I know many items are advertised as increasing our cars' horsepower. How do you add torque? Through a supercharger or engine mod? Or are there other ways?
Thanks!

 

Horsepower = torque x engine speed (RPM)

So, if you are adding horsepower, you are adding torque as well.

 

With just a Halltech Stinger-R intake and Borla Stingers, my torque numbers surpassed that of a stock 2002 Z06! Total cost? $760

 

Get bigger gears. I think going from 3.42 to 4.11 increases torque 22%

 

torque is measured how far your feet come off the floor when you try to push your dinger down to take a pee first thing in the morning,,(a common problem of morning wood)

 

As mentioned before, you add torque by adding horsepower. Since they are both related to each other by a factor of ???. Notice every chart shows that they meet at 5250 rpm's (or something close).

Not sure how true this is, but I always think of torque as the power to spin something progressively faster. So HP numbers are really unimportant, it's torque that you want/need... Lots and lots of it, and the sooner you make that torque the sooner it will spin up to the higher rpm's. So make your torque and the hp 'numbers' will follow. No doubt the relationship between torque/hp/performance/speed etc is more complicated than this, but just remember that peak means nothing, it's the shape of the torque curve that matters.

 

Sure, in an ideal world you'd have a perfectly flat torque curve from idle to redline, then we could just put CVT transmissions in our cars and push the pedal. But there are always trade-offs in engine tuning. Want more torque between 1k and 2k RPM? Then your peak numbers are probably going to suffer. That's why the big 6.0L engine they put in the trucks doesn't have the same horsepower as a C6. They could easily tune the LS1 engine to make 500hp, but you'd be shifting like mad to stay in the powerband. Look at the Honda S2000, it's a 2.2L 4-cylinder and it puts out 240 HP! That would be OK for the racetrack, but most Vette owners don't want to drive around town like that. Look how many Vettes have automatic trans...

 

it's all air and fuel. find a way to get more into the engine and you'll make more power

 

Almost. It's torque x RPM/5250

Many breathing improvements give more horsepower only at higher RPM. In fact, low end torque may be lower with some improvements in breathing. If you want low end torque (which gives you that great seat-of-the-pants kick we love), the easiest way is a stroker crank. Not the cheapest, mind you. It will cost you horsepower at the high end, 'cause you'll cut your rev limit.

A good example of this was the late 60s GM engine family. All the mid-size cars, including Chevelle, 442, Skylark, GTO offered a 400 cubic inch
engine. They were different for each division. The 442 had a longer stroke, and it had the best torque numbers. It's horsepower rating was the same as the GTO, though, because its rev limit was lower.

A supercharger is probably the cheapest way to big torque. Turbos work, but they want revs to get the best numbers, and that defeats the purpose of getting low end grunt.

Also, lower rear gears give torque multiplication, so a 4.11 gearset will give the same feeling of more torque down low. On an auto tranny, the torque converter offers the same multiplication. To get a good back-to-back comparison, drive an A4 with the 2.73 and the with the 3.15 axles.

 

how do you add torque ????

with lots of these:

 

Other things like exhaust header tube length and cam lift & duration also control torque. In the mid-60's, I had the unfortunate learning experience of finding out that what gave me gobs of horsepower at high RPMs for drag racing really sucked at an autocross event where you needed the horsepower & torque at low RPMs at tightly laid out courses (and visaversa). Its like you needed two different engines if you wanted to use the same car.

 

Go to Pep Boys and ask for a quart of TORQUE. Tell 'em you need to add some.

 

mod exhaust, x-pipe and intake are most economical for starters!!

Good luck!!!

Best,

FDA

 

TNT Nitrous Kit

 

sooooo true

 

Be careful about that advice...the Pepboy personnel may look thru the entire store for that quart of Torque.

 

Cheapest route, but if you give it too much, then it gets expensive.

 

Your Killing ME!

 

Your local Pep Boys doesn't have it?

 

BTW, it's cheaper if you buy it by the case!