Looking to find or free up HP

[Huntnfish08]

A couple ideas I've got to free up some ponies but I've never applied them to a 1.3L before.
hoping someone can let me know if these are done with good results on these engines.

1. Recurve distributor.
Can lighter springs be put in to bring on timing earlier in the rooms?

2. Advance the cam.
Had anyone advanced their can 4° with any gains?

3. Rocker ratio.
What is the stock rocker arm ratio?
Is there a direct bolt in higher ratio arm from another year, displacement or different engine entirely?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

[WmWatt]

Sorry, I don't know but car engines are optimized for fuel consupmtion to reduce emissions so anything you do might be nullified by the computer. You might get some information by searching this site on your three topics or by going to the custom engine and transmission forum below. Good luck.

[theastronaut]

Find a sohc B6 from a 323, they're around 80hp and are a direct bolt in replacement for the stock b3. 2" exhaust will help. Other than that it's a waste of time to modify a b3. A b6d that make 100hp is a simple swap that needs the engine mount modified but will bolt up to the stock trans. It can run on the b3 electronics but it's best to swap the ecu and engine harness from the Capri donor.

I have a b3 with a ported head, FMS cam (NLA), header, 2" exhaust, and an Escort carb swap that only makes 75-80 hp. Nor worth the effort when b6's bolt straight in and can be had for very little cash.

[firebush357]

Basically what theastronaut said. There is not much to gain in the power department without pulling the head and doing some porting. You can advance the timing at the distributor to gain the slightest power but other than that you are better off just losing weight.

[F3BZ]

pricey but simple and qwik. electric supercharger. there are good ones that really work.

[ricko1966]

Well sir with absolutely no info as to year of car or what transmission is in the car it's kinda hard to help you. Some distributors you cannot mod at all others you can, varies by year and transmission. Don't know if you're carved or injected so can't make any recommendations there. Now I have never seen an electric supercharger that actually worked, I would live to see a link on that. Astronaut and firebush both steered you right. You can bore and stroke your engine, but more work and trouble than a 323 swap, which I have in one of mine it's an appreciable difference. Don't know skill level and don't know what car you have but for making power nothing beats boost. I've been very tempted to put an AMR500 supercharger on 1 of my B3s and am pretty certain that's going to happen. 5-8 psi of boost won't make it a screamer but should be fun and at that level engine management will be easy.

[F3BZ]

check out TorqAmp. youtube vids by supposed impartial testers show dyno gains of 25-30% and 1 &1/2 sec faster 1/4 mile on a cobalt. you'd probably see a little better percentages on the smaller 1.3 in a festiva but as mentioned, pricey at $2,500!