How can i add horsepower without sacrificing fuel efficiency?

Question

I have a 91 thunderbird and wanted to know if their is anyway to add horsepower without sacrificing how many mpg i get. Its my commuter car, so i need as many mpg as i can get. Best answer gets 10 points!

Answer 1

i own a repair shop,and ts hard to do on that car,unfortunately when you gain on one ,you loose on the other one,and that's what happens when you gain horse power,you loose on mileage,you can add a cold air intake system to it and help it some,and running a platinum spark plug will also help it,but there's just not that many things you can do without loosing gas mileage on it,i wish i could tell you more ,you might be able to increase the exhaust system on it and boost it some,but once you go past a certain limit ,you,ll loose on something,good luck with it,i hope this help,s.

Answer 2

Have to agree there are limitations, the cold air intake is good advice, also make sure your oil is clean and the car is serviced regulary. Good oil can make a difference as this will lower the friction caused by the internal parts moving past each other.

There are other things you can do, lightening your car will help both accelration and mpg, don't have to go extreme and rip the seats out but there's usually some weight you can shed with ease.

Other things include changing the fly wheel and the propellar shaft to light weight materials. If these are lighter then less force is required to drive the wheels. Same with getting some light weight alloys.

less rotational resistance = less force needed to accelerate

but this is keeping the cars bhp the same but you will notice a difference in performance.

There's also this http://www.ecotekplc.com/ this valve creates disturbance in the air in the chamber causing a better fuel/air mix, this helps with a little increase in bhp but nothing noticeable. However, this also helps with mpg and better throttle response at lower revs. For any car that the engine is bigger then 2.6ltrs two are needed one after another fitted about 4" away from the injection system on the line that runs to the brake servo (see the site for more info)

I know of people who have used these with cars that have de-catted exhausts and they've passed the emissions tests (UK) so there's another benifit. De-catting your car allows for less air resistance in the exhaust system and more bhp.

hope this helps

there's also some research about hybrid turbos, can add A LOT of power and whilst driving normally give a bit more mpg.

Answer 3

the first answerer might be right on depending on what car you have, just running the gears higher works unless you can't afford to lose low speed acceleration or if the cars engine is very small in which case no benefit would be had. actually supercharging WOULD be a useful way but there are obstacles. for one your engine is likely not going to run under boost most of the time unless its very small so the supercharger will have no positive effects then. also the supercharger will always wastes a certain % of energy that it takes from either the crankshaft or from the piston crown and you don't get it back. but if you ran at a lower RPM per same output/vehicle speed while boosting you may very well get a slight mechanical efficiency advantage while the boosting compensates for the lower thermal efficiency/power at the lower rpm. but really if you used an efficient one like a turbo charger you will wind up with very close to the same MPG you get now in practice. i turbocharged my 4 banger and it gets almost exactly the same( but now has way more power available). the best tried and true option (besides better tires, driving habits etc) is to substitute a % of the fuel with finely atomized water droplets. google "water injection" to learn more. problems include faster corrosion, greater complication, and cost. benefits are lower NOX #'s, less fuel burned per BHP/hour, cooler combustion chamber/piston temps, and near immunity from the dreaded engine knock. if you are serious this is worth checking out. it was done with some success in aero engines in WW2 as well as other applications. Pinaki did you really verify a 10% increase in overall efficiency? very bold claim id say as engines are pretty good air pumps even with a regular air cleaner.

Answer 4

More power doesn't have to affect economy. The problem is that a given amount of makes a given amount of power. You can get more power, but it'll cost you if you use it. Otherwise, a more efficient exhaust system (header and muffler) and a less restrictive air filter should help, since the engine uses up a little power to suck the air in, and to push the exhaust out through a restrictive muffler.

Answer 5

A common misconception is that adding hp's to your car will lower your mpg's...that is wrong if you do it right...
Start out with changing your stock intake and exhaust out with a free flowing cool air intake system, and a decent sized (3 inch will do) exhaust system. Add a throttle body spacer, a performance chip, and you've probably increased your hp's by anywhere from 40-100 depending on your choice of mods.
When you add hp to an engine, the engine has to work less to get you going where you need to go, so you waste less fuel...more hp=more mpg
try a K&N cool air intake, a Borla, or Magnaflow exhaust, and a hypertech stage I or II chip.

Answer 6

Making sure your engine is running clean and all the maintenance updated is another way to get a little more out of your engine without sacrificing fuel economy, this might sounds hard to believe but anything from clean air filter, clean and properly gap-ed spark plug and even tire PRESSURE -< this last part is when everyone might bash me., but believe it or not tire pressure is important factor to all this. Hope this helps

Answer 7

to get some extra power, change muffler and add METABOND that is better then DURA LUBE.
From muffler you'll get about 2 to 10 HP and from Metabond another 5 HP. So average result is 11 HP. Good tyers gan bring 1 to 2 HP.

The other ways are directly affecting the consume.

Answer 8

Unfortunately, fuel economy and horsepower work against each other. Nothing (at least nothing noticeable) will do what you want. Except driving down hill of course ;-)

Answer 9

use synthetic motor oil and replace your air filter with a K&N free flowing filter, you are gaining about 8 to 10 hp. and also increasing your gas mileage by the motor running and breathing easier.

Answer 10

you cannot. higher horspower = more air, AND fuel, hence, more fuel= LESS M.P.G. does this answer your question? However, you can try a good set of headers, this is, dollar for dollar, the best performance item to purchase.