Basic Performance Tuning Your Car On A Budget

Tuning Introduction

So you are a car enthusiast and you want to tune your car to produce good decent performance? Read on and you will learn the basics of the internal combustion engine and how to make the most of it to gain performance and even increase fuel efficiency. Tuning involves optimising the engine's potential and reducing restrictions that are in place from the factory due to mass production. Please understand that this article only explains techniques that can be applied to improve performance of a car, it does not endorse illegal street racing and the techniques should be carried out at the reader's own risks. Certain modifications may make the car unsuitable for road use.

Internal Combustion Engine

Before we begin, here is a quick introduction to the basics of the internal combustion engine. The way the engine produces power and drive the car's wheels is by combining a mixture of air and fuel. Air is sucked into the engine through the air intake system, fed into the intake manifold and into head of the engine. It is then mixed with fuel, fed through electronic fuel injectors (on modern engines) within the combustion chamber of the engine. This mixture is then ignited using spark plugs and if you paid attention in science class at school, you will understand that hot air expands. This expansion causes the piston within the engine block to move down and as this piston is connected to the crankshaft which is connect to the car's wheels, a turning motion is produced - driving the wheels. The crankshaft then completes one full rotation, returning the piston back to the top of the engine block, pushing the exhausted air and fuel mixture out through exhaust ports and the combustion process starts all over again. The exhaust gases are then channelled through pipes and exited into the atmosphere from the back of the car.

Air Intake Tuning

Now that we understand the basics of the engine we will begin by looking at tuning the way in which air is sucked into the engine. What we want to try and do is optimise the flow of incoming air and also it's temperature. We want to ensure that engine can 'breath' easily and air is effortlessly available at high speeds and high revs. The most cost effective way of doing this is to install a high performance air filter. There are three ways of performing this modification -

1. Install a drop in filter

2. Remove the factory air intake box and bolt on a new filter.

3. Removing the whole factory air intake system and bolt on a new performance system.

If you are on a low budget, the first method is recommended because it can produce the best performance for your money. Sometimes this method works even better than the other two ( depending on which air intake brands you purchase ). The reason is because you want to keep your intake air as cool as possible. Cooler air is more dense than warm and therefore packs more volume meaning you can feed more oxygen into engine to burn with fuel. Now when manufacturers design engines they tend to use materials that do not conduct heat for air intakes whereas some cheap after market air intake systems that claim to be high performance may use cheaper materials that could heat up the intake pipes and warm up the air, causing a loss in performance rather than a gain. Check out K & N air filters and air intake systems for good performance for your money. Pipercross is another brand to check out and tend to be cheaper.

Spark Plugs

Now that we have our air intake tuned, lets look at ignition. Check owners manual or Haynes manual for your manufacturers recommended spark plug guidelines. Ensure the spark plug gaps are as they should be. You don't want to make the most of your spark plugs and avoid premature failure due to incorrect gaps. The better the spark, the better the ignition. Also check your spark plug leads and distributor cap for wear and tear - replace where required. After market performance parts to consider are NGK and Bosch for spark plugs; and Magnecor for ignition leads.

Exhaust System

What we want to aim for is to reduce restriction with the flow of exhaust gases whilst controlling costs. The best place to start with is to replace your exhaust back box AKA muffler. This is where most of the restriction exists due to factory vehicle having to adhere to noise pollution regulations. By replacing your muffler with a performance system or a 'straight through' system you can allow the exhaust gases to exit more freely and minimise obstructions. This can improve power increase. Just be careful not to go too big with your choice of exhaust pipe diameter. Big isn't always better for the level of tuning that we are talking about. The aim is to keep velocity of the gas flow as this will enable faster escape of exhaust gases. Too much bore on the exhaust pipe and you will lose velocity.

Other Performance Increasing Tips

Weight reduction comes close to list when trying to increase the car's performance. It's the power to weight ratio that matters. There's no point in having an engine that produces 500 bhp when the car itself weighs like a tank. To achieve this, you can simply remove components that you can do without, such as air con system (can also free up more power); power steering. These may sound a little extreme but weight reduction should definitely be considered - maybe less extreme parts from the boot etc.

Enjoyed this article? Check out this other article where you can read up on Fords fuel efficient motors. You can also visit the author's Ford car parts website for information on original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Ford parts.

Related Articles - ford, fiesta, focus, car, tuning, parts, vehicles, modifications, engine, exhaust, performance,

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