XR Modifications help...

[BanditKoval]

Ok.. im comming to a point of where i want to give this car some juice.. im looking to push at least 280-300hp... enough to do damage agenst your normal street car.. perhaps an sti or mustang gt... besides intercooling it and boosting up the turbo what else can i do with out spending thousands and thousands?

[GPz11]

http://www.turboford.org/faq/index.shtml

More ideas in here too.

http://forum.turboford.org/cgi-bin/ulti ... 017352;p=0

[Esteban]

You can start with the stage 1 stuff which is the big vam, la3 ecu, and intercooler. If your octane allows it, 20psi too. You've already got an open downpipe so you're good in the exhaust dept. you can find a ported e6 manifold, ported and gutted intakes, build a cold air setup too. The ranger cam wont help much but it will give you gobs of torque in the midrange.
I have an a237 cam for sale that will help you out. You can even gain a lot from a home ported head.
The magic to extracting every last bit of hp is going with a standalone and some good tuning.
Notice i haven't even discussed upgrading the turbo yet...
Also, get rid of that c3!!!!!

[BanditKoval]

the c3 will stay its all original.. it hasn't died yet so.. if i upgraded it be a c4 and it will be after it goes... its just my personal preference an automatic... i mean if it was a stick i wouldn't mind but.. theres more fun sitting back and enjoying the ride vs constantly shifting especially in traffic but i was told to put it at 17lbs of boost to be safe.

[GPz11]

It will be safe on a stock engine at 17lbs boost.

You start cranking up the power even keeping it at 17lbs boost, you will be replacing that trans.

[In XS 7]

It will be safe on a stock engine at 17lbs boost.

You start cranking up the power even keeping it at 17lbs boost, you will be replacing that trans.

Yup, X2 on that, you have to make your mind here because you cannot get more power and keep that C3, the C3 just can't handle it, if you give more juice to your XR you will brake that transmission, so, stay stock or upgrade it (including the transmission).

[BanditKoval]

I already figured that c3 wouldnt handle it plus its still the original trans with 155k miles on it... i was already planning on rebuilding the trans and modifying it. Also whats a safe lbs of boost to sit at if you dont have a intercooler.. im assuming sense sticks can handle 13-15 with out a intercooler im going to assume auto can handle the same?

[Esteban]

yes, the manual cars are set at 15psi from factory. And you can push it to 17-18psi but it wouldnt be too much of a power increase since it's all HOT air at that point.

Both the motors in the manual/auto cars can handle boost with an intercooler or not, no problem. It's the auto tranny that can't. This is why Ford limited the boost to only 10psi (145HP) on the auto cars. You can chance it as many of us do. One other thing is that the auto cars had 13* of base ignition timing, as opposed to 10* base on the manual.

If I were you, since you want to keep the auto for now, add the intercooler, keep 15/16psi and have fun with it. The greed for more boost will break the trans in no time. So keep on the look out for the A4LD or T9 or T5 anyway as back up plan. It's not a matter of if the C3 will break, but WHEN it will break.

[itking]

Esteban,
My son & I live just down the road from racing tranny shop. Last I checked they rebuild & mod C3's C4's & A4LD's for the automatics. I think they do manuals too. This place modded my automatic tranny 15 years ago for my 68 charger. That tranny was indistructable when they finnished building it. When my son & I get a chance we may stop up there to see what they can do to our automatics. The place is called ATD. In Germantown. They used to call themselves Hipsters.

[Esteban]

I'm pretty sure an upgraded C3 can handle more power and torque. How much? I don't know.
But the C3 "as is" is almost like a ticking time-bomb when you up the boost. Search the archives and you'll find a number of posts that mention it's weaknesses.

[86XR4Ti5SPD]

In simple terms, the point being made in all the comments is why not do it right on the front end? Why purposefully break a working C3 if you can save up another chunk of cash to make that upgrade part of your 'go fast' package? Besides, nothing dings your street cred any quicker than becoming a smoke lump while you watch tail lights fade into the night.

[John Brennan]

One other thing is that the auto cars had 13* of base ignition timing, as opposed to 10* base on the manual.

Manuals have 13* (Stock PF-Series EEC).

[BanditKoval]

my auto has the timing advanced to 13.. something the previous owner did i guess.. for now im only looking for at least 200hp.. because 145 in a 2900lb car isnt much to show for... iv read somewhere fords c3 can handle up to 280hp... i dont remember where

[SvoSierra]

I'm really waiting for Don to chime in here. He has a pretty hot C3 car. He says the main problem is heat. If you can keep the tranny fluid cool, the C3 can handle quite a bit of power. Use the largest (or multiple) tranny coolers you can. Oh, and NO brake-torquing!!!!!!! That will kill a C3 very quickly.

[BanditKoval]

Yyeah no burnouts and tourqe braking isnt something im into i for cornering and acceleration