ME being the rally racein 80's luvin kid in my school I want to convert my fb to rally spec I know what i want to do chassis and body but the real question is on the engine should I put in a 13b or keep my stock 12a Im looking for about 140-165 hp and lots of torque but being rally boy what would get me the best reliability any input is appreciated

 

can a 12a handle up to 20 lbs of boost because turboing may be the answear

 

20psi of boost would be WAY over 165hp. You can easily get 165hp from a N/A engine with a medium street port.

 

Torque? Not untill that turbo kicks in!

 

yes, 140 - 165 hp is eeeeaaasily attainable even without turbo, but if you want alot of torque, then you will need the boost. i vote to keep the 12a if it's in good condition. :-D

 

IT is indeed only 58,000 original miles always garaged and never driver in the rain and can I get there without the porting IT is simply not an option I want to run a racing beat exhaust take off the smog stuff and put on a weber 48 can THAT support the power I want or would it be cheaper to fab up a turbo setup .

 

I think that with 20psi of boost, you would get way over 350hp and blow all your apex seals on startup.

 

Unless you port you must abort (the 12A). . .

 

Its really a question of how much money you can afford to spend. A12A with bolt on modifications will get you around 140-150hp. If you have the engine rebuilt and ported you will get 180hp. At that level of output you can stop with modifying your Nikki carb.

Perhaps even more important is upgrading the suspesion, wheels and tires. Go for poly bushes, stiffer coils and shocks, and stiffer swaybar, possibly a strut tower brace. These will make your car perform far better.

 

Go wiht a 12a bridgey, that would be good for rally and not too expensive and much more simple then a trubo.

 

Doing a 12a turbo setup can be very easy, and not cost too much $ either. I did mine for just over $1000. No intercooler, so basically no turbo lag, and I easily have over 200hp at 8psi. I should be able to go up to 12psi safely from time to time, which should put my car in the very low 13's/high 12's. But at 8psi it will run 13.8-14.0.