Clearancing
To get the B6T and G25mr to fit, Hiroki had to adjust the following:
-lower the cross member to allow the tranny to clear the steering rack.
-cut a small amount out of the sheet metal on the drivers side frame rail to fit the tranny
-make a new engine mount for the passenger side
-cut and reweld the rear tranny mounts and make a fourth mount
-cut and reweld the front mount on the tranny, and build a new circular mount to the subframe using an end of a lower control arm of a GM car, in order to clear the sway bar
-finally we had to switch to an Aspire sway bar in order to clear the lowered sub-frame. The Aspire bar goes up and over the sub-frame unlike the Festi bar, but it did not clear the standard tranny mount, which is why the GM part was used.

Using the G25mr tranny allows use of the 323 GT front half axles, since the splines are the same as the Festiva wheel hub splines. These are essentially the same axles as on the Ford Capri equipped with the B6T.

And the results are (along with a little paint on top):

The engine sits lower than with the stock Festiva tranny, it is level, and it is stiffly mounted.

While out the engine got a check on the keyway and crank snout, a new timing belt, water pump and thermostat, clutch and resurfaced flywheel. A variety of: water lines, distributor o-ring, oil cooling jacket gasket, valve cover gasket and grommets, some vacuum lines, fuel lines and a reasonable scrubbing.

Wiring followed the guide authored by Michael Farnbach, available at a web address given on the Festiva.com forum by Matt Swabb
home.comcast.net/~mattswabb/b6t_swap_guide.pdf.
festiva forum link

A thorough check of wiring diagrams showed only a few discrepancies between the Capri it is written for and the 323 GT donor I used. Farnbach's guide was excellent, though it took quite a few read throughs and checks against the harness to be sure I understood and agreed with him. Most of the hookups in the cabin occur at one ECU plug of the Festiva, shown in the photo below. The B6T ECU was attached to the firewall and a 2.5 inch hole was drilled through to let the engine harness out into the engine bay. Farnbach's instruction set worked, the car turned over the first time we tried, after we remembered it still had a safety interlock on the clutch pedal.

Suspension

This I should probably not put here, since it is always the most closely guarded secret on any race car, but here we go. After all, it has not run yet so it could be completely wrong anyhow.
Ice race, rally or rain racing theory says the car should be much softer than a dry pavement performance suspension. In fact, softer than stock is an approach taken by some for an ice racer. But the Festiva is already really soft, and the design of the suspension has way too much compliance in it, so stiffening it up a bit seems to make sense.Especially after adding all the weight of a B6T and G25 to it.

The springs and shocks on the car were gone, the rear sank a foot when you leaned on it! So a set of 1994 Aspire front and rear springs were swapped in. A wee bit stiffer than the Festiva, but still soft. The KYB GR2 were then added, again a bit stiffer, but not a lot. Hopefully this compensates correctly for the extra weight in the front. The rubber in the front suspension is pretty soft, and old, so that was replaced with high durometer rubber on the sway bar and control arms from Festiva Motorsports. Hopefully the soft springs allow significant weight transfer, while the stiff rubber keeps the alignment closer to static settings.

I already had the Aspire sway bar in the front, because of clearance issues, which was going to add understeer. Not the goal of course, so a stiffer rear axle was called for. The apparently easiest approach seemed to be to swap in the Aspire rear axle too, which has an integrated torsion bar in the axle, so that is what I did. I also set up a way to mount a 1 inch square bar on the bottom to increase rear stiffness further if there is not enough oversteer added. Ice racing you really want oversteer added, so that could prove important.

The photos show the freshly painted Aspire axle and Festiva bracket mounts, and the Festi rear brake on the Aspire axle.

I have to say this rear axle swap was a bit of a nightmare. The Aspire axle has a different bolt pattern than the Festiva for the rear wheel hub and brake assembly. Why would they do that? I had to drill out two of the four holes (1/2 inch on one 16 mm on the other) to mate the Festiva hub, and going through 1/2 inch steel that is a bit of time. Then the stop tabs on the end of the axle where it fits into the chassis brackets had to be trimmed substantially. Then the brake line mount to body mount were in a different place than the Festiva, so the rubber brake line hoses are too short. Yeesh.

All in all, next time I would add a stiffener directly to the Festiva axle and not do a swap of the axle.

Brakes
I rebuilt the rears, since they were frozen and seeping, but am sticking with a quick polish on the front rotor for now, though they may need replacing after a few races show their quality.

Reading the above you might be wondering why I did not use the Aspire brakes, since many swap to those. But brakes are of little value on ice, essentially the weaker the better. So why add the extra weight of the larger Aspire brakes? Besides I had already spent quite a bit on all new rear brake parts for the Festi (bad planning I suppose) and on 13 inch alloy wheels that fit the Festi Bolt pattern and not the Aspires.

DISASTER !!!!
The B6T engine never started again! Running when removed, yet dead once installed! A month went into checking the wiring, only to show it was OK, having 3 people check the valve timing, only to show it was OK, fuel system OK, ECU OK etc etc. Finally, my friend Glen, who runs an excellent garage made it clear the problem was mechanical. The engine failed a leakdown test, despite making 115 to 120 psi in a compression test, leaked between cylinders 3 and 4, and actually pushed air out the intake instead of creating a vacuum when cranked. So out it came. A tear down in the summer and a trip to an engine rebuilder showed a bad head gasket, and four bad exhaust valves, worn cylinder walls that needed boring and thus oversized pistons, a corroded deck that needed 15 thou taken off, and $$$$$$$$$$$$. The bill to fix it was way too high for an ice racer.

The ice race solution is laid out on the next page.