Pinto Car Club of America

Hi all,

I am looking to make a couple of minor performance modifications to my ride, but I am hoping to get some advice before I spend any dough. My car only has about 45K original miles car since new in 1976, so I thought it might still be worth doing a couple of upgrades to the existing engine.

Does anyone out there know of a good source for an emissions compliant header for my 2.3L? I still have to pass Oregon emissions, so I will need to have the EGR port and the air pump fittings on any header I buy. I would like to coax a little more giddy up out of my existing engine with bolt on only modifications, if possible.

Also, how about recommendations for changing jet sizes in my carb to enhance the new header? It is a Holley model 5200 (Weber 32/36). The car is the mpg model, so I am guessing it may have been pretty conservative on the original carb jetting to save gas. 

How much of a HP gain over stock can I expect by doing these mods? I would appreciate any advice from those who may have done this already. Thanks!

76GreenWagon

One of the most effective mods is to use a Ranger roller cam. There are years you can't "bolt in" but most can. The other guys here can help you there. I dunno what year mine is from as I got it from a pulled motor. You can look to se maybe a 15-20% increase in HP with this alone. I can say that it woke my lil horse up, but can't say how much.

Well, depending on how 'legal' you want your car, you can get bungs that fit your air fittings and egr and get them welded on...then decide whether or not to get them drilled out so they actually work or just 'look' like they work.  Of course, I never really said that, and if you say different, I will deny everything...hehehe.
--Doug