Cheap Horsepower

[Ricko1966]

So many people ask what can I do cheap to make more power. Well honestly in my opinion the cheapest way to make more horsepower is a power adder. Throw a turbocharger,blower or nitrous on a fair condition used engine and keep your boost low and your tune on spot. It will last a long time. If or when it blows up move your power adder to another cheap used engine. Now I had too much windshield time yesterday,and for some reason it clicked into my head. A junkyard Eaton m90 blower,super common GM blower,cap the bottom and add a discharge port,and an air cleaner to the inlet,this can all be bolted together. Make some brackets to mount it, blow through a boost box and you won't even need carb work. You will need a rising rate fuel pressure regulator,and of course some ingenuity,but 5 pounds of boost on a 305 or 350 would be worth roughly 30% more power. You could do the same thing with a carb hat,but you'll need carb mods for blow through with a hat. I'm going to add it to my list of things to do after I finish the existing list of things to do.

 

[squaredeal91]

A time ago me and a friend home built in my shop a sbc 350 with a turbo from a 7.3 powerstroke. Used shorty block hugger headers upside down and rigged our own manifold (pretty easy) We tried several carbs but knew the problem was blow through but ended up converting the engine to tbi and with the turbo it ran pretty good. made the intake piping and hat with pvc lol. So good it pulled up a front tire on acceleration lol. Did I mention it was in a wrangler with 5 speed lol. I definitely want to build something like that again sometime.

 

[TotalyHucked]

Yep, like Finnegan and Freigburger did on the Rotson. Junkyard 4.3, then a junkyard 302 Ford with a junkyard 6.0 Powerstroke turbo. It was hilarious lol

 

[ByrdDog]

Yep, like Finnegan and Freigburger did on the Rotson. Junkyard 4.3, then a junkyard 302 Ford with a junkyard 6.0 Powerstroke turbo. It was hilarious lol

When they could get that car to run, it was awesome! Seems like every time they drove it, they broke it.

 

[Chevy 88]

Interesting topic.

When I get a new rig, I always do a complete tune up so that I can get it up to spec, and then try to improve from there.

I have seen people overlook some of the basics on increasing HP before. I know one guy that would use the most expensive oil he could find, so that his car would be more powerful, yet the vehicle was badly in need of a tune up and ran like crap. Obviously he would be increasing his power a heck of a lot more by doing a tune up rather than messing around with oil brands.

I knew another guy that had a Mustang. He had a freshly rebuilt motor put in his rig a few years prior - and had been street racing his friends regularly ever since. He was complaining that blue smoke was coming out of the exhaust. I checked under the hood, and there was no air filter... He said that he threw it away because someone told him that it would make his car faster if there is no air filter. As for the burning oil, I ask him what type he is using. He said "I don't know, its what ever they put in it when they rebuilt the motor". So he is drag racing on the original break in oil that is over 2 years old. With no air filter....

 

[Ricko1966]

^^^^^ I call Bull Sh!t ^^^^^

 

[MikeB]

When I saw this topic, it reminded me of a well-used truck I bought back in the late 80s that had a worn-out stock 307 with 2-bbl carb. It didn't choke and sputter but felt very sluggish. The first thing I did, of course, was change plugs and points and check the timing. Little to no improvement there.

I didn't have any lofty goals for it, but instead just wanted to get it running and sounding better. Being on a limited budget at the time, I went to a mass-market rebuilder in Fort Worth and bought a stock replacement cam, lifters, timing chain, and gaskets for somewhere around $100 all-in. Turns out my old stock timing chain was seriously stretched, and a couple cam lobes were barely moving their rocker arms. Installing just the parts above didn't make an earth-shattering difference, but the truck ran smoother and quieter and could now keep up with freeway traffic.

Next step: Had a muffler shop replace the single exhaust system with dual 2" pipes with some kind of generic Turbo mufflers. The results were an engine that was a LOT more eager to move the truck. With the new exhaust in conjunction with the internal parts, the truck would accelerate pretty darn good, and it actually got a 2-3 mpg increase in overall gas mileage.

Several months later I got an itch to install a 4bbl carb. I found a hot rod/performance shop that had an NOS Holley Economizer Q-jet replacement that had been collecting dust (the box, not the carb) for many years. Paid something Like $50 for it. Turns out a mechanic at Pep Boys had a 69 Q-jet manifold that he sold me for $10. That 4-bbl, dual exhaust 307 now ran significantly better, and I'd even call it fun to drive. My seat of the pants dyno said the engine probably picked up 20-30 hp just with the 4bbl and duals. It was essentially a PowerPack 283 with more torque due to the longer stroke. (OK, minus PP heads and compression.)

Ended up replacing that 307 with a 350, but always wished I would have completely gone through the 307 and added a slightly bigger cam and some better heads.

 

[Sad Sack]

Interesting topic.

When I get a new rig, I always do a complete tune up so that I can get it up to spec, and then try to improve from there.

I have seen people overlook some of the basics on increasing HP before. I know one guy that would use the most expensive oil he could find, so that his car would be more powerful, yet the vehicle was badly in need of a tune up and ran like crap. Obviously he would be increasing his power a heck of a lot more by doing a tune up rather than messing around with oil brands.

I knew another guy that had a Mustang. He had a freshly rebuilt motor put in his rig a few years prior - and had been street racing his friends regularly ever since. He was complaining that blue smoke was coming out of the exhaust. I checked under the hood, and there was no air filter... He said that he threw it away because someone told him that it would make his car faster if there is no air filter. As for the burning oil, I ask him what type he is using. He said "I don't know, its what ever they put in it when they rebuilt the motor". So he is drag racing on the original break in oil that is over 2 years old. With no air filter....

Just tell that guy to use 0w20, really thin oil gives a couple ponies.

 

[1lejohn]

Just tell that guy to use 0w20, really thin oil gives a couple ponies.

You laugh. Some of the stock and super stock classes run the cars down a couple of quarts of oil. They do it to stoppage windage losses. Check out the engine masters where they test this fact. Cheap and , or free horsepower is a myth!

 

[Sad Sack]

You laugh. Some of the stock and super stock classes run the cars down a couple of quarts of oil. They do it to stoppage windage losses. Check out the engine masters where they test this fact.

I know it's real, the thin oil has helped cars have more HP appeal like the Corvette due to the added ponies from using thin oil, I thought it started when using 5w30 Mobile 1, I could be wrong.

 

[Ricko1966]

You laugh. Some of the stock and super stock classes run the cars down a couple of quarts of oil. They do it to stoppage windage losses. Check out the engine masters where they test this fact. Cheap and , or free horsepower is a myth!

I run low on oil and tell others the same. I also run thin oil.Get an extra capacity pan set your pickup at the right height and drop your oil level.On basically stock stuff I run close to the bottom oil mark not the top. Anywhere between the 2 hash marks is considered full. One is maximum fill point one is minimum. I do the same with my transmission but for a different reason. 1 qt deeper pan,a pickup extension,and run it 1 qt low. Helps with leaks on my old th350 when it sits for extended periods.

 

[Rusty Nail]

You laugh. Some of the stock and super stock classes run the cars down a couple of quarts of oil. They do it to stoppage windage losses. Check out the engine masters where they test this fact. Cheap and , or free horsepower is a myth!

This is how the L69 in the 87SS died....in front of a Corvette

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[Hunter79764]

I'll join in the de-rail... A buddy had a Shelby GT500 with the 662 hp supercharged setup. He drove it hard and often, topped 100k miles in a little over 2 years before trading it in. At 80k miles or so, he wanted to do a little more bolt-on work, can't remember but maybe meth injection or something, he felt like he was too used to the power and it didn't excite him anymore? Took it in for a baseline dyno and it was noticeably less than the last one. They pulled again after checking the air filter etc and it was even lower, acting pretty hurt. Dyno operator asked how long the current plugs were in there, buddy said they were stock, he planned to change them at 100k as per factory recommendations. Pulled the plugs, they were basically gone. New set installed right there and it picked up over 100 hp to the tires, then he was out of dyno time before any other tweaks could be made. It's been 10 years and I still give him crap about his 100 horsepower spark plugs...

 

[1lejohn]

So many people ask what can I do cheap to make more power. Well honestly in my opinion the cheapest way to make more horsepower is a power adder. Throw a turbocharger,blower or nitrous on a fair condition used engine and keep your boost low and your tune on spot. It will last a long time. If or when it blows up move your power adder to another cheap used engine. Now I had too much windshield time yesterday,and for some reason it clicked into my head. A junkyard Eaton m90 blower,super common GM blower,cap the bottom and add a discharge port,and an air cleaner to the inlet,this can all be bolted together. Make some brackets to mount it, blow through a boost box and you won't even need carb work. You will need a rising rate fuel pressure regulator,and of course some ingenuity,but 5 pounds of boost on a 305 or 350 would be worth roughly 30% more power. You could do the same thing with a carb hat,but you'll need carb mods for blow through with a hat. I'm going to add it to my list of things to do after I finish the existing list of things to do.

Richard Holdener has some dyno test video's of doing just that using the Eaton blower from the V6's. I can't remember how they worked. I think they became a restriction on the larger engines. The guy has a great job playing with engines all day.

 

[Ricko1966]

Richard Holdener has some dyno test video's of doing just that using the Eaton blower from the V6's. I can't remember how they worked. I think they became a restriction on the larger engines. The guy has a great job playing with engines all day.

The Eaton m90 was a common blower on the gm v6. I know they will make 5psi boost on a 350 without issue. But it's too small to run much more or on a larger engine. But for a budget beater mod on a beater 350 or 305 truck,it's cheap horsepower..