More distractions - this was supposed to be a future project but a racing buddy and I decided to drink a bunch of beers and start mocking it up last weekend.
Had been vaguely trolling CL/FB forever looking for a Festiva project. They're just so amazing; tiny, lightweight, simple. Picked this example up for $500 from a Colorado Lemons racer, sans engine and trans. Parked it in the yard so I could stare at it for a while. The original plan was 2.0 Ecoboost, because I devised a formula to drop one in using all stock Ford trans/CVs/axles and they're hilariously cheap. We have deviated from that slightly, to be continued.
Of course we hauled it home the same week that I sold my nice little trailer.
My helper enjoyed playing in the car for a few months while it acclimated to the yard.
Engine compartment measured up as pretty roomy for a tiny car.
Test fitted some spare 205/50r15 on 15x8 ET20. The wheels will be perfect on the front, with some box flare, but not so much on the rear.
Stock-ish, these are Aspire 14s so already bigger than the stock 12s:
MEAT:
little too much meat for the rear, and/or way too little offset at +20.
Ok, onto the idiocy part of this project. As I mentioned, 2.0 Ecoboost was on the table, and would have actually been a fairly reasonable idea.
But, my accomplice and Lemons teammate Shon has been lusting after the transverse Volvo B8444s 4.4l V8. He was eyeing them and constantly talking about shoving one in the rear of something. Finally, I caved; he found one at a full service junkyard for a ridiculously reasonable price, and I said I would install it in the Festiva - but only if it went in the correct place at the front of the car.
Yes, the Festiva is going to remain transverse FWD, but now with 4.4l V8 and 6 speed manual transmission.
I know, I know, it would fit better in the back, but we already have one RWD hatchback, and I want to try something different. This will be very much not a SHOGUN clone.
That v8 sounds so ridiculously cool with free flowing exhaust. What trans are you going to use?
Woah. V8 volvo powered FWD Festiva.
That's wierd, in a great way.
This is brilliant! The thread title should be changed to reflect it!
Thanks all, I'll get the current progress pics loaded later today.
The trans is a 6 speed manual from a Volvo C30, which I believe makes it the somewhat desirable M66. Sketchy online sources told us that it mostly bolts up, which turned out to work in reality, just with fewer bolts matching up than I'd really like. We'll make it work though.
Another internet source said they had Spec build a custom flywheel to match the B8444s to the Volvo manual, so we called them to ask about building another and they actually already had one on the shelf. Easy.
Put.... Put nitrous on it
Used the other hatchback to pull and shove the Festiva into the garage. #justtractorthings
Admittedly, there were far too many beers involved with the decision to block up the car super high and slide the engine in from the bottom. The next day after some more clear thinking I cut away the lower front structure and did some more disassembly and trimming to make it slide in more easily.
At this point it felt like all we had made is an impossible mess. Crank damper hitting one frame rail while the trans hit the other. At least the sway bar/lateral link combo thing cleared.
Made a stronger, removable front frame section - not really a core support any longer.
You can see some of the frame horn front reinforcement in the corner of this pic I took while testing wheel/tire clearance at full bump.
Where I am currently - I had to notch the underside of both forward frame rails, and I'm working on patching and strengthening what's left. Now enough room for the engine to sit all the way up, level and straight.
Next up - engine mounts, trans mounts, related braces and etc.
newrider3 said:
Thanks all, I'll get the current progress pics loaded later today.
The trans is a 6 speed manual from a Volvo C30, which I believe makes it the somewhat desirable M66. Sketchy online sources told us that it mostly bolts up, which turned out to work in reality, just with fewer bolts matching up than I'd really like. We'll make it work though.
Another internet source said they had Spec build a custom flywheel to match the B8444s to the Volvo manual, so we called them to ask about building another and they actually already had one on the shelf. Easy.
Man, I was just going to ask about trans bolt pattern. I hotly debated that v8 in my e30 before going with a whiteblock t5 just because there was an off the solution for flywheel/clutch setup. Can I ask how much the flywheel was? So cool.
In reply to iansane :
I'd have to check with Shon, but the regular S60r billet flywheel is $620 and I don't think this one was a huge price premium over that.
This is not the B6T swap I was expecting.
NOHOME
MegaDork
6/27/22 5:02 p.m.
Out of curiosity, what kind of "Beer" are you guys smoking, sorry I meant Drinking?
I have a Ford powered Volvo, so I guess a Volvo powered Ford is no more ludicrous.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the balance shaft in the Volvo V8 is an Achilles heel.
Thanks everyone! Now just cross your fingers that this build thread isn't disappointingly incomplete like all my others :/
NOHOME said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the balance shaft in the Volvo V8 is an Achilles heel.
I didn't double check the research, but according to my partner in crime that issue was an early model year thing, and the engine we have is post-revision. Guess we'll see how the bearings look when we get the engine all cleaned up.
Will this end up at high plains as well?
This is fantastic! Does the C30 have a limited slip? I'd imagine it will be traction limited in the best of times.
Also, your hardware cart is pure genius!
And you gotta tell us more about the kid cart.
SDet said:
Will this end up at high plains as well?
It's going to get a full cage and good seats, and will definitely see track time at HPR. If you're asking whether it will race Lemons, well, possibly, but that's not the main intent. Just might have to make it happen once or twice for the glory :p
In reply to Brotus7 :
Thanks! No limited slip unfortunately.
I definitely stole inspiration for the hardware cart from others here on the forum, as well as youtube. I should have bit the bullet and bought more of the black and yellow bins, the clear ones are worthless.
The baby car is the body from a push cart toy mounted to a custom chassis with two electric wheelchair motors, chain drive for AWD, a fancy combat robot motor controller, and an R/C car remote. Currently powered by my Ryobi cordless tool batteries but it needs a custom battery pack. Perhaps sometime I'll post some pics of the guts.
Had to scoot the engine forward a tad to clear the driver side inner CV. Bonus being that I can now rotate the rear of the trans up more for better ground clearance without crashing the diff housing into the steering rack.
DS axle shaft is going to be quite short :p
The plan always vaguely included mounting the radiator in the back of the car, and I think that's going to be a necessity.
Working on reinforcing the front frame horns before I patch up the undersides where I cut them away.
Part of the reason I wanted to put the engine in the correct place rather than doing a mid-engine conversion is because I hate welding on car sheetmetal - no matter how much you clean and prep it's still a dirty, smokey, stinky mess to weld, and the fumes really get to me. Welp, I guess I'm still doing a bit of that work anyway...
newrider3 said:
SDet said:
Will this end up at high plains as well?
It's going to get a full cage and good seats, and will definitely see track time at HPR. If you're asking whether it will race Lemons, well, possibly, but that's not the main intent. Just might have to make it happen once or twice for the glory :p
In reply to Brotus7 :
Thanks! No limited slip unfortunately.
I definitely stole inspiration for the hardware cart from others here on the forum, as well as youtube. I should have bit the bullet and bought more of the black and yellow bins, the clear ones are worthless.
The baby car is the body from a push cart toy mounted to a custom chassis with two electric wheelchair motors, chain drive for AWD, a fancy combat robot motor controller, and an R/C car remote. Currently powered by my Ryobi cordless tool batteries but it needs a custom battery pack. Perhaps sometime I'll post some pics of the guts.
Yup, lemons. We need another stupid fast volvo powered hatch.
