starting out...

[dalewayne22]

I have a 1988 L, 4 spd, and a stock B3 engine. What are some little things I can do to get this thing running better. It runs nice and no knocking sounds. What are some things I can get for the engine, intake, or exhaust or whatever else, that are a quick pick me up. I just want to get it runing better. It has new spak plugs and wires in it already when I bought it 2 weeks ago. OH, what are some good places to look for parts for this car. Any good websites anybody reccomend?

I like this little car, it's s fun car to be in and I want to make last a long time and take care of it.

[Gforcefd]

festivamotorsports.com is about it for festiva's.

You convert it from carb to EFI injection if you really wanted to improve your mileage and response.

[TominMO]

Re: starting out...

I have a 1988 L, 4 spd, and a stock B3 engine. What are some little things I can do to get this thing running better. It runs nice and no knocking sounds. What are some things I can get for the engine, intake, or exhaust or whatever else, that are a quick pick me up. I just want to get it running better. It has new spark plugs and wires in it already when I bought it 2 weeks ago. OH, what are some good places to look for parts for this car. Any good websites anybody recommend?

INTAKE/EXHAUST
. Festiva Motorsport for exhaust header. They also sell a cat-back system you could get around to when you need to do exhaust work. Check on the diameter though; larger than 1.75" will likely hurt torque, while improving higher-RPM breathing.
. If you feel that the motor is starved for air at higher RPM, you could do one of the following: drill some holes around the air cleaner cover, outside of the filter perimeter; drill holes on the air cleaner housing itself; use a taller filter element of the same diameter, or some sort of aftermarket filter with its own housing.
. They also sell sportier cams if you want to go that route, but without fuel changes I'm not sure there is a point to that. Others here might have experience with these cams.

TIMING
You can advance the ignition timing a bit to improve power. This will necessitate going up to mid-grade or premium gas if you advance it enough to be able to tell a difference, but the difference in gasoline prices among the three grades is really minimal, about 4%, so I do it whenever possible. Make sure the disty cap & rotor are in good shape, by the way.

SPARK
You can buy an aftermarket coil with 40,000 volts, and gap the plugs about 10% wider. This will help with gas mileage, in my experience, due to a larger spark burning the gas better. Should help with emissions, too. Not sure it actually helps with more power. See my post under the thread "MSD Coil" in this forum, for recommended coils and what to avoid.

Changing to EFI is rather complex, and is only worth 5 HP. Don't bother. The above changes will get you that.