Festiva WF 1.5 power loss

[peteb57]

Howdy,
I got a 1998 WF Festiva, 1.5L 5 Spd.
Do most of the work myself, but when it comes to electronics and what not is guessing games I suppose.

Have 2 earlier Festiva and a donor, all 1.3 Autos.

The problem is, the 98 WF has a torque issue at 100 -110 K when going on a rise on the freeway. It's a killjoy to be honest, it just seems to fade away and need to drop it to 4th or 3rd, speed drops back to 90, need to change to left lane cos cars behind have slowed down to.

I searched using "Review" and found that particular model apparently did "lose" 11Kw of torque.

Review says similar to what I'm saying, but no solution.
http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...257125001A1329

Is there a way to "fix" it ?
I don't mind if it's a cam change they did, or compression changes.
But if it's in the ECU programming, what can be done about it if anything can be done ?
Does Ford do "ECU Upgrades" when there has been an oversight ?

This issue can be classified just on the doorstep of "safety", due to the fact it loses torque when it is most needed and hinders traffic on the freeway.
I'm sure the 1.5 has more hidden potential, has it been "de-tuned" ?
Thanks

[Yellow_Festiva]

Just saw this.

You are correct. For a short time, I believe around 1997 the 1.5 in the Festiva had a 67kw donk. From what I remember it was due to a 16v head on the engine.

After that, from 98 onwards the 1.5 engine was an 8v unit that was good for 56kw.

If you are just complaining that the engine struggles up hills this is just part and parcel to driving a low powered car.

I had mine for 10 years - never really worried myself with the power output and just changed down as needed.

If you want to have the higher powered engine I guess the cheapest way to do it is just buy a running car with the better engine.

By the time you look at buying another motor and possibly ECU and doing the swap it may end up cheaper.

I drove the higher powered car once on a test drive and boy you really do notice the difference!