Smart Way To Make Horsepower

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The best way to make HP is the buy the right parts the first time, or to buy everything for a project at once. You'll save big bucks, since speed isn't cheap

Using Intakes better at the track cost $0
Have an intake. When you go to the track, with a WAI, remove the entire headlight housing. You allowing better airflow you get to your intake. Even though the battery is still in the way you still get enough air to make a big difference. For CAI guys, remove the foglight, it's held in by 2 10mm bolts and unbolts very easy. Wrap the wire from the foglight up and out of the way. I remove the fender liner too to allow a full airflow. Also have a different filter for the track, this way you have a nice clean filter or even a brand new one. My track filter has about 10 miles on it

Exhaust $400 to 700 pending on company
Aleros work best with a 2.5" upgrade. Most cars today make HP with Backpressure, going too big of an exhaust allows no backpressure which will kill low end torque. I great example of this is the Honda Civic. It has a 1.5" stock exhaust. A great upgrade would be 2" or 2.25" but if you start going up to 3" and 4" and even 5" which I've seen, you just killing 1/4 mile times. Think about it. An 8 second drag car has no mufflers and a 3 to 4 inch header. These usually have a 400 SBC or bigger motor under the hood. A Civic has a 1.6 liter motor (400 motor is 6.7 liters) It should only cost about $75 to install a kit.

Struts and Springs @$250/struts @$200/Springs
Lower Springs and new Struts will stop the front end of your car from comming up and that will help ET's a bit. A FWD car is built on the idea that the motor is over the drive wheels to get better traction do to the weight of the motor, and it's easier for a small car to be pulled instead of being pushed. On hard Accel, the front will jump up and all the weight (inclueding gas) will move back. It's basic science. The stiffer springs will reduce the way the front end jumps up, putting more weight over the wheel and causing less wheel spin. You could get the stiffest springs you want and pervent the front end from comming up at all. One of the fastest NA Corba in the world is in the Greater Philadelphia area, and he has mostly suspension and tranny work done to the car, with very little done to the motor.

Bigger TB $219 for TB $219 for manifolds (v6 motors)
If done right, will increase airflow to the motor. It is pointless to get a bigger TB and not get the manifold ported to match.(Upper and lower for the 3400's) You're only going to allow as much air in, as your smallest opening will allow. Think of it in terms of water in a cup. A quater sized hole will drain faster than a pin sized hole.

Lightweight Wheels and Racing or High traction street tires appox $1000
The poilshed 16" wheels & tires on the GLS weigh about 42 lbs each. My aftermarkets weigh only 32lbs each. Cut 12 lbs down on each wheel and 48 lbs overall. Lighter wheels are easier to spin up, so there is a down side. Small diameter wheels are better for drag racing due to less rolling resistance. If you plus size wheels correctly a 16" wheel is the same diameter as a 17" wheel, with tires of course

Crank Pulley appox $140
A lighter pulley will allow higher and faster revs. The higher the car is revving going down the track, the faster the car will go into the next gear. Pulleys don't add any more than 2 HP, if your lucky to get 2, it's the revving factor you got to look at here

Alt Pulley appox $120
All these do is spin the Alt slower, they free up about 1 to 2 HP. Not recommened if your running a system, or a lot of electrical in your car. This is great point of speed vs bling and showing you can't do both.

Electric fan switch @ $80
In addtion to running the heat to draw heat out of the motor, this will help bring underhood temps down. Be sure to turn it off before your run, because it's like leaving the A/C on going down the track. Casper sells a plug and play system, but it doesn't go off when you turn off the igntion. It will kill the battery in 20 minutes if left on.

Coolant appox $135 at dealer
Clean and fresh to win. Keeps the motor cooler. Coolant does a better job if it's clean.

180 Degree Thromostat $11
Stock is set at 195 degrees, 15 degrees is a big difference.

Headers $600 to $900
4,2,1 or 4 to 1 headers for a 4 banger and 3 to 1 headers for 3400's move exhaust gases faster, and hotter. For a 3400 it adds about 20 HP at the wheels and is a very serious mod. Works best with a 2.5" exhaust system. The down pipe is 2.5" A high quality header will have holes pre drilled and threaded for O2 sensors. Power coating will be the heat inside the header pipes, but I would still suggest a high temp heat wrap

Shift Kit $40
Cheap and easy to install. This will stiffen up shifts and will not allow the motor to rev down too low between. If you hit the gears at a higher RPM, you will get a slightly better time. Before the shift kit my car would drop to 2000 RPM's at a shift, after it was about 2750 RPM's This won't get you into the 12's but will help your shifts.

Enjoy