Modified car engine

"Don't torque to me like that!"

Careful selection of your internal engine tuning modifications can lift your engine from a purring kitten into a roaring lion!

While it is tempting to throw in every modification you car, it's worth noting that not all mods work well together. This is something we cover in our articles as we steer you to the right decision on mods for your car. There is also a lot of hype around car mods which we aim to cut right through, leaving you with a realistic and common sense oriented engine tuning guide.

For example a gas flowed head with a sport cam can produce less power than it would with just one of the two modifications. This is where the cam profile is not carefully matched to the head flow rate. Also some modifications should be done together to achieve more power than the sum total of the individual parts.

You want to avoid ending up with a high peak BHP power engine that has an unusable narrow torque band. Peak power is only part of the figure, one should really look at the torque curve and aim to get this as flat and wide as possible for a predictable power delivery.

A lot depends on the engine configuration and the driver/driving conditions to be encountered.

You want to avoid ending up with a high BHP engine that has an unusable narrow torque band! Rather than look at a peak power figure attention should be paid to the torque curve.

So how do you make a car go faster? Aside from pushing the accelerator pedal harder there are some basic things that can be done. The internal combustion engine works on the principle suck, squish, bang, blow. The more efficiently it can burn the fuel, and the more fuel it can use the better the power output will be.

Air is drawn in to the engine (this is the suck stage) then it is mixed with Fuel and compressed (the squish stage) – then along comes a bright spark and the intake charge ignites (the Bang phase) is achieved – releasing all that compressed energy which forces the piston down and the air out of the engine along the exhaust (this is the Blow stage).

It is possible to blow huge amounts of money on a car ruining it and suffering from repeated mechanical failures, higher running costs and lack of day to day derivability. TorqueCars intends to assist you in deciding which mods to do. We are thoroughly committed to give you a realistic opinion of what the car will end up like and we give a common sense guide on the pitfalls and common mistakes to avoid.

Track cars are rebuilt each time they are raced and they are set up for optimum conditions on the flat surface of the track - we have to tune our cars to work for a year without a service, run over potholes and speed humps and cope with a variety of weather conditions and loads. We need to establish the sensible mods that will cope with everyday driving but help you to get the maximum enjoyment from it.

Breathing mods (Intake and exhaust).

The most popular and easiest DIY mods are those that improve the "breathing" of the engine. The stock induction and exhaust can in some cases noticeably restrict the power of the engine so getting these right with higher flowing parts can make a big difference. However induction kits and big bore exhausts are the most misunderstood performance parts and by getting the selection wrong you can lose power.