It's a bit early yet, as it's still under warranty, but I was wondering what would be the best way to procede with getting a little more BHP from the motor, and also what other worthwhile mods would be worth considering? Your thoughts please.

Tuning the 1.4 is always going to be expensive as it's a N/A engine and you'll pay a lot for not much power gain. Your best bet (imvho) is to improve the power to weight ratio by removing anything in it that's not necessary. Rubbish in the boot, spare wheel, back seat, lightweight alloys, etc. Also consider better rubber on wheels and better suspension to allow the car to carry more speed through the corners.

Chris

I agree, I used to have a Felicia 1.6 (75bhp-I think), I spun it a couple of times so fitted a set of matched shocks and springs and some decent tyres and it transformed the car. The car was only lowered by 20-30mm or so and the tyres were on the original steel wheel so it was a nice and stealthy, certainly showed a few saxo/corsa boys that skodas can hold their own on the twisty stuff!

Please excuse my ignorance Chris, but what does "N/A engine" mean?

I would think N/A stands for Naturally Aspirated meaning not turbo charged. You really would be fighting a loosing battle tuning an engine such as yours - sorry.

Fair enough, at least I know now. Thanks for your replies all.

Eaton Mini Cooper S M45 supercharger**V.Low Reserve** on eBay, also Engine Tuning Parts, Performance Tuning Parts, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 15-Mar-08 19:14:00 GMT)

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I have 1.4 16V skoda too. it used to be a kind of "sportish"

"stripped" it was fun to drive. Also I made flywheel thinner and get modified gearbox. Removed all exhaust elements - all was one pipe

Now I almost finished making it normal street legal car, with factory exhausts, shocks and all... seats and so on.. Soon I'll try it on road to see how it feels

Power gains are, as has been said, difficult to come by but I found a few more bhp and quite a bit more torque on a Fabia 1.4 mpi with an induction kit (for better breathing) and then a custom remap by morego - Performance Car Tuning Specialists - Air Filters, Conversions, Dash Kits, Exhausts, StarChip, Valves formerly BBR GTi who are one of the original tuning/remap companies; they used to do 500bhp Sierra Cosworths!! There are actually very few companies who will bother with non-tubo cars as the market for remaps on them is limited.

After the remap the car was much more drivable, no flat-spots and noticeably more torque.

After that; loose some weight is about the best way to go.

Good luck.

Remap is tempting although cost per bhp gained isn't really too exciting!

Mine was relatively "sporty" but these days i'm just glad it hasn't fallen apart (I'm thinking the fate of the blues brothers' car at the end of the film for some reason...).

Best advice I can give is to drive a slower car now and again, then the 1.4 seems pretty fun. Still a laugh if you don't mind revving it a lot

my freinds got a VW Polo with the same 100BHP 1.4 16V engine and hes done the sensible thing - put the engine and gearbox for sale and plans to buy the 2.0l 16v and whack it in. Its pointless spending money on such a small motor.

Remap is tempting although cost per bhp gained isn't really too exciting!

BHP isn't everything; my 1.4mpi probably only gained 2-3bhp from the remap BUT a lot more in gain of ft lb of torque; it made the car much more driveable and I didn't need to rev it to oblivion, would only go to 4,500-4,750rpm before changing up.

The 1.4 16v is a bit thin on torque on the whole and an improvement on this will be noticeable.

A remap also is a whole lot easier and cheaper than swapping engines; surely if you have the money to do that its a move viable proposition to get a new car!

BHP isn't everything; my 1.4mpi probably only gained 2-3bhp from the remap BUT a lot more in gain of ft lb of torque; it made the car much more driveable and I didn't need to rev it to oblivion, would only go to 4,500-4,750rpm before changing up.

The 1.4 16v is a bit thin on torque on the whole and an improvement on this will be noticeable.

A remap also is a whole lot easier and cheaper than swapping engines; surely if you have the money to do that its a move viable proposition to get a new car!

I agree... the key here is the 16v bit as well.

I had a 1.416v car once and just a simple pannel filter made a noticable difference at the top end - to this day its the only time I can say there has been a definate improvement in performance from a pannel filter

Eaton Mini Cooper S M45 supercharger**V.Low Reserve** on eBay, also Engine Tuning Parts, Performance Tuning Parts, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 15-Mar-08 19:14:00 GMT)

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Need more evidence that this is a good suggestion?

I think I want one of these for my Fabia!