Performance

[Nsw]

Whats the best way to squeeze performance out of a stock '89 L automatic?

[ryanprins13]

Manual transmission swap.

Looking for speed/ quickness, handling or fuel milage performance?

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[Nsw]

Mostly acceleration and speed. ive got the handling down w/ new brakes and other new parts.

[FestYboy]

Advance the ignition timing to 6* btdc.

Do a compression test, best to know what shape the engine is in first before doing anything else.

[ryanprins13]

Mostly acceleration and speed. ive got the handling down w/ new brakes and other new parts.

Ok, transmission swap for sure. If you dont care a lot about gas milage get smaller tires. 165/50 r14 is only 3% smaller but should be a noticable difference. Im sure you can get smaller tires if you want to. Other than correctly maintaining the engine there isnt much thats worth the effort to make it faster. A B6 swap is very easy, if you drive it easy it gets the same gas milage as the b3 i hear. Something like a 30% increase in power which is huge. I got to drive a festiva with a b6 for a few minutes once. It was amazing

Loud exhaust makes it feel faster.

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[firebush357]

Ok, transmission swap for sure. If you dont care a lot about gas milage get smaller tires. 165/50 r14 is only 3% smaller but should be a noticable difference. Im sure you can get smaller tires if you want to. Other than correctly maintaining the engine there isnt much thats worth the effort to make it faster. A B6 swap is very easy, if you drive it easy it gets the same gas milage as the b3 i hear. Something like a 30% increase in power which is huge. I got to drive a festiva with a b6 for a few minutes once. It was amazing

Loud exhaust makes it feel faster.

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Switching to a 14" wheel usually means they are wider and a little heavier which would hurt your acceleration slightly but the shorter profile tires improves the feeling of the Car 100%. From what I remember you are running a Fuel Injected car so you could drill large holes into the bottom of your Air Box for the slightest performance gain but it sounds a lot better. If you haven't done it yet I would change out the Fuel Filter to make sure it isn't clogged up. If you replace the entire exhaust system with a slightly larger pipe you can gain a little power. From what I have read, the biggest gain that you can make without swapping the motor is by Porting and Polishing the Head but that takes a lot of patience, knowledge and skill or a lot of money you are just willing to throw away.

Most people just swap a bigger B series engine into it. Most of the swaps are pretty simple and don't cost much money if you find a deal. It might be worth it just to save up a couple hundred dollars until a donor car comes along on Craigslist. I personally just bought a 91 Capri XR2 with a B6T for $400.

[Sleeper]

Ya a manual transmission swap is a night and day diffrence for preformance, even with the stock engine