, drop me a line off forum.

that would be cool, I'm gonna order a service manual for the festiva tomorrow (payday) and I think I found a free download for the escort, but it also looks like the ford manuals may not include all the wiring, which seems dumb.

oldopelguy wrote: The Escort seats may work too. I used Mazda 323 ones in my Festiva, well the backs and cushions on the Festiva bottom seat pans anyway. Took an evening to swap both in and so worth it.

a guy on the festiva forums said he swapped the escort GT seats into his festiva, the brackets look very similar so Im gonna try unbolting them and see if they just swap over. my festiva and aspire seats are both pretty well trashed, but for some reason (no reason at all really) the escort GT seats have held up. If thats a no go I may try swapping the tracks onto the GT seats.