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Cheapest way to get +50HP?

me32

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#41
Depends where you’re located. If you live somewhere where the smog blows to someone else it’s not an issue for you. If you live somewhere that others’ smog collects and you have to take witness children doing breathing treatments first hand it becomes “real” to you. But I guess as long as it’s someone else’s problem you don’t have to care about it, right?

Los Angeles doesn’t have to deal with the smog they create, it all blows to Redlands and parks against the mountains there. Lots of respiratory illness in children there, which exacerbates other medical issues endemic to third world air quality. Not from a tree hugger perspective, but from a social responsibility perspective. Is cutting off my cat worth causing children asthma? Other respiratory issues? I guess not if they aren’t your kids. You don’t have to be a tree hugger, but being the slightest bit conscientious never hurt anyone.
When I was fresh out of my teens I ran catless for a bit out of pure ignorance. Wound up getting busted by a portable smog stop (trailer with a dyno and measurement equipment). After all was said and done after court fees, fines, restorative action it was a $15,000 dollar waste of money. Re-tuning with a hi flow cat resulted in zero power change. Between that and actually touring some medical respiratory therapy facilities as a donor it really drove home how much running catless is pointless and selfish. No, being a responsible adult won’t change the world - but a single raindrop also doesn’t make a flood.

I think in order for you to try to argue against catalytic converters you’re going to need a starting point better than “not that many people do it”.

TL;DR, running catless hurts kids, don’t be an ignorant turd. If you don’t care about kids, care about EPA fines.
Then why not ride a bike and sell the car? Take public transportation. Smog pollution can be limited and controlled. If you really feel that strong about it then owning any vehicle is gonna have a negative impact on smog. Whether its in process of building the parts, building the car and driving the car. There is gonna be pollution created.

As for the topic of cats being removed on the st. I dont see the point. Makes them sound like fart cans and the power gain is not noticeable on a stock turbo.
 


Intuit

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#42
................... And to the 95% of the world, I'm sure they think sports cars; let alone modifying them.....is dare I say......immature
Marketing for even the common creature hauler features massive amounts of engine noise for 35MPH cruising LoL. But that's just marketing. The real cars are of course quiet. I would guess that most people would say it's "impractical" rather than "immature". Practicality is the reason manufacturers have (more especially with recent technological improvements) begun to follow suit with the advertising and sport tune trucks, SUVs and cross-overs.

Removing cats is a sign of ignorance. I see ignorants and morons and lemmings more than I care lol
Aftermarket exhaust unfortunately is one big scam. I'd guess that a high percentage of the cars here, who are no longer on stock exhaust are leaking. Even the so-called 304 stainless develops a hole in less than three. (thin walls) The crap they sell in the muffler shops is aluminized steel, which develops a hole within a year or two. I asked for stainless on a prior car and got a funny look. Even then they probably would've gone with the cheapest Chinese makeshift 409 grade. When the cat clogged and was faced with paying $$$ for an aftermarket aluminized-steel that'd leak in a year or two, I... I mean some dude with a car that looked like mine decided to gut it. Compared to a clogged cat, there was of course a big performance improvement... but as *you* know, that's only because it was clogged. (frankly it was so thoroughly clogged due to running the engine too cold, I have no clue how it ran at all - let alone smoothly and only symptoms being reduced power/mileage)
 


OP
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Thread Starter #44
... are you writing this from the past?! Catalytic converters have been required, by law, in the US since 1990 and it has been a violation of the Clean Air Act to remove them since then.



Thicker head gasket are used to drop the compression ratio when turbo charging an engine that was designed for N/A performance without re-working the head(s). This isn't something that you need in a direct-injection previously turbo-charged engine.

The way to make more power in a turbo charged car is to increase charge density (more boost and cooler charge) and decrease the energy required to make boost all while avoiding pre-detonation. It has been proven over and over that there are little gains to be found on the exhaust-side of a stock-turbo FiST. There are lots of tuners that can tune for more boost but more boost == more charge temp, so a larger intercooler is often needed to lower the charge temp to appreciate the higher boost pressure.

The limiting factor in your case is that you insist on running 87 octane fuel; an increase in charge density will increase combustion chamber temperatures and you don't want to pony up for a higher octane fuel to avoid pre-detonation. So you've got to figure out how to take as much heat as possible out of the combustion chamber.

Talk to a Pro-Tuner. You want something that nobody else on this forum does: a low-rev, low-octane tune. It's not going to be cheap because the tuner won't be able to sell it more than a couple of times and probably hasn't ever tuned for 87 octane and won't have any experience with it.

The responses to your proposals on this thread are free, but aren't going to get you any more power, and your understanding of a modern turbo-charged engine is too limited for you to do any good with the DYI hardware store upgrades for which your previous, hypermiler, community is famous.
I'm aware that the 87 octane is running at it's limits, and even cooler air on the intake isn't going to boost performance by much.
At 2500-5000RPM, with occasional brisk acceleration, the intercooler isn't getting too hot, and the air it cools down, is still cool enough not to cause pre detonation.

Perhaps I should have reworded the thread. I'd very much like more torque.
It has more than enough HP for me. I mean, I never really take it out beyond 100MPH much.
 


Jerickson88

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#45
Basically, you can run a e30 tune, and on a stock car achieve what you’re looking for. Toss in anyone’s FMIC, and make thy power more consistently. The car is engineered well enough that save for a RMM, it might as well be snake oil on a stock turbo car. Save yourself from being a lemming and buying every possible bolt on to squeeze every .01 hp out of the stock turbo. Besides, 3hp isn’t gonna make or break you if you can drive the car well.


Get a FMIC, tune for e30, and toss in a Gfb dv+ or one of the turbosmart units and enjoy. The stock DV is garbage and hinders your performance.


Goofy as it sounds, I’d like to see an optimized 87 tune. I have been running 87 since I’m back stock and putting around town/traveling. Now if I were daily, probably be back on 93, but I rarely get down on it anymore. Basically an 87 version of the Cobb OTS stuff where it gets rid of the torque restrictions in 1st and 2nd
 


jeffreylyon

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#46
I'm aware that the 87 octane is running at it's limits, and even cooler air on the intake isn't going to boost performance by much.
At 2500-5000RPM, with occasional brisk acceleration, the intercooler isn't getting too hot, and the air it cools down, is still cool enough not to cause pre detonation.
That's a complete guess. After a tune, the intercooler is the weak point and any improvement, esp. in hot environments, will help. Even with a stock tune an intercooler upgrade can be helpful. At any rate, the ECU will pull timing to control pre-detonation (resulting in less power and efficiency).

Perhaps I should have reworded the thread. I'd very much like more torque.
It has more than enough HP for me. I mean, I never really take it out beyond 100MPH much.
HP is directly related to torque. More of one means more of the other: HP = torque * [engine speed]. I think that you mean to say that you want to improve performance lower in the rev-range and care less about high-rev performance.

Get a set of lighter wheels, replace your spare and jack with a can of fix-a-flat, and install a lighter battery. Your car will be quicker in all regards, you'll get better mileage, and you won't be frustrated chasing the cheap-horsepower-with-cheap-gas unicorn.

If you want more torque in 1st and 2nd get an Accessport and run a conservative OTS tune with the torque limit on 1st and 2nd disabled. I'm guessing that you're not going to like it.
 


Jerickson88

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#47
That's a complete guess. After a tune, the intercooler is the weak point and any improvement, esp. in hot environments, will help. Even with a stock tune an intercooler upgrade can be helpful. At any rate, the ECU will pull timing to control pre-detonation (resulting in less power and efficiency).



HP is directly related to torque. More of one means more of the other: HP = torque * [engine speed]. I think that you mean to say that you want to improve performance lower in the rev-range and care less about high-rev performance.

Get a set of lighter wheels, replace your spare and jack with a can of fix-a-flat, and install a lighter battery. Your car will be quicker in all regards, you'll get better mileage, and you won't be frustrated chasing the cheap-horsepower-with-cheap-gas unicorn.

If you want more torque in 1st and 2nd get an Accessport and run a conservative OTS tune with the torque limit on 1st and 2nd disabled. I'm guessing that you're not going to like it.

When I was commuting in this car the access port was a must have. Once it got cast aside, I went back completely stock and the only mods I regret selling were access port, mount, and the vacuum diverted valve. Could care less about the intake or filter or charge piping. Never installed the FMIC. If the car becomes a daily again (I don’t foresee this) or I get into a 6 figure job I’ll selectively mod.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #48
Basically, you can run a e30 tune, and on a stock car achieve what you’re looking for. Toss in anyone’s FMIC, and make thy power more consistently. The car is engineered well enough that save for a RMM, it might as well be snake oil on a stock turbo car. Save yourself from being a lemming and buying every possible bolt on to squeeze every .01 hp out of the stock turbo. Besides, 3hp isn’t gonna make or break you if you can drive the car well.


Get a FMIC, tune for e30, and toss in a Gfb dv+ or one of the turbosmart units and enjoy. The stock DV is garbage and hinders your performance.


Goofy as it sounds, I’d like to see an optimized 87 tune. I have been running 87 since I’m back stock and putting around town/traveling. Now if I were daily, probably be back on 93, but I rarely get down on it anymore. Basically an 87 version of the Cobb OTS stuff where it gets rid of the torque restrictions in 1st and 2nd
Sounds great!

I really care about my Dollars $$$.
I'm wondering if there's a difference between E30 created with 3Gal of E85 and 9gal of 87 octane, vs 2 gal of E85 and 10 gal of 91 octane?
The price difference is about $5 per tank.

Would love to see a tune for plain 87 octane, and a sports tune on the cheaper 'E30'.

I think the stock rims are pretty lightweight already!
Especially compared to the stock 15" rims on my older toyota (steel).
 


Ford ST

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#49
87 octane on a performance car what a joke. The neutered OEM tune cuts power on 87 no tuner in the world wants to make a tune for 87 it's stupid. If that amount of money makes a difference in your life you got some serious issues. Not trying to be a dick but I don't think you realize how stupid it sounds to run 87 on a car that makes the OEM rated power on 93.

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Ford ST

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#51
87 octane only differs 10HP from 91 octane on the Fiesta ST.
That, is your joke.
I don't give a frak what you think I just don't want people to follow your stupid advice. Pre-ignition and detonation are no joke it will blow a hole straight through your piston. The car is tuned for 93 sorry you are stuck with 91. If you are so stubborn to run 87 there is no point of wasting one penny on any performance mods. Sorry you are broke or a penny pincher maybe you should work a little bit harder. Honestly I don't think you have an ST at all I think you're just a troll. I just don't want someone to follow your information because you lack serious knowledge when it comes to performances.

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Jerickson88

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#53
87 octane on a performance car what a joke. The neutered OEM tune cuts power on 87 no tuner in the world wants to make a tune for 87 it's stupid. If that amount of money makes a difference in your life you got some serious issues. Not trying to be a dick but I don't think you realize how stupid it sounds to run 87 on a car that makes the OEM rated power on 93.

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Oh it’s not that I think that the performance could or would be the same. Just curious to the options out there. I hate how the car is tuned stock to the torque limitingnin first and second. It’s obvious that the 93 is going to perform better.
 


TyphoonFiST

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#55
I stopped reading at pre detonation. [shameful]
I stopped reading at Cheapest way to get +50HP.....No such thing. This Tomfoolery must end about how to be frugal and be in the performance realm. If you wanna be frugal go buy a N/A fiesta and join their club meelee, you will fit right in! [facepalm]


 


Ford ST

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#56
I stopped reading at Cheapest way to get +50HP.....No such thing. This Tomfoolery must end about how to be frugal and be in the performance realm. If you wanna be frugal go buy a N/A fiesta and join their club meelee, you will fit right in! [facepalm]


Yes it must stop.

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jmrtsus

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#57
Things like this thread is what has killed this forum, it is now dominated by used FiST owners wanting the cheapest Chinese parts and little clue about what they are talking about. And zero regard for people's lungs or long term reliability. Ignorance is shown by anyone that thinks dumping a cat will give them any noticeable power gain....just a very noticeable lack of concern about other people's breathing. I am glad my state does a physical check of cats installed on cars! The owners that bought these cars for long term ownership are backing away like I am as most posts are ads marketing cheap parts and the MODS do nothing about our forum becoming a marketing tool for cheap parts. I ignore the arguing from neophytes that have a used FiST and have become experts in a month on the best cheap parts and how our FiST works. This thread is a prime example of the downhill spiral we are on. This forum has run off the Ford Factory people because of this silliness. Sad, we used to have an informative Forum now we have a place where experienced FiST folks try to educate neophytes and get tired of foul mouthed know it alls. I now read for laughs at them, not to waste my time trying to teach the unteachables. Maybe my asthma and my brothers Polio made me more sensitive to our need to breath than these idiots on this forum. I don't know how many people I have blocked on here.....I know that there are very few I consider competent on our cars. This forum is now more of comedy escape now than useful information. But it does make me laugh over morning coffee!
 


Ford ST

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#58
I kind of agree. I try to buy only American made, or European made parts. They can keep that Chinese junk. Plus not to be political I have no desire to support a country that's perfectly okay with killing the Rhino population so they can try to make their micro peckers a little bit bigger.

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Jerickson88

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#59
I kind of agree. I try to buy only American made, or European made parts. They can keep that Chinese junk. Plus not to be political I have no desire to support a country that's perfectly okay with killing the Rhino population so they can try to make their micro peckers a little bit bigger.

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Our cars are the size of Rhinos...

Financially, we are struggling ATM. That’s why I am on 87. Probably really doesn’t make a difference but it feels like 8-10 bucks a week has been a make or break. Maybe I should poke in the 93 and adjust my spendings elsewhere.
 


RubenZZZ

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#60
FWIW, the whole reason we bought FiSTs is because they're so much fun for the small cash layout. I buy used parts off of members. I research what gains are achieved if any. Most importantly, I realize that this car is pretty maxed-out from the showroom. It's gonna take more $$$ to get it to another level of performance.

Let's be real- if I had turbo 911 money, I wouldn't be dicking around in a economy subcompact... Not that it isnt a great little car.



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