How to Increase the Power in Vehicles

It's a whole new era Vehicles favorite family car, and this generation brings a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. With its rakish styling and new power-producing technology, this car seemed poised to strike right Vehicles the heart of the enthusiast market -- a fact that Vehicles emphasized by offering a pair of pre-production cars to two tuners to show what could be done with this newest generation. That sets a pretty strong precedent, but it's not the end of the story.

Under The Hood:

• How to Increase the Power in an Outboard
• How to Increase the Power on a Grizzly 600
• How to Increase Power in a Mazda B3000
• How to Increase Power in a 2013 Honda Accord
• How to Increase Power on 6.5 Turbo Diesel

 How to Increase the Power in an Outboard

Transom Jack

Loosen the bolts that are used to secure the motor to the transom with a socket wrench.

Support the motor then take out the bolts. Place a wrench onto a lock nut and the socket wrench onto a bolt. Turn the socket wrench counterclockwise to loosen the bolt. Repeat this step for the other bolts on the transom. Continue to loosen the bolts and then take them out.

Remove the motor and set it aside. Keep the motor supported upright until you are ready to reattach it to the boat.

Place the transom jack plate onto the transom of the boat. Insert the bolts for the jack plate into the bolt holes on the transom. Secure the bolts with the socket wrench.

Set the motor onto the jack plate. Insert the bolts into the motor mount and jack plate. Hand-tighten the lock nuts onto the bolts. Place the wrench onto the lock nuts and the socket wrench onto the bolts. Turn the wrench clockwise to tighten the bolts.

Change the Prop

Loosen the retaining nut used to secure the prop to the shaft of the outboard with the socket wrench. Turn the socket wrench counterclockwise to loosen the nut.

Place the propeller puller onto the prop then pull the prop to loosen it on the shaft.

Turn the retaining nut counterclockwise until it comes off. Take the old prop off then insert the new prop onto the shaft.

Hand-tighten the retaining nut then secure it tightly with the socket wrench.

 How to Increase the Power on a Grizzly 600

Tuned Exhaust

Remove the stock exhaust pipe and the attached muffler-catalytic converter unit from the motorcycle with your metric tools. Save the header flange that bolts to the engine’s exhaust manifold. Discard the exhaust gasket.

Slide the saved header flange onto the header pipe from the tuned exhaust kit. Assemble the header pipe and the muffler and partially tighten the provided clamp.

Position the tuned exhaust where the stock exhaust was removed. Rotate the muffler so the mounting brackets align with the mounts on the motorcycle. Insert the bolts into the brackets and mounts to hold the muffler in place.

Rotate the header pipe to one side of the exhaust manifold opening and install the new exhaust gasket against the manifold. Align the header pipe with the manifold and fasten the header flange to the manifold with the saved bolts.

Tighten the mounting bolts at the muffler brackets.

Spark Plug and Carburetor

Remove the stock EA9 spark plug from the cylinder head with a spark plug wrench. Set the gap on a hotter EA10 spark plug to .037 inches with a spark plug gauge. Install the hotter plug in the cylinder head for increased spark and more efficient fuel combustion. Tighten the plug with the plug wrench.

Start the motorcycle and allow the engine to warm up and idle at operating temperature. The engine must be warmed up and idling to adjust the carburetor for the tuned exhaust and hotter spark plug.

Identify the fuel-air mixture screw on the left side of the carburetor. Turn the screw to the right or left with a screwdriver as you listen to the idle speed of the engine.

Establish the point where the engine idles at the fastest speed as you turn the fuel-air mixture screw each way. Continue to turn the screw each way in small increments to precisely establish the point where the engine idles the fastest.

 How to Increase Power in a Mazda B3000

Install a cold-air intake to increase air flow into the motor. This will produce significant power gains across the entire powerband, while offering much longer service intervals than the factory filter.

Replace the restrictive Mazda exhaust system with an aftermarket high-flow unit that utilizes larger diameter piping. This greatly reduces power robbing back-pressure and allows the engine to operate more efficiently at low RPMs where torque production is key for pulling heavy loads.

Add a custom turbo kit for the ultimate in engine performance. Basic kits will include larger injectors, an intercooler and the turbo unit itself. Many tuners have chosen to go this route for the massive power gains achieved on all B3000 series engines.

Re-tune your engine control unit to maximize gains from all performance modifications. The ECU is conservatively tuned from the factory and can be reprogrammed with more aggressive fuel and timing maps to not only increase over-all powe but eliminate horsepower dips common to most stock vehicles and smooth out the power band.

Install a set of under-drive pulleys to removed excess loads from the engine, thereby freeing up engine power. This works by minimizing the energy needed to drive components, such as the alternator and compressor.

 How to Increase Power in a 2013 Honda Accord

Engines

The American-market Accord came with two different engines: the four-cylinder, 2.4-liter K24W and the 3.5-liter, J35Y V-6. The four-cylinder might seem like a bad choice for performance enthusiasts, but this K-Series engine comes from a long line of time-tested powerplants, upping the ante more with Honda's "Earthdreams" direct-injection technology. The J35Y is similarly blessed with direct injection, giving it ample torque and an edge in fuel economy and emissions. Already a strong performer out of the box, the J35 is a strong engine that offers significant performance potential.

K24W Potential

Bad news first: the K24W isn't just a new engine, it's also far enough evolved from earlier members of the K-Series family that few performance parts will cross over. And Honda doesn't leave much room on the table for modifications, either; with its plastic intake, integrated exhaust manifold and high compression, the K24W isn't a candidate for serious performance upgrades like headers or turbochargers. The biggest area for improvement on this engine is a new exhaust downpipe and high-flow catalytic converters. That, combined with a cat-back system, cold-air intake and computer tune will get you about 30 horsepower, at which point you've pretty much maxed out the head flow and potential as of 2013 for this engine.

The Bismoto J35Y

Tuner Bismoto had the pleasure of building the V-6 car for Honda's display, and they went right for the kill-shot with 401 pavement-crushing horsepower. Without a doubt, the lion's share of that power came from a 100-horsepower "wet" shot of go juice from Nitrous Express. Augmenting that was a cold-air intake, synthetic motor oil, a Bismoto cat-back exhaust system and Burns stainless steel mufflers. A set of NGK iridium spark plugs designed to hold together under the nitrous hit rounded out Bismoto's powertrain modifications. As of 2013, nitrous is about the surest way to power, and probably will remain so for some time; the J35Y's high 10.5-to-1 compression all but precludes the possibility of a turbo or supercharger kit in the future.

Other Mods

At the moment, that's about it for increasing power. Other manufacturers may offer new parts for these engines in the future, but don't hold your breath for anything really serious, given these engines' high compression and nearly optimized computer programming and tuning for the given engine foundations. That doesn't mean you can't focus on other avenues for acceleration and all-around performance. Weight reduction is always an option, and Bismoto proved that with a pair of light-weight racing seats and forged Buddy Club P1 racing wheels. You might want to go an inch smaller than the 19s used on Bismoto's show car, though. Carbon hoods and trunk lids are undoubtedly forthcoming, and there's plenty of weight to be lost elsewhere, depending on what you're willing to tear out.

 How to Increase Power on 6.5 Turbo Diesel

Replace the the factory GM exhaust with a larger diameter aftermarket unit. A 4-inch turbo-back (this includes the O2 housing and downpipe) system will reduce backpressure, improve throttle response and allow the motor to operate more efficiently by widening the available powerband.

Add a manual boost controller to increase turbo boost psi or pounds per square inch. This component amplifies the exhaust system upgrade, and generates significant horsepower and torque gains at all engine speeds.

Drop in a free-flow air filter into the stock airbox to provide increased airflow to the turbocharger unit. This will further minimize lag and improve throttle response.

Reprogram the engine control unit with a custom map for your modifications. Substantial power gains can be had by optimizing the fuel and timing curves while maintaining stock idle and drivability.