Our faithful Festiva... gone before its time!

Had a bit of a setback in our automotive plans. We were hoping that our red '92 Festiva would make it through the winter so that I could get all the wiring and engine stuff done before swapping the suspension and interior over to our blue '93 project car. Such is not the case. 

The engine of the red car, which has well over 500,000km/300,00miles on it, started making unusual noises. I thought at first that the water pump or alternator were possible culprits but ruled those out by running the engine without the belt in place.

The Mazda engines of this type were prone to failure where the timing gear sprocket is mated to the end of the crankshaft and that's what has happened on mine. In the early '90s Mazda improved their B series engines by enlarging the diameter of the crankshaft where it comes out the front of the engine. Hence the terms "small nose" and "large nose" you may hear when these otherwise sturdy engines are up for discussion.

We decided not to expend any more energy, time or money on our red car so it was summarily parked and is currently being stripped of all its "goodies". The weather has been relatively warm the last few days so I've  taken the opportunity to get as much done outdoors during the day and then working in the garage in the evenings. 

Status as I write this:
- most of the interior removed
- rear axle, struts and brakes removed 
- gas tank removed from the red and installed in the project car ( it was brand new a few months ago)
-  rear axle prepped for install in the project car

The '92 up on stands ready for dismantling.

Rear axle, brakes and struts out. Gas tank is next.

Interior partially stripped.

Rear axle assembly ready to be prepped for the project car.

There's a lot more "stuff" to come off the red car such as the European headlights and grille, custom short shifter, air conditioning to name just a few. 

UPDATE: The 92 has been completely stripped and the shell has gone off to the scrapyard. Most of the parts scavenged from it have either been installed in the project car or will be shortly. Here's a couple of shots of the remains before it was sent off. RIP (rust in pieces) faithful friend...

You can see the project car in the background!

 

Not much left :(

 
I was sad to see it come down to this but as I was removing bits and pieces I discovered even more rust than I expected. The project car is rust free with much less than half the kilometers on it.

Just a little reminder... here's the project car as it was when picked up earlier this year.

I'll be writing up a bit more about the project in the next little while so please come back soon to check things out. If you'd like to know more about this project please leave a question or comment below.