What mods?

[easywind]

89 Festiva, 5 speed. Everything with the car is working properly and I'd like to add a few more horses so I can keep up with traffic going up hills. I seem to drop off sometimes to 50mph when climbing steep hills and I'd like to be able to pull going up hills. The car will redline without problem.
Are there bolt on mods that will make me able to keep up with traffic on those hills? Thanks

[5.0zone]

easywind,
The easiest thing to do is to pull it back into 4th for going up those hills, it won't hurt the engine one bit.
Not a lot you can do to these 1.3L engines to spice them up.
Most people will tell you to swap in a B6 (1.6L engine), that would give you an extra 20hp. Stock is about 60~65hp.

[easywind]

Jeff, thanks but 4th doesn't do much good either, I rev it up and do a speed shift but the rpm's drop where it doesn't do much good on the steeper hills. I hope there's something. ny the way the car is carbed.

[Quickslick4444]

Headers. exhaust?

[easywind]

I called this company in Md. and asked about headers. who makes them, what I can expect to gain, any dyno charts? and where the extra 3 horsepower will kick in and the sales person became beligerant. didn't know the answers and blew me off.
So has anyone here have any experience with headers? Do they do anything, where is the HP gain, installation.

[Quickslick4444]

FMS will have this all. Fesitvamotorsport.com

[easywind]

That was the company I called and they could not answer any of my questions. If I buy a set of headers I'd at least like a dyno chart showing where in the rpm band the hp shows up at. Guy hung up on me rather than try to answer my questions. They have no chance of gaining my $$$$$

[joebreck117]

I put a cherry bomb glasspack muffler and cut a nice 4-5" hole in the air box-- it passes cars on two lane highways a LOT better and will pull up a hill in 5th gear w/o the A/C.
damn A/C bogs my baby down.

thinkin about takin a little more out of the box, it howls when i rev it.

[ohsoslow]

im actually wondering the same thing i see festive motorsports has a competition cam and a race cam, a header and a full exhaust. does anyone here have this full package installed on there festy? if so dyno numbers or set of the pants feel?

[Sleeper]

For the cost of headers/cams ect.......have you thought of installing a N20 system.....maby a 20 shot would be good and should not do any damage.... I've heard of guys using 50 shots on the B3!!!!

[easywind]

It's probably the same amount of work doing a cam as it is installing a larger engine and can't cost much more if as much. I've spoken to a couple of speed shops which I had done business with in the past and building the engine was absolutely the last resort. People are making claims about this and that but I have yet to find anyone who can substantiate their claims.
I used to run a 68 442 with a Chevy big block 440ci then I ran a BMW 2002tii My car is nothing more than a city car which is easy to park and easier to maintain.
Nitrous gets expensive when all I want to do is keep up with traffic, but thanks

[jlord16]

I have headders and a 2" full catback on my B3 motor and it does give a decent gain for a little motor

[Rumnhammer]

B3 gains

Best bet is a B6 swap, it is as easy as pulling the old motor putting your externals carb, manifold etc. on and going, like stated an easy 20hp with very little effort, more torque too, because you are adding displacement.
You won't need to change anything Jets etc, because you are not changing displacement very much. if you add a cam you would have to play around with jets a bit for best results. If your car were fuel injected, it would be a bit easier. You could add Aspire cam lifters for a bit of extra lift on the stock cam.
The B3 is really not worth throwing money at, since most of the performance bits that you would buy to fit it also fit the B6, (same cams etc) for a build up over time, you could do the B6 swap then get the stuff gradually.
No suprise FMS didn't know the answer to your question, since they just source stuff and sell it, they have done exactly zero dyno testing on any of their stuff. The headers they sell are Genie from Austraila so google that for a site to get hard numbers on.
For a more knowledgeable answer to your question, I can tell you from experience that on a B3 you would be lucky to see maybe 3 hp from adding a header to it and it would primarily be in the very upper end of the power curve. Header horsepower comes from the size and design of the header primarys. The larger and longer the primarys are before merge the farther up the power band the power is. ie a smaller diameter primary that is shorter will give more power and torque lower in the power curve. The design of the header also makes a difference. a 4 into 1 header will be primarly a top end header, a 4 into 2 into 1 has more in the mid range. get the picture. How much power a header adds, depends on how restrictive the stock exhaust manifold is, and how much air the engine is capable of moving, in a B3 SOHC engine.......not too much.
Sooooo, spend your money wisely, FWIW your easiest and cheapest route would be to swap a B6 (earlier motors swap right in, later ones harder) in, then bump the timing, add a free flowing air filter, next step, would be to replace the carb with a weber downdraft and play around with jets, then a decent exhaust, then a header and cam, followed by more jet play. at the end of the day you will maybe have about 100-110hp still not a lot, but considering you'd be lucky to get maybe 70hp out of B3, it's not bad.
Chris Rummel

[muscle_Car1]

well put. swap a b6 in

[superduder]

gone