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Well I thought that if Philip could get 160bhp out of a 1.8 Cav engine, I'd have a go at getting some more power out of the missus fiesta.

I took it down to the rolling road and it made 45bhp at the wheels as standard - somewhere to work from.

Firstly I painted the piston crowns with hammerite - I couldnt afford to have them ceramic coated so I thought I'd settle for the next best thing. I chose silver metal effect so the insurance wouldnt notice if I got stopped.

Then to get the engine revving past the 6000 mark, I decided to make some new push rods for it. I nipped into B&Q and picked up some mild steel. Half an hour with the dremel and I'd cut 8 rods to size.

I knew I had to port and polish my head so I nipped down to Sainsburys and picked up a rather tasty bottle of Port - 1998 vintage but ended up drinking too much of it so the project had to be put off until the next day.

While I was at sainsburys, I noticed a bottle of Brasso - great I thought - ideal for polishing.

Half an hour later, the head was looking nice and shiney - job done on there.

Now for the exhaust system. The standard one was looking a bit small so I nipped down to B&Q. There was some rather nice waste pipe there so I picked up a length of it. 100mm Bore - nice. I had some hammerite left and painted it silver - should stop it from melting.

Running out of money now I started to look around for a cheap turbo charger. As luck would have it, my daugter left her Barbie hairdryer behind last time she visited so I hooked it up to 12 volts and while it was meant to run off 2 x AA cells, it worked much better off a car battery.

Now for the water injection - I was rather clever with this - I took off the washer jet pipes and fed it straight into the carburettor so if I need water injection it could be operated directly from the wiper stalk.

Now I dont need to get this car rolling road tested, I've had a good guess at the power output and I estimate that its now running at 200bhp+ on standard carbs.

I'd post pictures but my digital camera is bust.

Edit: Since doing the modifications, some bugger has nicked the car - he was seen doing 200 mph down the M1 and the car was recovered as a burnt out shell so I wont be able to bring it to any of the meets

Posted by Dom at MIGWeb

http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92237