FEW QUESTIONS FOR THE REAL THUNDERBIRD UPGRADERES IN THE GROUP, I AM WANTING TO MAKE SOME UP GRADES AND WOULD LIKE A FEW TIPS. 1.DOES PUTTING IN 3 OR 4 TIP PLATUIM TIP SPARK PLUGS MAKE A SIZE DIFFERNCE IN HORSE POWER ALONE WITH CHANGING WIRES. 2.IN THE LOOKS DEPT. WHERE IS A GOOD PLACE TO FIND THE FOG LIGHT FOR A 95 4.6? 3. TELL ME ABOUT AIR INTAKE. 4. WHAT DOES THE O/D DO FOR THE BIRD AND THE TRACTION ASSIT, HOW DOES IT WORK WITH TRANNY, CAUSE I RED SOME WHERE BIRDS DONT HAVE THE BEST HANDLING OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVEN WITH TRACTION ASSIT. THANKS TO ANY ONE WHO REPLIES BACK WITH QUALITY ANSWERS.

To answer your first ? , no it doesn't and gapping the plugs is a real pain in the ass. My opinion, go with the split fires or AC rapid fires. ? 2, my only answer is a junk yard or the dealer. ? 3, The air is sucked through the air filter, then it is metered through the Mass Air Flow sensor (MAF), then it is discharged into the throttle body where combines with the fuel in or at the end of the runners of the intake or plenumm. The more bends and curves in your air intake tube, the less air you can stuff into the heads. Which stands to reason, the larger MAF and throttle body you use the more air you can stuff. The other point I should make is if you leave the heads stock, your HP won't increase very much (maybe 6-10 with a MAF, conical air filter, and larger TB). If you were to replace the heads with PI (Police Interceptor) heads, you could easily triple the above HP. ? 4, the O/D is Over Drive. The easiest way to explain O/D is, for every 100 RPM's your engine turns the tranny turns the same. O/D is a 1:1 ratio. Drive is around 1:3. In O/D you with get better fuel economey and have a longer power curve at highway speeds the you would in Drive. The traction assist has nothing to do with the tranny. When the rear wheels start to slip, the computer sences the slip and applies the rear brake to that wheel. The system works great in snow or low traction elements when you DON'T want the rears the spin. The traction assist has nothing to do with the handling. Any large, heavy car with have poor handling unless you add more components. IE... a front and rear sway bar (the thicker the bar the more stable and rigid the car.), improve the struts and springs and add a GOOD set of 235 55 R16 tires in the front and 245 50 R16's in the rear. Just from replacing the tires you will notice a major difference in the high speed cornering and traction. I hope this all helps, Jack

I am pretty sure they have the same hp as the US focus. They just have several different trim packages like the Ghia etc.. You check it out at www.ford.co.uk

i think that's true but doesn't europe have a 1.8 liter engine also?

europe..heh, they have alot we dont have<br><br>a 1.6l zetec<br>1.8l zetec<br>2.0l zetec<br>2.0l diesel<br>2.3l duratec soon i'm sure.<br><br>also other goodies:<br>motorized headlights (they move) <br>different headlights, theyre awesome like lexus lights on the front.<br>GPS stuff in Ghia's standard<br>the better suspension<br>middle seat head rest<br>and the list goes on and on.<br>basically, aside from saying "ford" on it, you'd think the euro focus was an audi or something, it's a fucking nice car, even if the 1.6l is a bit under powered or whatever.

You left out the RS. Crossing my fingers that makes it to the states. I doubt we will get that lucky. Cant see many people spending $30k for it.

well it is 90 hp to the ground to be honest but you can add a little bit to such as header, intake, exhaust or save your money and drop a turbo in it

118hp 124lbs/ft torque

the horse power is 115 base and depending on what u add, it can increase

Dont forget, the horsepower on the 2.0L varied from model year to model year, with 97 being the lowest. In 93 it had 115HP, 124ft-lbs of torque. This changed in 94-95 to 118hp, 127ft-lbs. I believe 96 may have seen 120hp, because of figures ive seen in various places (mostly probe lists). If not, it was still 118. Then 97 the power dropped to 114hp. Im not sure why, but this may be for the California emmisions system. If anyone know if the torque for that engine, let me know, Im trying to finish my engine power difference page, and that year (97) is the only one I dont have. Dedric Ramsey dedric@... http://www.avana.net/~dedric/

yea that figure is right as far as horsepower specs or real close to it anyhow.  what kind of civic does your brother have? and also, just because his car makes more horsepower doesnt make it faster.  the way your motor winds up etc also plays a role.  Being as you make 118 horsepower with dual overhead cams means your engine will wind out faster and you're going to hit your horsepower faster than a single cam motor.  i believe you'll find this true the more you drive your car against naturally aspirated 4 cylinders, non-dohc will be easier to beat (usually) than dohc motors.  

He drives a 97 dx v-tech I always told him the dohc would take is sohc but he didn't beleive me until we got out to the street when it was really no contest kinda funny that my 600. $ car took his 8000. $ car made me laugh even though he has spent so much money on it with exhaust and the short shift it really didn't matter in the long run any way Blake >

A V-TECH in a 97 DX? Has he done a swap because they dont have v-tech's in DX's; thats their bottom trim level. We also have alot more torque then civics which helps a lot.

I must say your info has been most helpfull in dertermining taht my brother is lying to me hahahaha thanks Blake >

From what I remember there is a very minor difference. The engine will sound louder which provides an unconcious response that it is performing better. Keep in mind that the car companies' engineers are far more expeerienced than the best of the amateurs out there, especially on the internet. If there was a simple (and cheap) solution to improving performance that would not damage the engine they would be doing it already. 99% of the performance "enhancement" products/ideas that you see out there are either snake oil or will damage the engine. Gene Horr >