Tips on how to increase the power and torque
05-29-2009, 02:50 PM
#15
0.0 BAR
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 4
I really suggest reading its not a bad read. lots of direction for the newbs comin up
I am sorry but this thread needs some help. New to the forum, my first post but I happen to know what will increase your horsepower, and torque.
I could care less that you don't do research, because for all you people that ever started working on cars, info is hard to find when you start out.
I have asked stupid questions in the past. Maybe this person doesn't know where to start. The best place to start is a forum.
Cars are all about how much air they can take in and get rid of safely and efficiently.
Hence the terms intake and exhaust.
A turbocharger is essentially just a pressure maker that allows for you to squeeze a ton more air into the same amount of area. Turbochargers are exhaust driven
A supercharger is essentially the same concept just belt driven.
Increasing horsepower and torque can be done in several ways.
First way to go about getting cheap horsepower.
Intake:
Freeing up intake flow allows more power to be made.
Cone Filters are the first step towards gaining power. A stock air box is extremely restrictive and sacrifices horsepower. At the end of the stock intake piping people generally place cone filters. Local advance auto has cones for around $30 that fit several sizes. Measure your outside diameter off the end of the piping if you were to remove the air box. Place a cone on fuel mileage supposedly increases, and a better flow of air can be had, meaning more power.
Short ram air intakes are generally a good start. It is essentially a metal tubing coupled to the stock throttle body, which is a metal cylinder with a butterfly valve that opens and close when you push and let off of the gas. On the end of this ram intake is the cone filter I mentioned earlier. Generally the more money you spend on a cone the better it will flow. Online you can find some filters flow rates.
"True" Cold air intakes aka CAI are where the piping off the throttle body is ran away from under hood temperatures
Modern day marketed Cold air intakes work extremely well when made correctly. It is basically a very well placed pipe routing, and cone with the addition of a heat shield. This heat shield is simply metal that absorbs the ambient heat given off the engine so the cone can have cooler air to suck into the motor. Colder air is denser and creates MORE POWER. Try to seclude the cone in a way that is furthest from the engine.
Throttle Body increase. Machine shops can generally bore your stock throttle body out to allow for more air to flow. I don't suggest trying to home-brew with a big drill, people just get silly.
Porting and Polishing your intake manifold allows for curves, surfaces, and imperfections in your intake to become smooth. This smoothness allows air to travel much easier, equating to more power. Dremel kits can be purchased online and you can do it yourself, or a machine shop can do it, but at a price.
Those are the main things people do to gain cheap intake power.
ITB's or individual throttle bodies are something to look into later on.
These items are not cheap but make pretty good power.
Exhaust
Exhaust is that same air flowing out. The smoother and better this flow is the more power is created. This is because the motor is able to get rid of this burned up fuel with less effort.
Headers are supposed to be a very smooth version of the stock exhaust manifold, which is generally not the greatest of designs as far as power is concerned. Your 2.0 I would assume is an inline 4. Therefore there are two main options. Run a 4 to 2 to 1 setup. One tube for each exhaust port and then a pair of tubes comes together then finally the last two come into a y-pipe then connect to the rest of the exhaust. The 4 to 2 to 1 set up creates a smaller power increase across the entire RPM range.
The other set up is a 4 to 1 setup. Generally allows for larger exhausts to be made with greater ease. Also it makes a much greater amount of power, however this power is made more at midrange to high end, leaving the low end to remain at only a slight increase. This is the setup I would run if I were you. Headers can be made or bought. I suggest buying as making a header setup is for someone that knows how work on cars and have a great sense of math and angles. Must be able to cut and weld pipe as well if making your own.
The next thing is the rest of the exhaust. This starts with a downpipe of sorts. Generally a flex pipe that has regular piping on both sides of it. Some have flanges and are different sizes. Be careful when purchasing exhaust piping. I suggest getting on a VW forum and asking: What is the best size exhaust I should run for my VW. Give particulars about model, engine, and current mods.
I would assume 2.25” to 2.5” if you are staying Naturally Aspirated (N/A) which is not running any kind of turbo or supercharger. Basically not running boost.
High flow catalytic converter is your next step. They can be found on ebay with OBII standards. They are just a higher flow than stock catalytic converters. Roughly $75 shipped.
Next is the classic cat-back exhaust. $400 for a pretty nice one for a vw I would imagine. Get a nice brand stainless make sure same size exhaust tubing. Get it welded up at a shop and you just pumped up your vw to a pretty nice power level by doing those mods.
Vw heads should be mentioned as a possible swap a 2.0 might swap heads with another 16v for greater flow get on a forum and ask around what other heads might fit your motor.
Find more out about your motor name of the motor. CAMS are important to mention. If you can make reasonably good mods in that list cams can create better intake, duration, exhaust to make gains in power as well.
If this is a 90’s or MK3 vw then it might have pretty good chip options. Newer the vehicle the much easier it is to find aftermarket support generally.
Also turbo equipment for vw’s is quite higher as far as support goes for decent prices.
I would like to know what the car is that you have this motor on so I can help you out a bit more. If people give you a hard time PM me and I can give a few pointers.
That was fun. I just had acl surgery and got very bored. Sorry It was not a bad post I thought.
I could care less that you don't do research, because for all you people that ever started working on cars, info is hard to find when you start out.
I have asked stupid questions in the past. Maybe this person doesn't know where to start. The best place to start is a forum.
Cars are all about how much air they can take in and get rid of safely and efficiently.
Hence the terms intake and exhaust.
A turbocharger is essentially just a pressure maker that allows for you to squeeze a ton more air into the same amount of area. Turbochargers are exhaust driven
A supercharger is essentially the same concept just belt driven.
Increasing horsepower and torque can be done in several ways.
First way to go about getting cheap horsepower.
Intake:
Freeing up intake flow allows more power to be made.
Cone Filters are the first step towards gaining power. A stock air box is extremely restrictive and sacrifices horsepower. At the end of the stock intake piping people generally place cone filters. Local advance auto has cones for around $30 that fit several sizes. Measure your outside diameter off the end of the piping if you were to remove the air box. Place a cone on fuel mileage supposedly increases, and a better flow of air can be had, meaning more power.
Short ram air intakes are generally a good start. It is essentially a metal tubing coupled to the stock throttle body, which is a metal cylinder with a butterfly valve that opens and close when you push and let off of the gas. On the end of this ram intake is the cone filter I mentioned earlier. Generally the more money you spend on a cone the better it will flow. Online you can find some filters flow rates.
"True" Cold air intakes aka CAI are where the piping off the throttle body is ran away from under hood temperatures
Modern day marketed Cold air intakes work extremely well when made correctly. It is basically a very well placed pipe routing, and cone with the addition of a heat shield. This heat shield is simply metal that absorbs the ambient heat given off the engine so the cone can have cooler air to suck into the motor. Colder air is denser and creates MORE POWER. Try to seclude the cone in a way that is furthest from the engine.
Throttle Body increase. Machine shops can generally bore your stock throttle body out to allow for more air to flow. I don't suggest trying to home-brew with a big drill, people just get silly.
Porting and Polishing your intake manifold allows for curves, surfaces, and imperfections in your intake to become smooth. This smoothness allows air to travel much easier, equating to more power. Dremel kits can be purchased online and you can do it yourself, or a machine shop can do it, but at a price.
Those are the main things people do to gain cheap intake power.
ITB's or individual throttle bodies are something to look into later on.
These items are not cheap but make pretty good power.
Exhaust
Exhaust is that same air flowing out. The smoother and better this flow is the more power is created. This is because the motor is able to get rid of this burned up fuel with less effort.
Headers are supposed to be a very smooth version of the stock exhaust manifold, which is generally not the greatest of designs as far as power is concerned. Your 2.0 I would assume is an inline 4. Therefore there are two main options. Run a 4 to 2 to 1 setup. One tube for each exhaust port and then a pair of tubes comes together then finally the last two come into a y-pipe then connect to the rest of the exhaust. The 4 to 2 to 1 set up creates a smaller power increase across the entire RPM range.
The other set up is a 4 to 1 setup. Generally allows for larger exhausts to be made with greater ease. Also it makes a much greater amount of power, however this power is made more at midrange to high end, leaving the low end to remain at only a slight increase. This is the setup I would run if I were you. Headers can be made or bought. I suggest buying as making a header setup is for someone that knows how work on cars and have a great sense of math and angles. Must be able to cut and weld pipe as well if making your own.
The next thing is the rest of the exhaust. This starts with a downpipe of sorts. Generally a flex pipe that has regular piping on both sides of it. Some have flanges and are different sizes. Be careful when purchasing exhaust piping. I suggest getting on a VW forum and asking: What is the best size exhaust I should run for my VW. Give particulars about model, engine, and current mods.
I would assume 2.25” to 2.5” if you are staying Naturally Aspirated (N/A) which is not running any kind of turbo or supercharger. Basically not running boost.
High flow catalytic converter is your next step. They can be found on ebay with OBII standards. They are just a higher flow than stock catalytic converters. Roughly $75 shipped.
Next is the classic cat-back exhaust. $400 for a pretty nice one for a vw I would imagine. Get a nice brand stainless make sure same size exhaust tubing. Get it welded up at a shop and you just pumped up your vw to a pretty nice power level by doing those mods.
Vw heads should be mentioned as a possible swap a 2.0 might swap heads with another 16v for greater flow get on a forum and ask around what other heads might fit your motor.
Find more out about your motor name of the motor. CAMS are important to mention. If you can make reasonably good mods in that list cams can create better intake, duration, exhaust to make gains in power as well.
If this is a 90’s or MK3 vw then it might have pretty good chip options. Newer the vehicle the much easier it is to find aftermarket support generally.
Also turbo equipment for vw’s is quite higher as far as support goes for decent prices.
I would like to know what the car is that you have this motor on so I can help you out a bit more. If people give you a hard time PM me and I can give a few pointers.
That was fun. I just had acl surgery and got very bored. Sorry It was not a bad post I thought.
05-29-2009, 06:24 PM
#16
0.5 BAR
Join Date: May 2009
Location: UT, USA
Posts: 78
^ agreed with this.
when i got my miata, it took me a good month or so to figure out things about what i could/should mod. and it took forever.
mainly the question What can i do for more ....? comes from an inexperienced person, hoping to get info from the experienced, but it is most commonly translated as "What can I do for more .... for as little money as possible?" haha.
seriously. my big problem when i started looking at mods, was the near impossible task of finding "inexpensive" upgrades.
You're gonna have to spend more money to get more hp/tq so i do suggest looking up vw forums, seeing as how you have a vw. and a better question would probably be "Where should I start when upgrading?" rather than the vague "I want more ..."
look up vw vortex. i think it is... you should be able to find plenty of info. just keep tryin and searching.
when i got my miata, it took me a good month or so to figure out things about what i could/should mod. and it took forever.
mainly the question What can i do for more ....? comes from an inexperienced person, hoping to get info from the experienced, but it is most commonly translated as "What can I do for more .... for as little money as possible?" haha.
seriously. my big problem when i started looking at mods, was the near impossible task of finding "inexpensive" upgrades.
You're gonna have to spend more money to get more hp/tq so i do suggest looking up vw forums, seeing as how you have a vw. and a better question would probably be "Where should I start when upgrading?" rather than the vague "I want more ..."
look up vw vortex. i think it is... you should be able to find plenty of info. just keep tryin and searching.
05-30-2009, 09:35 PM
#17
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 47
Adding a nitrous, turbo or supercharger would be a good idea, also doing work to the motor itself could help. I guess it depends on what you want to spend and how much power you are looking for. I drive a honda so I cant really help you but there are a bunch of vw shops that can help you with ideas for your ride.
05-30-2009, 09:50 PM
#18
3.0 BAR
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: texas
Posts: 2,598
[QUOTE=snowdrift;1273367look up vw vortex. i think it is... you should be able to find plenty of info. just keep tryin and searching.[/QUOTE]vw vortex is the equivelent of honda-tech. just a punch of stupid ricers talking ---- and making their cars gayer
05-31-2009, 11:20 AM
#20
0.0 BAR
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 4
Run very lean you say. Thats about the most intelligent way to modify a car to gain horsepower and torque. Lets just get rid of fuel that it needs till it is leaned out to a point were you don't have enough fuel. This person doesn't seem to have a clue about cars or where to start so give the kid some actual help. Now that your useless comment is out of the way.
Fuel management as it is better called is not AS beneficial until you have other modifications. Freeing up intake and exhaust is much more important with an N/A vehicle. They set your car up with certain fuel maps for a reason.
With turbos the range that people run there fuel at can be extremely different. Hence maybe why Toysrme stated you need to lean your vehicle.
You essentially want to find the peak efficiency for the motor as far as fuel and air goes.
Granted you can squeeze out peak performance by leaning the vehicle out, Toysrme you gave him no useful information other than that statement. Give him a place to look.
Tell him to look into how is vehicle senses air intake and rpm and the ecu creates fuel maps accordingly.
I don't appreciate the rude comment as none of the things i stated were "retarded"
Running nitrous on a stock motor I don't generally suggest. Creates more problems, and just ruins motors. Nitrous is just stealing horsepower out of a bottle.
Getting the motor redone bored or stroked out to a larger size can help to create a lot more power. High compression pistons can be swapped in for more power as well. But remember that if you run higher compression your chances of blowing a headgasket increase tremendously if you ever went to a turbocharger or supercharger. Low compression is recommended for turbo mods.
high compression and turbo's just don't mix.
Motor work is not for the average joe schmoe. You need a comfy place to work. Engine hoist. Engine stand. A lot of money is required for most motor mods so if you are trying to stay on the cheap I don't suggest this route.
Engine Swaps also are difficult but you should look into what else might fit under the hood of your vw with little to no modifications.
My 85 supra came stock with a 2.8l I6 5mge that I swapped out last summer for a 3.0l I6 6mge. It was a bolt in motor different with roughly a 20-30hp jump. Not enough to do what I want. Hence why I joined here. Getting together parts for running my own homemade turbo kit.
Fuel management as it is better called is not AS beneficial until you have other modifications. Freeing up intake and exhaust is much more important with an N/A vehicle. They set your car up with certain fuel maps for a reason.
With turbos the range that people run there fuel at can be extremely different. Hence maybe why Toysrme stated you need to lean your vehicle.
You essentially want to find the peak efficiency for the motor as far as fuel and air goes.
Granted you can squeeze out peak performance by leaning the vehicle out, Toysrme you gave him no useful information other than that statement. Give him a place to look.
Tell him to look into how is vehicle senses air intake and rpm and the ecu creates fuel maps accordingly.
I don't appreciate the rude comment as none of the things i stated were "retarded"
Running nitrous on a stock motor I don't generally suggest. Creates more problems, and just ruins motors. Nitrous is just stealing horsepower out of a bottle.
Getting the motor redone bored or stroked out to a larger size can help to create a lot more power. High compression pistons can be swapped in for more power as well. But remember that if you run higher compression your chances of blowing a headgasket increase tremendously if you ever went to a turbocharger or supercharger. Low compression is recommended for turbo mods.
high compression and turbo's just don't mix.
Motor work is not for the average joe schmoe. You need a comfy place to work. Engine hoist. Engine stand. A lot of money is required for most motor mods so if you are trying to stay on the cheap I don't suggest this route.
Engine Swaps also are difficult but you should look into what else might fit under the hood of your vw with little to no modifications.
My 85 supra came stock with a 2.8l I6 5mge that I swapped out last summer for a 3.0l I6 6mge. It was a bolt in motor different with roughly a 20-30hp jump. Not enough to do what I want. Hence why I joined here. Getting together parts for running my own homemade turbo kit.
