How To Get More Horsepower Out Of Your Engine

Are you looking to get more power out of your car's engine? Let’s look at the basics of how your engine produces power, no matter if it is a 4 cylinder or a large V-8. Your engine requires a lot of oxygen. Air from the outside travels through an intake tube to a manifold all the way into the engine's cylinder chamber. It needs the maximum amount of air to fill each cylinder chamber on the down stroke of a combustion cycle.

After enough air has been sucked in, we move to the next step. The valve that allowed the air to enter the cylinder closes and the cylinder moves upwards and squeezes the air. This happens at the same time fuel is introduced to the chamber. Now the air and the fuel are combined, making a nice packed  concoction for a nice fire or explosion.

The third part is the “bang”. The oxygen and fuel are all compressed and ready to explode. The spark plugs produce a high intensity spark that are going to ignite the air mixture we have been talking about. Next, an explosion happens and this is really where the horsepower happens. At this point the cylinder is pushed down at X amount of force. The X amount of force is dependent on some factors, which is when the horsepower is made.

That little explosion pushes the cylinder down and will in turn push one of your other cylinders up and then the explosion happens again. It’s a vicious cycle, rotating continuously, producing what we call "horsepower".

Now the exhaust valve opens up and lets out the carbon dioxide that is left over after our explosion inside the combustion chamber. This cycle, which happens in milliseconds, is reproduced thousands of times a minute. RPM (revolutions per minutes) is about how many times this cycle of combustion happens in one minute.

There are many ways to improve this combustion cycle to produce more horsepower from your engine. Many car manufacturer's sell performance grade air intakes and fuel injectors to get more out of your engine.