looking for some quick cheap effective horsepower boosters...i know i dont necessarily need it. but...cant hurt.

i'm supposed to race my popps '73 MGB. and i want to obliterate that poor excuse for a race car.


any ideas?

100% guaranteed effective race booster:

Seat time.

A close second is a well planned out suspension system.

Somewhere farther down the list (IMHO) is engine upgrades.

But, more to the point, there aren't many bolt on HP boosters. What's your engine setup right now? Carbs or FI? Stock lower end/cam?

Lets talk about the things that won't cost.

Make it lighter at no cost. Remove spare tire, radio/speakers, hood springs, foglights, soundproofing ...

Smaller tires. will change gear ratio and give you better acceleration.

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stock 2.0 with FI.

i have dropped some weight in the car, its called rust.

other than that. she is bone stock. minus cd player

When things get down, just hit the bottle...

NOS



Losing weight may give u the feel of some more power. Exhaust is a great way to go, get rid of heat, go with a 4-2-1 header system.

Alternatively, get a tune up. Check your spark plugs, wires, air filter, etc.. You're probably losing power from stock as is..

Stickers make u go faster... They must be at least 12" wide and include at least 7 different bright colors.

Add a Turbo

or two...



Weight, and make sure its running right. Take out your pass seat, spare tire, carpet, Increase your tire pressures, Put good gas (keep your tank low), and bump the timing a degree.

What kinda racin you doin?

Install a Tangerine Racing Super Header. That's the most effective bolt-on performance part we have seen so far. Good for 5+ HP on a stock 2.0 engine in most cases.

...Be sitting down when you look at the price tag, though...

--DD

Paint your car yellow. ;-)

or...
A can of octane booster will let you go a couple more degrees on the ignition timing advance. but use this advice at your own risk.
Never allow your car to ping. Never.

Take pics! We love seeing 914's smoking all kinds of cars.

i've seen the price tag for a tangerine equipment...and let me tell you. if i had the bank for that kind of equipment. believe you me my car would have it.
the race isn't for a while. he is putting in a roll bar and painting it. added dual weber carbs. some other heavy stuff his car wont be able to move.
and i just had my floors replaced. so were at each other trying to see who's car is done first.

I second the adjust your tire pressure. +5 to 7 lbs over manufacturer suggestion.

Adjust your car as low to the ground as you can get it. Better COG. Ditch the roof and the rear window. And you could also cut holes in the sail panels if you're dedicated enough. Simulation shows that that reduces drag considerably. A flat bottom kit will cost you 50 buck in plastic. Get some hard plastic sheet and cover the bottom of your car, suspension components included. Cut two slots beneath each head. Remove the rear bumper altogether. Change the front bumper for one of F/G. And don't forget an airdam. Like the other guys said, ditch your extra weight. Depending on how serious you are, you can remove the rear hood, and the rear decklid completely. And cut that trunk out, too. Taking stuff off is typically free. New shocks for the front would be a cheap upgrade. You can get a scoop for your intake for fairly cheap off eGay and fabricate a duct to get some ram air. Remove that air filter, unless you're racing in the desert. Then it's safer to leave it. Do an alignment. Rear toe in 2 degrees. Front toe in depends on wear on the suspension. Start at two degrees and make it more until your car develops and understeer/oversteer problem. Then back it off a little.

If it's a drag race... Unbolt the fan.

Btw...What kind of race is this?

Easiest way to more horsepower is always air in to air out.

My buddy changed his muffler on his 1.8 914 and noticed the power increase right away.

I would say lighten up as much as you can, check your timing and air intake, and put on a better flowing muffler (and headers if you want to spend the cash). Oh and dont forget some good tires....

huh? the rear power wheels will toe in slightly when under a forward/pushing load depanding on wear/movement of the suspention. if anything you want to toe out a degree to compensate and have 0 toe in under a load.

get a roll of a/c insulating tape and wrap your exposed to heat fuel lines to keep the fuel cold, heat wrap your exhaust, pipe cold unrestricted air into your intake. run premium, ad some advance and turn up your fuel pressure a few pounds. like justinp71 said air in (increased cold condensed air & fuel), exhaust out (hot contained).



mike
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its a 1.8L! all off 76hp so a cam change is the worth some 10-15hp...not the easiest to do but worth it.

corner balance and a -6.
making a 4 really fast is fighting a losing battle.
but a cheap 6.
rebuild yourself. get a setrab oil cooler and some aeroquip line and an oil tank.

then remove everything that dosent make you go faster or handle better.

fiberglass deck lids.
bumpers.

get a good bilstein coil over set up w/ big bars and corner balance it.

You don't want 0 toe under load. You want bite. Toe-more traction toe out = less. Rule of thumb, although not technically correct. Although, if it's an autox or very short course, you should probly shoot for zero or less.

Also, more traction in the rear means that you need to have more in the front to maintain good handling characteristics. Don't try to get more bite out of the rear than you can control with the front.

This race will be at a track, right?

Right?!

Zach

huh??

Toe out in the rear is A Bad Thing. You want to stay away from it--unless you really like spinning! Toe-in at the rear, always. Yes, the compliance in the rear suspension means you'll see a little more rear toe-in under power. Too bad! You don't want the rear to go into toe-out under braking, or you'll wind up swapping ends under braking.

Toe-out in the front can help the initial turn-in, at the expense of making the car "darty" and wanting to wander around. Front toe-in will keep the car more stable, at the expense of slightly less crisp turn-in behavior.

--DD

Vote for Mrs. K.

I personally guarantee a 2% power increase for 90 seconds of non-intensive labor.

i agree .
i built a custom exhuast using the 75 exhuast headers you know the real short ones. i welded those up to 3in glass packs that are about 2 feet long and then added pipes onto the back of those to get the exhuast out from under the car.its a duel exhuast that looks like the 914 6 gt exhuast. gave me more power at higher rpms.

Loose weight and wet NOS kit it till she drowns. You can increase the compresion ratio and use racing fuel also.

I have some good stickers you could have. I hear they add 5hp each... EACH....

No connection for crossflow between the two heads/sides?

no
but theres a deffinate power gain.

Thanks.
Are you talking dyno-proven or seat-of-the-pants? Is there any difference in your temps? Particularly head temps? (This is interesting because this has been a topic that has caused a lot of debate.)

im talking seat of the pants. i can feel it tho. with stock exhuast my car lagged but not anymore. hmm its a little loud tho. like my dad can hear me like a mile down the road.

This setup seems to work pretty well (>90 hp 1.7) ... and is dyno proven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zDgByXQSk#0QO9KKgE66c

No cross pipe = bad, very bad = no exhaust scavenging bad. 3in pipes are way too big too.

Who knows anymore? Exhaust theory changes almost daily.