does anybody know of any ways to get a little more bhp from the b14 4e 1.4 without the expense of engine swap or turbo conversion.... im not after a massive increase. just a little more than they have with the factory setup (extra 5-10 bhp)

all suggestions welcome

remove the downpipe and grind the excess welds on both tubes at the flange down, this will slightly increase higher rpm exhaust flow
if you have a catalyst; replace it with a straight piece of tube or empty it (don't forget to unplug the C-plug on the Renix ignition afterwards)
reverse the wires on the TDC sensor, this gives 3 degrees timing advance; now use Ron98 fuell only!!!

that and a well serviced engine and properly refurbished carb will get around 6 or 7 bhp more out of the engine and that's about the limit of the easy things you can do.

hmmm, dont realy know what to do tbh, my mechanic keeps telling me that the best way to get extra bhp from my 340 is th convert it to turbo or fit a supercharger?

however these are both quite expensive upgrades. besides these 2 options there must be some less costly ways to boost the power output.... sports cam exhaust etc..... i understand that back in the day volvo did a sports upgrade kit for these cars (obviously these are near impossible to come by these days)

dont realy know where to start

spike4073 wrote:hmmm, dont realy know what to do tbh, my mechanic keeps telling me that the best way to get extra bhp from my 340 is th convert it to turbo or fit a supercharger?

however these are both quite expensive upgrades. besides these 2 options there must be some less costly ways to boost the power output.... sports cam exhaust etc..... i understand that back in the day volvo did a sports upgrade kit for these cars (obviously these are near impossible to come by these days)

dont realy know where to start

Cam, bigger manifold and exhaust, and carbs wouldnt be good. Wouldnt be cheap though.

What do you want to do with the car? I'd suggest the best thing to do would be to get a stock 1.7 and drop that in, they are noticably quicker than the 1.4. Changing the cam on a B14 is a fairly epic job in itself, due to it's location the engine has to come out. That's not a lot of work (me and Adam got down to about 45mins to pull engines at one point ) but if it has to come out anyway it's no more work to put in a stock 1.7.

Unlike the 440/Renault swaps you wouldn't have to muck about with the conversion to fuel injection, so really is just one out one in. Fighting against a 1960's designed pushrod isn't worth it unless you want to prove a point to yourself

i have thought of dropping in a stock 1.7 ... wasnt sure if the mounts would need adjustment or not...... also mines a cvt transmission, anybody know iff the cvt can handle more power?

and is the 1.7 fuel injected? i wanted to keep it running with a carb realy.

The CVT makes it harder, centrifugal clutch won't fit onto the 1.7 without some thought. I've often thought about putting a CVT behind a manual clutch but you've just gone from super simple to needing to change pedal boxes and random other stuff

Props are different lemgths too.

K4M 1.6 engine is a fit in a vario. I think it would handle the power.
16v, 115hp.

arent they fuel injection tho?......... i dont get on with those... would deffo prefer a carb setup

spike4073 wrote:arent they fuel injection tho?......... i dont get on with those... would deffo prefer a carb setup

Never thought of that.

its a shame too they look like good little motors

ive been told the renault 5 drops in pretty easy but i hear bad things about them blowing the head gasket

Hi Mate,
my brother gas flowed the cylinder head( not on a flow bench, but with a drill with polisher tool ), and fitted a k & n air filter, it seemed to make a big difference!
This was on a 1.4!

On my B14 I adjusted the valve clearances as close as possible (how close is up to you), and removed most of the fluff from the exhaust back-box. On top of that I increased tyre pressures to about 40 Rear, 44 Front. It's free and it works.
Adjust the valves hot and just give a few thou clearance, Maybe gives 1/2mm extra valve opening.

Nothing does the b14 better than a good motorway trip....

i re-set the valve clearances when i had the cylinder head re-built, as for what i set them at?.... i think i just followed the haynes book,....
anyone know what ideal clearance is?,,,
also think they aint at their best anyway as it does idle a lil rough,,, nothing to be of concern (just annoying)