Xcellerate

Car makers always publish the power outputs of their engines. Those published numbers are usually enough for most people, but why settle for it when you can always get more?

You can get more out of your engine by simply tuning it. Tuning involves modifying or changing some parts or adding other parts to your car’s engine. What you can do to and how much more power you can gain by tuning your engine depends on the engine’s base size.

For example, a smaller engine with a displacement of 1.4 liters or smaller will not give a very big gain. Fast road cams could be put to good use in these engines as they are usually high-revving compared to bigger displacement engines.

A bigger engine, with up to 1.8 liters of displacement is more suited to tuning. It already produces more power at lower revs than a smaller engine, so there is a lot to be gained. A sports exhaust and a new filter will do wonders for this engine. So will the addition of forced induction either through a supercharger or through a turbo. There’s also the magic of nitrous oxide which adds more power.

The really big engines though stand to gain the most from tuning. Engines with at least 2.0 liters of displacement can get a lot more by changing the ECU mapping, or by adding a sports exhaust.

There are other things that could be done to get more out of your engine, but those are the easiest to do.