Boost Engine Power: Top 10 Effective Methods

Is there anyone who doesn’t want to drive a faster car? All the motorheads will like to boost engine power to make their vehicle more powerful and efficient. 

Even if you are not enthusiastic enough to tinker with the mechanism, you must love to have a little more power in the combustion chamber, don’t you? 

10 Easy Tricks To Boost Engine Power

In general, your automobile needs to have more combustion in the fuel chamber to go faster. You cannot do it by adding more oil because of the engine’s limited capacity. 

The key is to modify it to make it capable of working with more air and fuel. You can do these below methods to boost engine power and make your vehicle run faster than ever.

Use a cold air intake (CAI)

It’s the cheapest and the easiest way to increase the torque and horsepower. The cold air intake is an aftermarket assembly of parts that help the pulled air to become cold and dense. 

The air gets mixed with the fuel, and together they burn to produce power. Condensed air means more air gets into the cylinder and more air leads to more combustion. And more efficient combustion will lead to increased power. This figure is usually between 5 and 7 hp in a typical engine.

However, this idea can only become effective if the air intake is the limiting factor. If your engine already sucks in enough cold, fresh air, try another trick below.

how to boost a car
The cold air intake increases torque and horsepower. (Photo: Car Throttle)

Reduce the weight

It’s just common sense that a light car will move faster than its heavier counterparts. You have to replace the bulky parts, not just in the engine block but throughout the vehicle, with lighter components. 

Get rid of the extra seats, throw out unused things in the trunk, switch glass windows with acrylic, and change the traditional brakes with disc brakes. These things will make the car more aerodynamic and help the engine to effectively use more power.

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Install a performance chipset

There’s an automatic system that controls all the activities in the latest car models. For example, the onboard computer system can control the anti-lock brakes, the ratio of gas combustion, timing, etc. 

There are aftermarket performance ships that can hack into the system and override the factory settings. Replace your factory chip with a new one and use it to boost engine power.

how to improve engine performance
The cat-back exhaust system makes more room for air and fuel. (Photo: North American Motoring)

Attach a cat-back exhaust system

Throw out the factory exhaust pipe and stock muffler and attach a new cat-back exhaust system behind the catalytic converter. 

A combination of a high-flow cat converter and an exhaust setup will increase the airflow supply and torque to enhance horsepower. It works by pushing the exhaust gasses out faster, making more room for air and fuel.

Invest in a forced induction system

Bring a supercharger or turbocharger into the engine mechanism and see how it adds to the torque and horsepower. 

These tools can boost engine power by more than 50%! These work by supplying more air into the engine block, enabling it to burn more fuel and yield more horsepower.

Tricks with car tires

Believe it or not, there are a bunch of tweaks you can make to your tires to enhance the power in the car you drive. 

Calculate the manufacturer-specified front wheel alignment so that the wheels are pointed straight ahead for greater speed. Swap out the tires regularly for shorter tires to increase acceleration. 

Sure, sometimes, this will give your speedometer an inaccurate reading. But it is only a small price to pay for providing a strong feeling behind the wheel. 

how to increase engine power
You can do tricks with your tires to enhance the engine power significantly. (Photo: Popular Mechanics)

You can buy a set of lightweight wheels to mount those tires on, but be careful with low-quality ones if you’re saving money. Specifically, a set of carbon fiber wheels can lighten the car’s weight, but can also do the same for your wallet.

Reprogramming the car system

Car change-ups can be full of good or bad methods, but reprogramming the car system will always make it to the last ground. 

Custom cars with reprogrammed systems can sometimes be the savior of the universe! Tuning your engine is changing the program run time, fuel-air mixture, and other power-up inputs. 

The downside is that it only really works if your car is turbocharged. Customizing an aspirated motor may only get you half the power. 

And as with some of the other methods on this list, it only gains a large amount of boost engine power if the active program is a limiting factor of your engine. 

Switching the mainframe for a new module can work, but you have to pay a bit of a premium for that boosted convenience. 

Replace worn parts

After a long time of using the details, the parts in the engine are more or less abraded, this is also one of the causes of the reduction in the engine power. 

For example, cylinders are scratched, pistons are worn, and the transmission is inert, leading to a significant reduction in engine power. Therefore, if possible, it is necessary to replace these parts after using them for too long to refresh the engine and improve power. 

In addition, you should reduce the load of unnecessary equipment or items from the car and not keep the old parts that have been replaced. This contributes to reducing vehicle weight, making the car space more spacious, improving the performance and acceleration.

how to improve car engine performance
Worn car parts are also  the causes of the reduction in the engine power. (Photo: Squarespace)

Cleaning injectors and combustion chambers

Inefficient engine operation is partly caused because after a long time of use, the injectors and combustion chambers will be dirty with soot and metal dust. Therefore, cleaning these details is also one of the ways to improve the performance of old car engines.

For thorough cleaning, car owners can look to cleaning services of injectors, combustion chambers, and some other details related to professional engines from reputable garages.

Ensure good compression

As your vehicle’s mileage increases, your engine ages as wear parts. Through this wear and tear, you can lose compression pressure, resulting in reduced capacity and performance. 

You can repair wear and tear on your components and restore compression without disassembling the engine. 

In addition, you will likely notice symptoms of poor compression while driving. So be aware to repair the compression if your vehicle has any of the following typical losing-of-pressure signs:

  • Gas mileage decrease: If you do not modify your driving habits, yet your gas mileage has decreased, you may have worn engine parts that require maintenance.
  • Lower the oil level: The oil level in your car should be the same whenever you check it – always check the oil when the engine is cold. A drop in the oil level indicates a leak somewhere in the system.
  • Blue exhaust smoke: Engines that do not burn fuel thoroughly are prone to loss of compression. Sealing leaks can restore compression.
  • Engine noises: Your engine may not run smoothly, but unusual noises indicate a problem. If you notice sounds accompanied by other signs of decompression, consider compression repair fluid.
boost car power
Wear and tear can lose compression pressure and engine performance. (Photo: Mechanic Base)

If you take your vehicle to a mechanic for compression adjustment, you may have to switch to high-octane gasoline, which can compress more than lower-octane fuel without causing engine problems. 

Another way to help keep your engine off high-octane fuel is to add a Rislone gasoline treat, which can boost your octane by a full number.

Replace manifold with real headers

Getting the exhaust out of the engine block and your vehicle is a critical piece of power boosting. The manifolds are a series of linked tubes that channel exhaust gasses from each cylinder to a single exhaust outlet. The issue with manifolds is that they are poorly designed. 

Only after the pipes exit the engine do they join to form a single collector. Manifolds are commonly used by automobile manufacturers since they are less expensive to produce and install. Lowering expenses means sacrificing maximum engine power.

Replacing the manifolds with real headers is a quick task that anyone with intermediate skills can complete. If you’ve done everything you can and still want more power from your engine, install exhaust tips. 

Wrapping up, check out this video from Ratchets And Wrenches to get more ideas to empower your engine while spending the least amount of money in comparison to other changes.

Conclusion

So here is the list of some effective methods you can opt for to boost engine power. Hope this article is helpful to you to some extent and see you later with more car maintenance tips from Car From Japan!