Tips on making my car faster

[toplessexpat]

Both the 36 and 38ADL on a single plane manifold are great carbs. Just pretty hard to get hold of.


Agree on lightened flywheel too.. Reduce the rotational masses helps.

[kenncarp]

If not mentioned yet, put in a lightened flywheel! Amazing improvement, for a non-active component.

I will look into that! Thanks!

[kenncarp]

Both the 36 and 38ADL on a single plane manifold are great carbs. Just pretty hard to get hold of.


Agree on lightened flywheel too.. Reduce the rotational masses helps.

Good to know. Do you know maybe a comparison in performance from a 34 ADF which is on mine now, to the 36 and 38 ADLs? Thanks!

[CajunMike]

I think its important to mention to you that the fiat spider is not a high performance sports car. For the most part u are driving 60s technology. The stock 1979 spider was rated about 85hp with all the emission restrictions heaped on that model year. You can dump $5+ grand into the car with dual carbs, high compression pistons, hot cams, etc. and you may get 130hp out of that. But you aren't going to get 200hp without spending a fortune and drastically working the engine and all related components. By the time you do all that you could have bought a Honda S2000 which will still blow your doors off.

My point is that you should not be disillusioned that you are going to be able to spend $1000 and drag race anything post 1986 and win. Start with a few upgrades. The 34adf is one of the best performance upgrades for the spider so you've got a nice upgrade already. Try the 1800 manifold should also be a nice performance increase for not much money. Beyond those two is much more invasive and costly options. The dual carbs are nice but I've heard can be a major pain for reliability. Good luck and hope you enjoy the car. I got my fiat when I was 14 and enjoyed the heck out of it in HS and college with zero performance upgrades. It served me well.

[TStark]

I concure, you already have the 34 carb. Forget about the others for now, you don't have an engine that requires that cfm.

Get a sp mainifold, its your best value point.

Consider the flywheel afterward.

[johnsje6]

I have a '79, and replaced the manifold with a single plane from an 1800cc engine and added the 34 carb, made a significant difference for the money and was fairly cheap and easy to do. I bought the intake from Auto Ricambi, but you may be able to get one from someone on the forum.

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/FU1-4 ... -Manifold/

[v6spider]

This fixed my lack of power issues..


Cheers!
Rob