Looking to upgrade my 2014 Fiesta ST

[Chrisk22]

Hey folks,

So, I've had my fiesta for almost 10 years now. About 4 years ago I got myself a COBB access port with a stage one off the shelf tune, cat back exhaust, Turbo Smart BOV, and K&N air filter. Pretty modest mods so far but I'm looking at taking the next step in performance and was wondering what you experienced Fiesta owners suggest.

I do have an input shaft seal leak and my clutch is starting to get weak so I will be replacing the seal along with new flywheel and clutch. I've been told the stock OEM clutch can handle more power than the vehicle comes with stock and I'm not looking at going crazy (stage 2 type of tune). Has anyone tried using the OEM clutch with more power? Is it worth spending 3x the money on a stage 2/3 clutch?

So far my plan for the upgrades is to get the Mishimoto intercooler and piping and full cold air intake with a specific tune. Looking to keep the build budget friendly but curious what I might want to look at for good performance upgrades.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to read this!

 

[Zormecteon]

Here's the thing..... HP is addictive. Once you get used to a certain level you want more... and more..... and more.
and more.

Keep the car in good repair and enjoy what you have. .. Save money, (and frustration) Don't know how many times I read about a person who changed this, that, and the other thing and now gets codes, and/or finds the car nearly undriveable and is looking for help sorting the problem HE created.

You've had the car for 10 years. Obviously it is not a "flavor of the day" car for you as it has been for so many other members (former?) of this forum...
Keep the car and be happy with one that runs well. Save your money.

Now then others are going to start replying with all the mods that you can (should?) do according to their preferences and experience. Take it all with a grain of salt (including mine)

 

[dhminer]

Stock clutch can handle quite a bit more power. If I were in your shoes and hadn’t already gone past the point of no return, I’d have put a hybrid turbo and left the rest of the engine pretty well stock

 

[Chrisk22]

Stock clutch can handle quite a bit more power. If I were in your shoes and hadn’t already gone past the point of no return, I’d have put a hybrid turbo and left the rest of the engine pretty well stock

I'm curious why you say that. Seems like I'm opening the door to more work and problems

 

[dhminer]

I'm curious why you say that. Seems like I'm opening the door to more work and problems

More work, definitely. Turbo swap isn’t hard though and a hybrid turbo is a totally plug and play solution as it’s built on a stock turbo. No need to change intake, manifold, downpipe, or anything else. Just tune for it. These engines are very reliable if you keep it to ~300 whp or less. A hybrid won’t get you close to that.

 

[daloonie]

My 2 cents. Don't get an intake, stock airbox is good with the K&N filter you have installed already. Keeps intake temps fairly low, does take up air from the outside and not in the enginebay. And as it's plastic doesn't heat soak as much as a full aluminium one. Though I doubt it is that big of an issue with heat soak due to material, more taking air in from the enginebay.

But with what you have, you can get some better intake temps with an intercooler. Which in turn could eek out a little more power with a custom tune. Or just keep it happier in warm weather.

 

[Chrisk22]

My 2 cents. Don't get an intake, stock airbox is good with the K&N filter you have installed already. Keeps intake temps fairly low, does take up air from the outside and not in the enginebay. And as it's plastic doesn't heat soak as much as a full aluminium one. Though I doubt it is that big of an issue with heat soak due to material, more taking air in from the enginebay.

But with what you have, you can get some better intake temps with an intercooler. Which in turn could eek out a little more power with a custom tune. Or just keep it happier in warm weather.

I found a complete air intake from Injen for $160USD so I figured why not? But I guess where I was going with this post is to ask if there's something else people are doing to their "stage 2" builds. I say throttle body spacers and manifold spacers. Or is an upgraded fuel pump or injectors the way to go? There's just a lot of avenues I can go down and I'm curious if anyone has experiance.

But yes, You are absolutely right that my car needs cooler air so thats the big reason for the intercooler upgrade and the intake was half because its so cheap and the other half because of slight performance I was hoping to see

 

[dhminer]

Nothing will get you more power other than an e30 tune or a new turbo. A stage 2 tune isn’t much different from stage 1. The best $ per hp/tq value would be to run e30

 

[daloonie]

Mods are a dangerous path to go down, my young padawan. You can easily spend all your hard earned money in the blink of an eye and be left with marginal gains or even negative results.

What are your long term goals with the car? Daily commuter, track, drag or the infamous "Mexico street races"?

If you're not going all in big turbo stick with an intercooler and a custom tune. As dhminer said, mix in some ethanol for good gains. The COBB AP has space for multiple maps if you're not near corn juice that often.

 

[Chrisk22]

I'm going for daily driver with more pep and power than stock with some better sound (ei. BOV and exhaust). I don't want to go big turbo crazy. I appreciate the fuel economy I get from premium fuel so I don't think I want to go as crazy as e30. Sounds like based on the comments going intercooler and potentially cold air intake with a proprietary tune.

I saw with the throttle body and exhaust manifold spacers you can get more instant power with a tune but I'd also like to hear if anyone has done this or again, if there's anything else I should be considering for a modest tune

 

[dhminer]

I'm going for daily driver with more pep and power than stock with some better sound (ei. BOV and exhaust). I don't want to go big turbo crazy. I appreciate the fuel economy I get from premium fuel so I don't think I want to go as crazy as e30. Sounds like based on the comments going intercooler and potentially cold air intake with a proprietary tune.

I saw with the throttle body and exhaust manifold spacers you can get more instant power with a tune but I'd also like to hear if anyone has done this or again, if there's anything else I should be considering for a modest tune

Intake won’t add power but it will add noise so if you like intake noise, that’s a win. I like the massive vacuum sound mine makes while building boost (Cobb carbon fiber intake but swapped the intake box for a very large AEM cone filter). If staying on 93, I’d do the intercooler and stage 2 tune from any of the tuners on this site. Anything beyond that will have very little impact.

If you haven’t done the RMM yet, I highly recommend that being top of your list after intercooler.