Five Ways To Increase Your Vehicle’s Horsepower

Even those who regularly have their car serviced and maintained may want a little extra performance every now and again. If you’re looking into how to increase horsepower in a car, look no further.

It should come as no surprise that there are a number of different methods to boost the number of horses your car packs under the hood to give it that extra power. You may be looking for the cheapest way to increase horsepower, however sometimes you may want to consider quality over cost.

We’ll go over how to add horsepower to a car, so you can see what might fit into your budget.

What items should you check to increase your vehicle’s horsepower?

Below are the items to help increase the power of your engine at the lowest cost. We will go over five of the listed items in this table on how to increase a car’s hp. Here is a table to give you a better idea of what ways you could add a boost of power to your ride.

Top Ways to Increase the Horsepower of a Vehicle

None of them require a significant amount of money, in fact some of these can be considered pretty cheap ways to increase horsepower, giving your vehicle up to a 5hp performance boost.

If you prefer to have a mechanic install the performance-based parts, many body shops will be happy to fit the upgrades for you at a relatively low cost to cover the labor. Read below to look at some of the best ways to add horsepower to your vehicle.

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Cold Air Intake – Easiest & Most Affordable

Most will agree that this is the first and easiest way to provide an increase in horsepower to a vehicle. Best of all, most everyday auto enthusiasts will be able to do this themselves.

Note: The cone-shaped filter is the cold air intake installed on a vehicle. This is one of the cheapest ways to increase your vehicle’s power. Many claim a cold air intake does not increase the power of the car. However, you will notice an increase in acceleration and possible increase in MPG’s.

As cold air is considered denser than warm air, a higher volume will enter the cylinder, mix with the fuel and in turn leads to more powerful combustion and more power.

The easy-to-install kit basically sucks in air beneath the engine which is cooler.

The system uses a conical air filter or air scoop attached to a series of metal pipes.

By increasing the air flow you’ll be adding more power to the car with the cooler air. At the least you will see an improvement in acceleration and possibly fuel efficiency.

Note: The filter to the right is the cold air intake installed on a Mazda vehicle.

Computer Chip to Increase Engine Power & Torque

On most modern vehicles there is a small chip which directly affects engine performance. This chip can be reprogrammed to make the most of the high quality fuel you use and improve the overall performance of your vehicle.

Note: The computer chip above is used to change the settings of your vehicle’s fuel-to-air ratio, turbo, and ignition timing. Now you can use Performance Software to easily plug into your OBD-II port. It is as simple as plug and play.

You do not have to replace the chip in a newer vehicle with a OBD-II port. The chip needs to be ‘rewritten’ through a process known as ECU remapping with Performance Software.

The amount of horsepower this adds depends on certain variables including fuel type and the type of vehicle you have.  Remapping can provide a fairly large boost in horsepower and can also improve fuel efficiency.

Should you check your tires and can they increase horsepower?

If there’s a problem with the vehicle’s alignment the first thing to check is the tires.

Improving the alignment will often offer an improved straight-line speed. And changing for lighter more performance-based tires will increase the performance. The amount of acceleration is the most notable with lighter tires. In some instances, the amount of weight loss is near 10 lbs. per tire.

Note: Proper tire alignment is not going to increase horsepower. Bad alignment can cause significant performance issues. Most tire manufacturers recommend rotating tires every 7,500 miles. Which is about every 6 months for the average driver. For more performance you can buy lighter wheels.

Altering tires can be an expensive way to increase the amount of power for your vehicle if you’re looking to decrease the weight of your car with lighter tires. This is usually not an option for most auto enthusiasts because of the cost.

So while this may not be the best way to increase horsepower, don’t neglect your tires.

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Air Filters & Turbochargers to Increase HP by 50%

As mentioned earlier, increasing the air flow with cold or warm air will increase combustion and power by 20 or 30%.

Note: The electric turbocharger is installed on a Subaru vehicle. Turbos are considered more efficient since they use the wasted energy from the exhaust for their power. Turbochargers compress the air flowing into the engine. By doing so, the turbo can mix more fuel for increased performance.

A turbocharger is designed to increase the efficiency of the air combustion system by compressing the air and feeding it into the engine.

Turbochargers and superchargers are similar but slightly different. A turbocharger uses the exhaust with a turbine while a supercharger compresses air using a complex belt driven system from the crankshaft.

Note: This is a supercharger which is slightly different from a turbocharger. A supercharger uses the crankshaft for its energy while a turbo uses the exhaust. The supercharger is connected directly to the engine with a belt and its spinning (RPM) rate is 50,000 while a turbo is approximately 15,000 rpms.

Performance Exhausts Free the Airflow for Horsepower Gains

You can have all the cold-air filters and performance filters on the market but without the correct exhaust system, your vehicle may lose performance through the exhaust.

Note: Your current vehicle has a stock muffler and factory exhaust which restricted airflow. Replacing both of them with a high-flow catalytic converter will increase horsepower and torque. Many Cat-Back (called Cat-Back since it is behind the catalytic converter) systems have straight flow mufflers to increase airflow for better performance.

By simply opening the exhaust, the car will be able to “breathe easier” by expelling the exhaust gas.

This can be achieved by increasing the diameter of the exhaust, straightening the bends in the system, or investing in a dual exhaust system.

Note: A high-flow catalytic converter is an easy way to improve vehicle performance. They work pretty much the same as your stock version to reduce emissions. The high-flow version is able to the same at a much faster rate. With an increase in volume around the catalyst there is a better flow rate and an increase in torque and horsepower.

The lack of inconvenient bends are associated with straight pipe catalytic converters. This increases the flow rate which increases the overall performance of your vehicle.

Most of the performance parts are sold with devices which help with the sound. You will be able to rev your engine without getting a serious headache.

One thing to keep in mind is regarding how loud your exhaust is going to be. In many cities loud exhausts are illegal.

You may want to check your local laws to find out the maximum decibel output for your engine and exhaust to be legal. Normally, anything below 101 decibels is legal in most states.

The Bottom Line

Hopefully these examples will help you find the best way to add horsepower to your personal vehicle. Each driver will have different reasons they want to look for a little power boost, and there are plenty of options that will be able to help them.

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