Is this something you can do yourself? Can any mechanic do it?
In: 13
With engines, there are a lot of different variables that can be altered to make it run differently.
Some of these are things that can be altered mechanically by adjusting screws or other settings on the engine, she are settings in the cars computer that can be altered through software, and some are physical elements of an engine that may need replaced or upgraded.
On a basic level, most cars are designed by the manufacturer to be efficient and reliable, and to meet a whole series of regulations. What this means is that they will be setup fairly conservatively to provide decent enough performance.
What we can often do is tune the stock engine to increase performance at the expensive of some of these other factors like fuel economy, efficiency, or reliability. By letting the car inject more fuel and air into the cylinders you may get more power and performance, but stress the engine more and use more fuel doing it.
At a certain point you will reach the practical limits of that engine build, and can look into further modifications to help improve performance – by adding or upgrading a turbocharger, installing bigger injectors, changing cams and other components and many more things you can transform an engine.
How much of this can you do yourself? That will depend on your skill and the equipment you have available. Depending on the car in question some tuning may be easy enough to do yourself, and can be done through some fairly simple processes most people can do easily enough with a little practical knowledge, other elements may need more specialist tools like computer software and the appropriate cables, others may need a full garage and toolkit.
With engines, there are a lot of different variables that can be altered to make it run differently.
Some of these are things that can be altered mechanically by adjusting screws or other settings on the engine, she are settings in the cars computer that can be altered through software, and some are physical elements of an engine that may need replaced or upgraded.
On a basic level, most cars are designed by the manufacturer to be efficient and reliable, and to meet a whole series of regulations. What this means is that they will be setup fairly conservatively to provide decent enough performance.
What we can often do is tune the stock engine to increase performance at the expensive of some of these other factors like fuel economy, efficiency, or reliability. By letting the car inject more fuel and air into the cylinders you may get more power and performance, but stress the engine more and use more fuel doing it.
At a certain point you will reach the practical limits of that engine build, and can look into further modifications to help improve performance – by adding or upgrading a turbocharger, installing bigger injectors, changing cams and other components and many more things you can transform an engine.
How much of this can you do yourself? That will depend on your skill and the equipment you have available. Depending on the car in question some tuning may be easy enough to do yourself, and can be done through some fairly simple processes most people can do easily enough with a little practical knowledge, other elements may need more specialist tools like computer software and the appropriate cables, others may need a full garage and toolkit.
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