Do It Yourself Auto Upgrades

Aftermarket upgrades can turn relatively mundane cars into high performance vehicles. There are many vehicle upgrades on the market, with some being fairly useful and others being little more...

Turbocharger kits are an excellent way to turn your engine's exhaust into a horsepower and torque boost. They force exhaust fumes through several turbines and valves in order to maximize the...

Painting your valve covers will help give your vehicle's engine that customized look that you have been wanting. This project will take some patience and preparation to complete. Once your valve...

Aftermarket intakes (a.k.a., cold air intakes) are one of the most popular engine upgrades on the market today. This is because they do produce at least some gain in power on most cars, and...

Changing the oil filter on a larger truck engine, such as a Dodge Ram 3500 SLT W/ 5.9L Cummins Turbo Diesel Engine, can seem like a hassle. Installing a remote oil filter, like a Pacbrake...

A supercharger is a forced induction aftermarket upgrade that can be made to many cars' engines to boost the power output of a stock engine. By forcing more air into the engine, it may burn more...

Cold air intakes are easy upgrades that can net significant power gains and better fuel economy. However, going online and buying overpriced pieces of metal piping with a funnel at the end can be...

One of the most useful modifications for the Jeep Wrangler SUV is adding a snorkel to serve as the engine air intake. This raises the point at which air is drawn into the engine, making it...

Many first generation (1986 to 1991) Ford Aerostars used the company's time-tested and venerable 100-hp 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine. Ford also made good number of Mustangs, Thunderbirds and...

Rome had the Gladius, Ghengis had the re-curved bow, and Truman had the A-bomb. In recent years, the automotive aftermarket has experienced just such a revolution in weapons-grade power-adders,...

Installing a cold air intake into your Chevrolet Cavalier is one of the most affordable aftermarket modifications you can make. The cold air entering your engine's combustion chamber creates...

Installing a turbo kit on your vehicle is the quickest way to make a substantial horsepower and torque gain. However, installing a turbo kit on your vehicle is also one of the quickest ways to...

One of the most common modifications found on cars is the addition of a cold air intake, which replaces the stock, plastic air box commonly found on cars from the mid-90s and even today. They're...

Car tuning has arguably become more popular than it has ever been, particularly with import models that are inexpensive and easy to modify. One of the most popular modifications, or "mods," is the...

Once upon a time, the only part of a hot rod that mattered was the engine, the horsepower it produced and the time-slip of the car it was installed in. For those too young to remember, this was...

Porting and polishing an engine's intake manifold is an essential step in optimizing its performance, particularly if it is a modified engine. Porting is the process in which material on the...

One common modification to the popular Jeep Wrangler SUV is adding a snorkel. A snorkel attaches to the engine's air intake and moves the point at which air is captured to wherever the other end...

Stock exhaust systems generally do an acceptable job of cleaning the tailpipe emissions, silencing engine noise and moving hot gases away from the engine. However, many people have found a good...

From the modest daily-driven sedan to high-performance roadsters, any car can be modified, or tuned, for higher speeds and better handling. Many high-performance gains require extensive mechanical...

Introduced in the 1995 model year, the Neon was sold through three brands--Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth. This peppy compact car was initially available in both coupe and sedan formats before...

You want to get the most out of your 2000 Chevy S10 pickup but don't want to spend a whole lot of money doing it. There are ways to increase your horsepower without paying too much out of pocket.

The engine is the most vital working part in your vehicle, but most engines don't get much attention unless something goes wrong. Engines may look dirty, grimy or plain, but that doesn't have to...

Installing a lighter flywheel on a motor is one of most common methods to reduce the rotational mass of an engine, which is the weight of the various components that are turning when the motor is...

Painting the engine in your car can be done for several reasons. It can be painted a neutral color for making an old engine look like new, a solid color to match your car's new paint or it can be...

The knock sensor on your 1990 Ford F150 helps to protect the engine from engine knock. Engine knock---or "knocking"---is the result of improper combustion in the combustion chamber of your truck....

Vehicle owners have been on a quest for speed and performance ever since the first driver stepped behind the wheel, and with today's plethora of aftermarket options, making your car go faster has...

Achieving better engine performance and fuel efficiency seem like exclusive goals, since cars that go faster usually consume more fuel. But there are parts you can install on a car that can help...

Heat is an engine's worst enemy, and an abundance of heat can lead to costly repairs for things like cracked cylinder heads and seized pistons. On most cars and light trucks water and anti-freeze...

The Chevrolet Blazer is a series of truck-based SUVs that were manufactured mostly with gasoline engines. You can increase the horsepower of these motors with a few simple bolt-on parts commonly...

The 1979 Chevrolet Corvette was a later model version of the third generation of Corvettes, which began in 1968. Unlike the earlier versions, only one engine size with two option codes was...

Nissan's Xterra is a four-wheel-drive sport/utility vehicle, specifically designed to provide comfort when operated on the highways, while allowing its user to drive off-road. The Xterra is...

Installing an AEM intake system in any car can give it a big boost in the performance area. What many people do not realize is that it may boost their car's fuel efficiency as well, by cooling the...

A dynamometer, or dyno for short, is a tool used to measure the amount of power being generated by an engine. The physics behind a dyno is what enables the measurement to be taken. It begins with...

Synthetic motor oil originally was developed as a lubrication alternative for high-performance racing engines. In recent decades, synthetic motor oil has become a common option for car owners and...

Oil coolers are small radiators placed in front of the primary engine cooling radiator to lower the temperature of the engine oil. The oil cooler is usually linked to the engine with steel tubing...

Ram air systems offer a way to increase efficiency and horsepower for any vehicle. Essentially, a ram air system reroutes your vehicle's existing air intake system so that it is positioned on the...

The Ford 4.9 engine is a strong, dependable engine that can provide hundreds of thousands of miles of use if maintained correctly. Part of that correct maintenance is keeping the cooling system in...

The Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck is a relatively easy vehicle to repair. Manufactured on a platform dating back to 1982, the basic components have changed very little over the years. S-10's were...

A cold-air intake system is an after-market automotive add-on that is intended to improve the fuel efficiency and power available to a car's engine. It works in coordination with the other parts...

The installation of a tachometer in your Volkswagen will not only improve its looks but enable you to track the RPM of the engine, which is very important, especially in racing situations. The...

A boost gauge measures and indicates the air pressure in the manifold of a turbocharged internal combustion engine. Boost gauges are typically mounted on the dashboard, the driver's side pillar or...

A superchip is an engine control unit that has been reprogrammed for better performance. Engine control units are electronic devices that control many different portions of the operation of an...

The Chevrolet 4.3-liter V-6 engine has an iron block with a 90-degree head variance. General Motors produced the engine for low-torque applications such as trucks, vans and SUVs. Several...

When an engine is started, air is drawn into the engine. Air then combines with the fuel source to combust. This combustion is what gives the engine power. Cold air induction works by increasing...

Cold air intakes are popular performance accessories for vehicles, added to create a more powerful and more efficient engine. Some new vehicles have a cold air intake as a standard feature, but...

Trucks are not the most fuel efficient vehicles on the road today. With all of the emissions, high gas prices and pollution, finding was to make a truck more fuel efficient helps alleviate...

Easy-to-install HEI (high energy ignition) distributor caps perform better than factory distributors in the high RPM range at which competitive race cars and performance street machines are...

Nothing detracts from a tidy engine than loose and unruly wires. Answer to the problem - loom those wires. Now, if you don't want to part with the bucks for custom loom kits or are just in a...

A tachometer measures the number of times an engine's crank shaft rotates per minute (RPM). For any engine, the RPM determines how much horsepower and torque is being produced at any given moment....

Proper fuel pressure is necessary for an engine's ability to generate power. Fuel pressure which is too low will result in an underpowered engine, while an engine which receives too much fuel can...