My KLZE Ford Festiva build thread

[monoxidechild]

What a sweet project! Never even thought a kl would fit in a festiva. I always had a dream of a f2t swapped festiva myself just for kicks. Keep up the great work!

[Rustypro]

nice lets just hope u go through with it and get it up and running. Wish i did a b6d head swap on mine. I dont like my intake mani that go across the valve cover

[Damkid]

^^Hot_Wheels has a B6D intake for sale right now if you PM him, he was asking $15 + shipping, and i am very determined on this project for many reasons so i will follow through with it for sure lol

And thanks everyone for the compliments!!

I talked to my boss today about the two engines that are sitting at my work, 1 is possibly a KL-ZE, which if it is i'll be trying to get that one for sure, and the guy who owns the engines will be in tomorrow (he's normally not there anymore) and i'll be trying to work a deal with him and hopefully be bringing a KL-ZE home sometime this week

I've also got a lead on a wiring harness and ECU for $60, so i think i've almost tracked down the parts i'll be needing, i might need a flywheel and clutch yet but i'll see if there one at work i can get

[Dan [Sac]]

What a sweet project! Never even thought a kl would fit in a festiva.

It doesn't...well at least not with the firewall intact or if you choose to lengthen the nose. Firewall will require a bit of cutting, to say the least.


Good luck, if you pull it off it will be one hell of a one-off. Not to mention quick...

[Damkid]

^Quick is definately the goal lol

Here's todays progress, i got my bolts in for the ring gear and i installed them with red loc-tite and i added 4 small welds to help hold the ring gear in place, and as stated earlier the bolts did hit first gear so i had to grind them down a little bit so they would clear


Before any grinding was done and you can see the 4 welds i did in this pic




I was re-assembling the tranny and when i got to this point and was ready to put the other half of the case on i realized i don't have any silicone so now i have to wait til tomorrow to pick some up so i can finish assembling the tranny


Hopefully tomorrow i will be finished with the tranny

[Chad]

its gunna suck 2 do all this work to find out that the ZE wont fit in without MAJOR fabrication lol....

good luck tho

[nerd racing]

I'm sure if he gets to that point he'll just roll in another festiva shell and hack away anyway. he's pretty die hard.

or heck get an aspire to do it in, they have bigger engine bays

[DeeAOne]

do festivas have even smaller bays than a bf?

[Damkid]

do festivas have even smaller bays than a bf?

I think so lol for as far as fitting the engine in, if it turns out where the engine will sit like 10 inches into the engine bay then i'll look into tilting the engine a bit towards the front and see if that helps, but i'll worry about that once i get to it

[bomdoutscort]

only one thing i would suggest while the trans is still out. You should weld your diff pin to the diff. Things can come out at any time.

[therieldeal]

+1 ESPECIALLY with that phantom grip putting an ass-load of extra stress on the diff pin...

[Damkid]

^^Actually i already did lol thats the one thing i forgot to post, i only welded one end of it though, would you guys suggest welding both ends?

Also after grinding down the bolts to clear first gear i'm starting to wonder how well the less threads will hold up over time so i'm going to weld the bolts to the nuts to make sure they never come apart with out a grinder, so that will be tomorrow, meaning another small delay but thats alright since i want to get it right the first time

[bomdoutscort]

I'd do both sides for extra safety, and grind down the bolts farther and put a weld on top of the grind to safely clear first gear. Even though red loctite wont come apart unless you heat it up to really high temps and then still you'd have to turn it off. It'd feel like you were turning bolts that have stripped threads

[Damkid]

Ya with grinding part of the bolts down it just doesn't feel as secure as i'd like with just loc-tice alone lol

I already got the bottom half of my tranny the diff and the gear shaft that drives the diff loaded up in my car so tomorrow at work i'll grind the bolts down a bit further, add some weld on the bolts, grind them to make sure they clear first gear and i might as well weld the other side of the diff pin, just to be safe

[Damkid]

Well i got the rest of the welding done today that i wanted to and i picked up some silicone and i have re-assembled the tranny, tomorrow i will pull an axle out of my fesstiva and test fit it into the tranny