How to Increase Horsepower
To know how to get more power from your engine you only really need to know a very basic fact about how engines make power, the more air you cram into that engine the more fuel is going to be injected (within the limits of injectors, fuel pump etc) and create more power. If you keep it this simple in your mind it is easy to understand instead of diving into the deep end and getting right into the very technical parts of how engines work.
So how do we get more air into our engine? Well first up the engines air filter is where the air is drawn in, this can be a direct replacement high performance type all the way to a pod style filter in a custom enclosure. It all depends on your budget and what the car is used for, now in turn to let more air into the engine we need to make sure the burnt gasses can be expelled just as quickly so an exhaust system that breathes easier works well here and gives you that sporty sound, this usually requires going to a larger diameter with less sharp bends, again the options can range from a mild steel system to a full titanium exhaust.
So those are our two first very basic steps in our quest for more power some people are happy to stop here but for some of us this just doesn't cut it, so where to now? Let's return to the intake again so what else restricts air from entering our engine, there is the actual pipe work its self the restrictive plastic pieces can be replaced with large aluminium piping and silicone hoses to connect them, this also makes the engine bay allot more attractive and really hints that there is more to this engine than first thought. Next thing in our way would be the throttle body this is what is controlled by the accelerator pedal, the throttle body regulates the amount of air that is allowed into the engine so again a bigger one will allow more air in when you push that pedal to the floor. Now you can have the throttle body bored out and polished etc or opt for a whole new one.
Well so far we have kept this to a moderate budget as we get to this point you really have a choice, do you keep slowly doing more little things or do we just go all out on a turbocharged or supercharged system, now a turbocharger would really hike up the power but the cost of all the other things that need to be changed to cope with this power makes it quite expensive to do all in one go. Not to say that going the naturally aspirated way won't make the same power it's just it's a difficult and very expensive task, so now you have to ask yourself do u just spend more gradually and get those few more horsepower to be had or go the whole hog and turbocharge your engine and reap the rewards.
