Posted by Joe Divito (IP: 207.239.0.99) on February 04, 2000 at 21:24:58:
In Reply to: What to do? posted by Richard PArson on February 03, 2000 at 23:53:46:
Depends. Did the piston experience any damage? If it's just the valve, maybe you could consider replacing just head with one from a known good engine. That's gotta be cheaper and easier than replacing the whole engine. I don't recall the exact URL, but I have come across Festiva web sites which have FAQs on pulling the head. A quick search with Webcrawler should scare some up. That way, you can have your Festiva for bad weather driving, and save enough money for that 250.
I also own a Festiva, and can vouch for they're being pretty good cars. Unlike Craig's experience, I've had pretty good heat from mine, the only exception being the last time I changed the heater hoses. Craig, you may want to check to see if you have any kinks in the heater hoses. It's a pretty tight fit between the engine and firewall, and it's really easy to kink the heater hose. That's what I did with mine. It's not so bad I want to redo it, but I do lose heat at idle. The water pump doesn't turn fast enough at idle to move sufficient hot water past the restriction in the heater hose.
My $0.02 worth,
Joe