what is a safe method to increasing my car engine horsepower?

Question

My car is KIA Optima 2001. Its engine is 2.0 four cylinders with automatic gear transmission. Its current power is supposed to be something like 132 hp.

I don't wanna make a sport car out of my car. I just want to safely improve its general performance a little.

Answer 1

hp = less mph

Answer 2

Most modern cars are tuned so tightly that increasing horsepower is tough unless you're willing to spend major $$$. You can go to aftermarket suppliers and buy different computer chips that will reconfigure the timing, fuel mix and other aspects. You can buy exhaust pipes that cut some of the backpressure, and like the other dude said, you can get a different intake manifold that is smoothed, polished and ported to ease the flow of air into the car...slam on a blower and pump some nitro in and you've added another 50% to your HP...but you'll smoke your warranty and you'll destroy your car's resale value to anyone other than another gearhead. Any regular person who sees what you've done will assume you've driven it hard and expect that the wheels have been driven off.

Answer 3

Take your car to a "Speed shop." There the auto mechanics can improve air intake, fuel supply, gearing, and crankshaft ratio. they can also replace exhaust components with legal replacements that improve throughput rate. You will spend about $2000 for this. It will cost more if they hve to alter your car's computer modules. If you want to spend MORE, they can alter the bore and stroke of the engine, the camshaft, and the bearings. But if you spend that kind of money, you should consider just buying a hotter new car.

Answer 4

Less Restrictive Air Filters (e.g. K & N) & Tuned Exhaust systems (turbo mufflers, cat converters, mandrel bent exhaust pipes) can help increase mileage & performance without extreme costs. Synthetic oils/lubes will also provide similar but smaller gains.

Answer 5

Get a better intake and put some pipes on it...though the pipes would only add a little hp and would probably make it sound bad since its such a small engine.

Answer 6

Put a bottle of octance boost in it.
Put in an intake. Open the intake wide up.
Install NOS. Use it everyday. In fact, just give the car a steady drip of Nitrus Oxide.

Answer 7

the coolest option is adding a TURBO-CHARGER..
the turbo is driven by the exhaust gases, unlike the supercharger which is driven by the belt..
the turbo charger compresses the air and pumps it in your engine cylinders..more air means more oxygen...better combustion..and the power to drive the system is free..add an intercooler to it...the intercooler cools the hot air compressed by the turbo charger...
cooling it reduces the volume of the hot air and more air can be squeezed in the cylinders..you should be satisfied with this...everything else is expensive!!!

Answer 8

you can replace your air filter with K&N cold air intake, replace ingitation coil with a high preformance coil such as Blaster and ingition with MSD box, replace sprake plug wires with 8mm or bigger, replace exhaust with high preformance exhaust, and replace computer chip with a high preformance chip. should cost about $1200.00. the benefit of replaceing these parts first is they can be swap with a bigger engine or type of engines. if you ever sell car you can remove these parts and use on the newer car.

Answer 9

Put a stick shift in, auto's eat up the HP.

Answer 10

Add an intake, it'll increase your horsepower anywhere from ten to twenty horsepower.

Answer 11

Drop a big block in it