Determine Power Goals

It appears to me that people don't really understand how to do this so i'm going to make a little short and sweet post about it.

Everyone sees people just throwing numbers out on the table without even knowing what their engine makes in the first place before any modifications. If you really want to set a proper goal, you first need to dyno the engine where it stands currently and then set the goal based upon what you believe you can gain from adding X parts + tuning.

For instance, say you have a stock h22 with a short ram 3" intake and 2.5" exhaust and you make 160whp on the dyno. in this example, a 220whp goal with just basic bolt ons and a set of cams would not be a realistic goal. You would need to do your research to determine what it would take to gain 60whp from natural aspirated designated parts. This can be done very easily as there are an abundance of dyno charts all over this website for you that give comparisons on various aftermarket performance parts. The key is taking the time to find them or buying parts and figuring it out for yourself.

So lets say you add a euro R intake manifold (good for 10whp tuned) and custom header (good for another 5-10whp pending variables) and you get tuned. That would put you around 180whp for an extra 1500 dollars. Nowhere close to 220whp. Now if the dyno showed that your stock engine made 200whp and you wanted to get to 220whp with some bolt ons, cams and tuning then you are in a much better place to meet your goals. But remember that power doesnt really mean anything and that you need to take the car to the track and look at the MPH that you were able to get to really determine the health/power of the engine.

Everything depends on how the dyno reads (high, low..etc) that you use so that means you HAVE to get a baseline number in order to determine what your next steps would be in order to reach a predetermined goal that you are wanting to achieve. It's usually around 50-75 dollars to determine where you engine stands for 3 pulls on the dyno. Thats nothing in comparison to being dissappointed when you dont get close to what you were reaching for.

Blake