thought i would resurrect this thread with a little story and then some facts.
in my youth when i had no money and a 2.0 capri i looked to try and make it faster without spending anything, i took the head off and lapped the valves and fitted a mk2 RS2000 exhaust manifold and down pipe i found in a scrap yard attached to a mk3 cortina, looking to see what else i could do i took the choke flaps out the carb, i swore it was a lot faster afterwards, but it was a pain to live with on my short drives to and from work, so i cut the choke spindle in half and refitted half a spindle and only the primary flap, that was ok as long as you were gentle on the throttle on a cold engine, i was still pleased with how much better my car went......
.....fast forward 30 odd years i find i have a totally standard pinto with freshly lapped valves and an ashley 421 on my dyno, after being sure i had wrung as much as i possibly could out of the engine i decided to remove the choke flaps and see how much power i gained, i thought i would see a bit as i had seen a small gain on the flowbench removing them.
yes i did gain power
i did several pulls to prove it, but i did gain power....
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...
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one bhp!
maybe you would see more on a modified engine, but clearly my big power gains when i was young were in my head!
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