What if I told you that you can gain 5 horsepower this weekend,
for less than $100? Or, what if I told you that you could gain
5 horsepower this weekend, for less than $20?
I bet you'd be interested, eh?
Well, the good news is, I'm going to tell you how to gain 5 horsepower
this weekend for $0-15 spent. Sound too good to be true? Well,
read on!
1) Increase the H2O ratio in your coolant - if it weren't for
corrosion and freezing concerns, automotive makers would use pure
water. Water cools much better than coolant any day of the week,
and a cooler engine is a better performer.
Instead of half and half, try 40/60. DO NOT use pure water, As
this may cause premature corrosion and that can be no fun at all
to clean up. You may also try water wetter to further enhance
this effect.
2) Index your spark plugs - this is an age old trick that is
good for about 1 extra pony. The idea here is to "aim"
the open end of the spark plug terminal (the gap) towards the
intake side of the head. In order to accomplish this, simply mark
on the plug a small line to indicate where this gap is, and install
the plug as normal.
Try to line up the line with the intake side as best as you can.
It may require buying 2 sets of spark plugs in order to do this,
but hopefully you'll be able to do this the first time. Be careful
with aluminum heads not to over tighten, as that could lead to
a costly repair.
3) Relocate IAT Sensor - This is a very simple modification that
will work on a great deal of fuel injected vehicles. The IAT sensor
(“Intake Air Temperature”) tells the computer how hot
or cold the incoming air is. The computer will then adjust the
amount of fuel being injected, as well as make minor adjustments
to timing based on that reading.
The problem is that in many vehicles, the IAT sensor is located
in the intake manifold, near the cylinder head. Therefore the
air that the IAT sensor “reads” is much hotter than
the air, say, in the intake arm. The idea with this mod, is to
relocate the sensor to the intake arm. Use JB Weld or similar
to patch up the old port for the sensor.
This will cause the computer to believe that incoming air is
slightly cooler, causing it to inject more fuel and advance the
timing a tad.
4) Synthetic Oil - This is guaranteed to pick up 1-2 horsepower,
as multiple dynos over the years have proved this fact. Simply
by switching to a true synthetic oil this weekend you can reduce
the friction in your engine, improving efficiency, and therefore
going faster.
5) Insulate Fuel Lines - When your fuel lines travel through
the engine bay they heat up. However, cooler fuel produces more
power for more reasons than just cooling down the intake charge--although
that certainly helps things! So, to improve power output, simply
purchase some refrigerator/air conditioning insulation and wrap
the fuel lines with the insulation. While you're at it, you may
wish to go ahead and do this to the intake arm as well for even
more power.
