Smart Way To Make Horsepower

[Redog]

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

ive always thought that porting ur intake manifold would only increase power with forced air induction (turbo) system

[b-spot]

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

How does the crank pulley allow for higher revs? A rev limiter is a rev limiter. My car redlined at 6500 and only software could change that.

[alerored04]

i think he meant quicker revs not higher.

[Redog]

Yeah more quicker than higher but I can push over the redline now after putting in the Crank pulley

[Redog]

Originally posted by OrangeALero@Mar 23 2005, 06:10 PM
ive always thought that porting ur intake manifold would only increase power with forced air induction (turbo) system

Quoted post

It helps more with a s/c or turbo but it still helps a NA engine.

Plus with a turbo, you want a lower compression ratio

[mike2002]

You forgot a reprogrammed PCM to take advantage of all your mods

i think 2.5 is a little big for a near stock cars exhaust....you may want to say, light bolt on's is 2.25 tops, 2.5 for heavier mods. i know lots of other much more powerful cars recommend 2.5", and where talking 300+hp. what you need is maximum velocity and scavanging effect (smaller pipe helps with this) and minimum backpressure (free'er flowing muffler)

nice list

[Spilner521]

Originally posted by mike2002@Mar 23 2005, 10:55 PM
i think 2.5 is a little big for a near stock cars exhaust....you may want to say, light bolt on's is 2.25 tops, 2.5 for heavier mods. i know lots of other much more powerful cars recommend 2.5", and where talking 300+hp.what you need is maximum velocity and scavanging effect (smaller pipe helps with this) and minimum backpressure (free'er flowing muffler)

Quoted post

Exactly. exhaust backpressure does not make low-end power. the correct piping size to balance good velocity and high rpm flow works the best, along with the most free-flowing muffler you can get. the 2.25" for light mods and 2.5" for heavier mods is just right. 3" is a must for forced induction where the exhaust gets pushed out instead of relying on the smaller piping's velocity to draw exhaust out of the engine. but no matter what, you want the very least amount of backpressure possible.

[mike2002]

i kept the stock pipe which is 2", replaced the resonator with a 31" glass pack which has no obstruction to flow, its a perforated core. and a muffler with a strait through magnaflow, single in dual out.

i have very little back pressure because i barely have mufflers. so this helps my top end, the car pulls ALOT BETTER at higher rpms speed. i was used to a dohc aurora, and thought the 3400 was slow up top, now it feels pretty quick.

I kept my exhaust velocity up by staying with a 2" pipe, this helped me to keep all, and gain some torque, its much easier to spin the tires, and sometimes it fights for traction through most of 1st gear if the roads not 100% perfect, wasn't like that before the intake/exhaust. i even have stiffer, lower suspension helping me get better launches (less weight gets transfered to the back)

If i wanted to further reduce backpressure, i could get a highflow cat. ive seen flow charts showing they do flow better, but by going this way instead of increasing pipe diameter to reduce back pressure, i keep my exaust velocity, which brings low-end torque


since my car will only see light mods, intake/exhaust/pcm and maybe a pully, this is the ideal setup for exhaust. but if i was to go with a ported TB, intake manifolds headers, id want a mandrel bent 2.25. then add a bunch more on top of that, mandrel 2.5

[Redog]

I have yet to see a 2.25 inch exhaust kit for a "N" body

Reprogramed PCMs are good but I know very little about them. I won't talk about what I don't know fully

[mike2002]

Borla's kit was 2.25, and its my opinion it was for a good reason.

with your mods redog, id really talk to DHP, it will be $220 well spent, or $400 for the software

[Daytona]

I'm going to pin this topic.

[Redog]

Originally posted by mike2002@Mar 24 2005, 09:06 AM
Borla's kit was 2.25, and its my opinion it was for a good reason.

with your mods redog, id really talk to DHP, it will be $220 well spent, or $400 for the software

Quoted post

Working on some things :hide:

Wouldnt taking the headlight out actually have negative effects in terms of aerodynamics? I easily see the point of taking out the fog lights as those seem dead weight anyway...

[Redog]

If you running a WAI no, becasue all that air that goes into the space where the headlight is gets into your intake.

My first run ever was a 16.20 and taking out the headlight I ran a 15.85 on the same day. I got the idea from wacthing early 90's Mustangs and Grand Prix doing it, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The fog light comes out when running the CAI. I put in on the back floor boards after I take it out

[Fast Eddie]

The electric fan bit is BS. ITS ELECTRIC so it does not add rotating mass to the engine like the old style crank driven ones. having it on (or off) has negligible effects on the engine. Now if you remove a crank driven fan and put in an electric fan you will notice a diff...

I have serious questions about the positive effects of removing the headlight, Two runs is by no means scientific results.

About half of the other things are minimal, might give quicker revs. The rest are a decent start. The one thing that you neglected to mention was motor/tran mounts, not sure which ones are avail on which combo though, these would also go a looong way t odetering wheel hop.

[mike2002]

i dont have wheel hop, ever

removing the headlight for a wai makes sense to me, lets it get colder air easier. the filter is going to suck in how much air it wants regardless, but without the healight you have a fresher feed of cold air. not a huge different, but worth the 1 minute it takes to do at the track

[BlackJack]

and furthermore, yes, the electric fan is (all caps) ELECTRIC, hence load on the alternator, resulting on more drag to the engine, and every stinkin bit counts fighting the timer.....BS that.

[Fast Eddie]

The alternator is going to produce a load on the engine as long is it is mechanically attached to the crank, only way to reduce that drag is to remove it (not advisable if you have a street driven car). The amount of resistance being produced by the alternator is also a constant, regardless of current is being drawn from the battery. So adding an electric fan will not produce more drag on the engine b/c the alternator is not a variable resistance unit, its either there or its not.

So yeah BS :P

[-Alero-]

why not just remove the headlight and remove the filter from your WAI setup.... that way you have no restriction, and your MAF takes care of the rest