Festiva Aerodynamics

[baddog671]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

LOL 115 is not that underpowered... a chevette 1.6 L engine has 68 HP. a stock 2.2L 4 cyl s-10 has 90 somehting... 115 would be nice to have in either one...

i have an efan in my truck that has helped (maybe 3mpg or so)

but the chevette doesnt even have a clutch fan. its fan is just bolted straight to the water pump shaft...thats why im lookin for a way to do an efan...get a few more hp and torque out of it and a bit more MPG. BUT im not sure if the stock alternator (that is the origional 27 year old one mind you) has enough juce output to run a fan (can draw ALOT of amps)... unless i find a low speed one.. then maybe...

My car has 55hp

...at the crank! not the wheel. It makes me wonder what its actually putting down. 40?

[XFi]

Motivated myself to make and install the vortex generators/air tabs today.
Went with nine across the top and two on each side at the back of the car.
Spent a total of $13.23 at Sears Hardware for the Alum Sheet and Silicon Caulk.

Traveling into unknown territory with this...you would think that it would create more drag than less. I installed them with silicone sealant/adhesive so I can take them off if I don't see any positive results.







Fashioned mine after reading some old threads, there seemed to be some discrepancy in regards to which way to mount them. I went with the pointy end of the V to the back of the air flow. Like Zpiloto did here...



Went a little bigger, but not quite as big as ZugyNA did here....

[/QUOTE]

[Silveredwings]

They look great.

[psyshack]

Wow

I owned a 92 festiva mt tranny. 50 mpg wasnt a problem. heck it would get 40 mpg with your foot in the floor and the A/C on. Turbo mode was turning the A/C off.

the hondas where not worth the money. and still arent IMO,,, thats why I fought hard to get mine at the prices I did.

The Metros. well they just fell apart here. They where so bad the local chevy dealer sued GM and refused to sell them or the parts for them. a buddy of mine bought a metro and it was worse than a yugo.

I liked the subaru Justy. I bought a 91 CVT model. It shot the worthless CVT in nothing flat. those are real junk trannys. just ask anybody that uses them in the industrial world.

I really liked my festiva. My mistake was letting the wife and my girls drive it. It got women coodys and died. the bashed, banged and did there best to try to get me to kill them. word to the wise. DO NOT LET WOMEN DRIVE YOUR CAR!!!!. My wife will never drive my Civic. And I hate to drive her Accord.

If I could find clean festivas that hadnt been abused or riced I would purchase them. all of them around here have been women driven or child driven in there later stages of life and look awful. but they seem to last longer than metros and cvt justy's.

psy

[Bill in Houston]

XFi, I think you did it right. I hope they work great for you.

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by Telco

Wow, a straight fan? You would see a considerable improvement going to electric fans. Any time you have the engine running you are beating the air to death. You want the fans to come on at about the same temp as the thermostat, so if you are running a 195 degree thermostat, you want about a 190-195 degree switch to turn the fans on. You also want the fans to come on at least 50 percent any time the air conditioning is on, as no airflow across the condenser will cause the AC to overpressure when running due to heat buildup, and blow the AC system. You can either do an aux fan just for the AC, or get a good controller to run them. I use DC Controls on mine as it allows you to manage the coolant temps more exactly than the head switches, AND brings the fans in slowly so as to not put a sudden, huge drain on the electrical system. This system has an AC tap, and if you have overdrive with a lockup converter you can install a relay on that to shut the fans off when the AC is on, but the converter is locked as this will only happen at 40MPH or so, plenty fast enough for the AC with no fan. It is pricey at 100 bucks, but well worth the money IMO.

For my 96 Tahoe I had a custom shroud built, for the 87 S15 I just hacked in a single fan into the factory shroud. The custom worked tons better, but the hack job was quick and allowed me to get some other work done that required the fan. Eventually the hack job will go away for another custom job, but it suffices for now. Yes, a larger alternator is required, look into a GM CS-100 alternator. This will provide more than enough power for efans in a Chevette even at idle, and I'd have to wonder if running a higher powered alternator at a lower load puts less drag on an engine than running a lower powered alternator at capacity.

oh that 90 hp on my truck is at the wheels the engine makes 120 suposedly...

but yes it is a clutchless fan. the car has no AC so it should be easy. i have an on off temperature switch from the old stock carb heater (between the car and intake to heat up the mix in dead of winter so the carb doesnt ice over) that is mounted right above the tstat. or i could always buy a variable switch or one that kicks on at a certian temp and screw that into the hole. so i could just have a wire from the battery, thru a fuse, to the temp switch then to the fan to ground. very simple circuit and prolly take les than an hour to wire up. just mounting the fan is gonan be hard

heres somehting i could do. since huge industrial motors have large capacitors mounted to em to give them an extra boost on start up as to not cause a huge energy surge thru the plant, i could so this to a small fan motor. so the cap almost instantly charges up when the fan is off and when it kicks back on it would have that extra boost to start it so theres not much being drawn from the alternator. because i have found out after building my own kind abig motor is that it took all 7 amps from a car power supply i had it running off off yet only 3A to keep it running.(of course add some tention to it it drew more amps)

[CO ZX2]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

you mean to tell me those festivas dont already get 50 mpg? what do they get? (i know they can get up to 90 mph tho)

(i know they can get up to 90 mph tho)

VetteOwner: Is this a fact that only you know??

Pardon me, sir. I thought I saw 90 mpg.

[VetteOwner]

LOL no 90 mph...doesnt sound pretty and scares the crap outa ya but it can be done....

lol i was being sarcastic and joking around and abit suprised that from the overall size of the car and its engine/tranny config it isnt possible to get 50 mpg from factory...