Why Modify Your Engine

This page is going out to people who spent countless amounts of money on nice external engine parts but never buy the parts to "synch" them together. I'm sure many of you have been told that X bolt-on will achieve Y power. This was probably by some friend that has never tested anything before on a dyno and likely has little knowledge in how to make an engine perform how you want it to. Always question these kind of people. ASK FOR PROOF. Most times, people will not be able to back up the statements they make. From there on out, it is probably a good idea never to listen to this person again.

So now with that said, why are you wasting your money on nice "performance" parts when you are missing a critical part. Tuning your engine via ecu is HUGE. When you change your stock part out for something which is supposed to give you gains, it single handedly changes the amount of fuel needed to achieve maximum power and it changes the degree to which optimal ignition timing is needed. So how do we fix this?

First of all, these people who claim that their chipped ecu's will gain power just simply by replacing your stock computer with your new cool hip chipped ecu are out of their minds. I have personally taken a map which was tuned for my car and put it on a car with just about the same mods. It ran horrible and made no power. AFTER tuning, the engine ran great and made great power. So what does this tell you?

DO NOT INSTALL A CHIPPED ECU UNLESS YOU A) need it to safely get to the tuner B)are at your tuning appointment. if you have a stock engine, run the stock computer until you have a GOOD reason to install the chipped ecu.

When you want your engine to perform and you are looking to spend some money on your engine. I would recommend tuning first and for most. It will be the best bang for the buck as you can get tuned with CROME for under 500 dollars total. The engine will respond to the throttle better, get better gas mileage and make more power across the entire power band.

When you buy performance modifications for looks, you are really just wasting money then. I have seen plenty of stock engine bays that look better than someones engine bay with no name parts in it. Unless your car is a show car, then don't waste your money on engine performance if you never plan on doing some kind of tuning. This is just my opinion, but it is also a little easier for me to say that considering I have the ability and tooling to do my own tuning which means it is much cheaper for me. I hope this article makes you rethink your strategies in engine modifications and saves you some money in the long run.

-Blake