What is the best bang for the buck to add horse power to a car?

Question

Please list what you think and how much it costs and include labor costs if needed to install it. Expect most people can install an intake but not headers, turbo or camshaft for example.

Another question could you add an intercooler to a naturally aspirated engine, would there be any harmeful effects on the engine, reduce hp or maybe a add lag to throttle response. Any benefits like adding hp + cooler air. This as a way of producing more charged air than a CIA intake.

Answer 1

Nitrous! For under a $1,000 parts and labor...you can add from 25 h.p. to 400 h.p. and beyond.. all depends on type of car. If you did the install yourself.. you can probably get away with only spending around $600.00 and put on an easy 125~150 h.p. "kit" on any newer fuel-injected car.

Answer 2

take the stock air box out of your car, pick up a cold air intake replacement filter from autozone and just rig it up on the end of the stock intake tube. i did that on a 2001 intrepid 3.2 V-6, i dropped about half a second on 0-60 and A LOT more low-end torque. next thing is to open up your exhaust. however you want to do that, dual exhaust would be best for anything bigger than a V-6, if you're low on cash just replace the muffler for a glass pack or a racing muffler, dont get anything more than a 2 baffle muffler. change to ngk spark plugs and if you have the money and your car supports it get an MSD ignition. next thing would probably be headers, then port and polish the heads, of course that can get pretty expensive. just stick to the small stuff. the main thing to look at when you try and figure out how fast a car will go is the power to weight ratio. take the weight of the car divided by the horsepower, you should be able to find it all online. once you understand that, then the cheapest way to make any car faster is to take out unnecessary items. make sure your tires are properly inflated, even a couple pounds over wont hurt them, but dont go too far. i had 35 psi in mine and they were supposed to be 32 i think, so not a big difference.

Good Luck!!



dont use nitrous unless its an automatic! if you miss a shift, you'll blow your engine to pieces! octane booster isnt worth the cost. and whatever that guy is talking about useing a propane tank, hahaha, not a good idea! its best to build the engine to handle power before you go pumping more fuel or gasses into it.

Answer 3

Ryan, think of your engine as an air pump. The less restriction the better. Change the air filter to a cold air induction type. Check K&N. Next I would look into a new exhaust system. Headers and a cat back exhaust. These two modifications should give you a boost in the hp. You will also have to have your computer (ecm) programed to accommodate the new upgrades. Check out a VW performance web site. Goo Luck, Bill

Answer 4

Depends on the car. If your playing with a ricer car. There is not much you can do that is easy cheap and give it more power. You don't just add turbos without upgrading the rest of the car to handle it. And by the way headers are easy to install just time consuming.

Answer 5

The "Average Joe" way of boosting power:

1-Increasing octane value. Commercial octane boosters, or moth balls in the gas tank.Tried and proven.

2-More efficient air intake.take off the air filter cover for short & fast bursts

3-Optimise fuel-air mixture, and try to add another combustible gas to the mix. (i personally used a propane tank,leading to the carb of my '86 Tredia) The diffrence is huge.Also,you can try to use hydrogen(harder to come by),acetilene,oxygen (a bit of an oddball really,but should work),Alcohol vapours,butane and lpg might work too.They're all pretty easy to get. Pretty much DIY. Try not to blow yourself up.Use a gas regulator!

4- reduce weight and eliminate friction. Should be obvious.

5-Questionable...Set your distributor to give the spark a bit later,when the compression is at its highest point.

Answer 6

The best "Bang for the buck" as you will would be to remove unnecessary weight from your car. This costs nothing except your time!

This doesn't add horsepower to your car but it does make it faster.

The rule of thumb is 1/10 second quicker in the quarter mile for every 100 lbs shed.

Answer 7

air intake kit.

Answer 8

need to know type of car & engine type

Answer 9

ram air kit or something similar.

Answer 10

octane booster.