Pinto Car Club of America

hello, i have just gotten into the pinto world and i live in Canada i got my pinto from my stepdad for free. it is a 1978 pinto with the huge back window. it is a 3 door coupe but heres the cool part it has a 2.8 litre v6. which i heard was pretty rare for the small pinto. i need help. i have a freind who has a 1988 honda crx. he was chirping it up and i decided to challenge him to a race. so in a year we are going to go to the local track and race. i am a student and i only have about 3 grand to spend. what is the best way to get my little v6 to eat the crx for breakfast. i know a fair amount about engines for a 16 year old. im thinking that the first thing would be a less restrictive exhaust. and induction. please tell me how. i dont want to swap motors or tear this one down too much. so help me.
thank you

your best bet would be a turbo conversion from a t-bird turbo coupe or a Merkur.....then you'd kick his a$$ for sure!

The V6 is generally a pretty decent engine, but it never took off in North America like it did in Europe. It can get expensive to get one of these to produce good power and stay together. You would be money ahead doing what pinto78 suggested and installing a T-bird Turbo Coupe engine and 5spd. You should already have the 8" rearend because of the V6, so you're ahead of most. Put in 3.40 or 3.50 gears and it will scoot, but will be fine on the highway with the OD in the 5spd.

Hello V6 coupe,
Try to make your Pinto as light as possible.
Before going into the engine you should put a Mechanical oil pressure guage on it.
Just to see how much PSI you have.
You NEED 10 PSI for every 1000 rpm.
If your Oil Psi is low you need to install a High Volume oil pump.
Remember that your Pinto has age as well as miles on it.
Most often when trying to increase power in an older engine you end up disapointed. The old engine just will not put up with the revs and abuse.
That being said a good set of headers and at least 2" exhaust with free flowing muffler will work well.
Next is a camshaft and lifters. and re-jetting the carb with a K&N air filter.
Be sure to buy a new timing gear set. The original fiber gear will be the first thing to fail on you.
2.8 heads respond well to a mild port job too. Just clean them up a bit.
From Pintony

Racer Walsh has a few cams to choose from too. I think porting and decking the heads will give you quite a bit of power and compression not to mention throttle response. The cam will onely increase this advantage. Gears like 3.40 or even 3.55s would work depending on how much highway use it sees. I dont know of any O.D. equipped  trannys that will link to it but I am sure there has to be something out there (Anybody???).

Like Pintony said lighten it up. You should be able to win. The 2.8 is a good motor. My friend has one in his project racecar and it's built well. He revves the piss out of it and beats it into the ground and it still hapily runs along.  Not that you can just jump in yours and do this but a good rebuild and some tastefull mods (Porting, cam exhaust.)and 1 HP per cube at the flywheel should be possible.

Oh and it's an auto trans right (I am sorry) Get a mild stall converter. Or figure out how to convert it to a 5-Speed and put 4.11s in it and scare everything in the neigborhood.