How much HP does my car have!?

[chrispittman]

K well I bought this car from a guy and it has intake, headers, exhaust, new clutch, new flywheels and it's a 1994 Acura Integra GS-R

[Kirwan]

The only way to know for sure is to get it tested on a dynamometer. Next best is to find someone with an identical (or at least similar) setup, and look at their dyno curves - it shouldn't be hard to find some online.

You have to watch out for the manufacturer's claims.. the headers say they add 20hp, the intake 5, the chip 15, and suddenly you think the car has jumped from it's stock 170hp to 250!

Here's the secret of how they do it without actually lying: Take a fully set up and tuned up car - totally tweaked out. Then re-install the stock exhaust manifold, and dyno it. Now add your gee-whiz header, and look, it went up 20HP! Just by adding the one part!

Another thing to look at is the torque curve. Often, the HP numbers look good but there's only any torque for a short peak over a narrow and very high rpm. Remember, HP = torque x rpm, so many people feel it's best to have your torque happen up high. But there's an old saying in the biz... "HP sells engines, but torque wins races"

Actually I'd be interested in those numbers too, I'm shopping for an Integra.

[calgary_redneck]

you may have gained 5hp at the top end that you will never use and probably lost more than that in the lower rpm ranges

[freakonaleash1187]

5 hp that you will never use? and u lost more than that at lower rpm ranges? maybe with some cars, but after my bro added a cold air intake, crankcase breather filter, and performance spark plug wires to his saturn, you can feel a noticeable boost in acceleration. and thats with just those upgrades.

[calgary_redneck]

Originally Posted by freakonaleash1187

5 hp that you will never use? and u lost more than that at lower rpm ranges? maybe with some cars, but after my bro added a cold air intake, crankcase breather filter, and performance spark plug wires to his saturn, you can feel a noticeable boost in acceleration. and thats with just those upgrades.

Trust me with those upgrades your power increase (if any) would be to small to measure. With taking the factory air box out the engine makes more noise and you think it has more power but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. You would have gone alot faster from taking out you subs and saving the wieght lol

[chrispittman]

hey, I don't wanna seem rude but can you guys answer my question, I mean everytime I have a question I post it to get some help but all that happens is one person says something that doesn't help and then the next 30 posts are people argueing about the first dumb post and then I never get my question asked, and I know it's more than 5 HP I never use that's a buncha bullshit so will someone that knows what they're talking about help me out here and not argue I just need a estimate just a number will be fine not a paragraph on my grammer or something

[chrispittman]

my question answered*** sorry

[freakonaleash1187]

i will try to answer your question. the best thing to do its get it dynoed. cost is about $40 to get a car dynoed (at least thats what it is where i live). but a really rough estimate i say would be about 30-35 hp.

Originally Posted by calgary_redneck

Trust me with those upgrades your power increase (if any) would be to small to measure. With taking the factory air box out the engine makes more noise and you think it has more power but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. You would have gone alot faster from taking out you subs and saving the wieght lol

sorry, but i have to say somin about this. do you even know what cold air intake is? some cars already have it, but most dont. cold air intake is when you get air from a spot away from the engine bay. those cone filters that are sitting right by the engine arent cold air intake. true cold air intake goes down either in front of your wheel well or in front of your radiator. thats why it is called cold air intake, cuz it is getting cooler more dense air in turn making a better combustion in turn freeing up more horsepower. not snapping back but from your post it seems you dont understand what cold air intake is (actually, a lot of people dont fully understand what it is).

[Kirwan]

Well, online advice is worth what it costs.

You say the car has an intake... is that just a Cold Air Intake, or a replacement intake manifold?

The flywheel and clutch add nothing to the horsepower. I doubt the catback does much - that's really just for sound.

Headers may or may not add horsepower, and it may change the way the car produces power. Even if it does add the claimed 10HP, it only shows up at 7000 rpm - how often do you actually get there in everyday driving? Meanwhile, the car has lost a noticible amount of oomph (torque) from 2000-4000 rpm where you do spend time daily.

The fact is, the Honda/Acura engineers have done an amazing job getting a lot of power out of these cars. It's darn hard to get much more.

My guess - all those parts have taken the stock 170 hp up to about 185 at most. Maybe less, if the car has been driven hard a lot.

[freakonaleash1187]

yeah, maybe you will take power away from daily driving, but you dont add performance parts for daily driving, you add them for racing. and most people when they race take it up to redline and back. so you are getting that extra boost when you need it.

[drewh4386]

Some people want the hp whenever it is available. Not saying all. I am not the type to claim the hp. I rather claim the est. hp It seems better that way. Because of the placebo affect, many people think that just because they added a bigger exhaust or a cold air intake, they get big gains in hp. Which is not true. A lot of parts are worthless unless you have that high compressed motor to go with.

[Kirwan]

ok so herez wut u wanna here... thoz partz are so kikn you be pumpin at least 240 hp - way morz tan doze klunky old 5.0s, who only have 225 and don't no nuffin bout bolt onz and only haave a redline of 6000rpm while you blast there azzes off crusin' at 8k and sondin cool -sides, why worry abou teck or grammur when you don take advise thas giben

[calgary_redneck]

Originally Posted by freakonaleash1187

i will try to answer your question. the best thing to do its get it dynoed. cost is about $40 to get a car dynoed (at least thats what it is where i live). but a really rough estimate i say would be about 30-35 hp.



sorry, but i have to say somin about this. do you even know what cold air intake is? some cars already have it, but most dont. cold air intake is when you get air from a spot away from the engine bay. those cone filters that are sitting right by the engine arent cold air intake. true cold air intake goes down either in front of your wheel well or in front of your radiator. thats why it is called cold air intake, cuz it is getting cooler more dense air in turn making a better combustion in turn freeing up more horsepower. not snapping back but from your post it seems you dont understand what cold air intake is (actually, a lot of people dont fully understand what it is).

Thanks but I am well aware of what it is and you will find most factory air boxes are designed to draw air that isn't heated by the engine. Alot of after market parts (such as cold air intakes) do not have nearly the research having gone into them as the factory put into their parts. In most cases the hp increase is neglagable which some disadvantages that the factory system didn't have.

Installing headers on most imports is a waist of money with a stock engine as the factory manifolds flow very well in most cases.

I stick with my guess of 5hp gain but because of the headers and exhaust you are probably looking at a significant loss in the lower rpm ranges.

People oftain have a hard time exepting the fact that they spend alot of money on these parts and the result is very little increase in hp how ever its the cold hard truth.

[freakonaleash1187]

Originally Posted by calgary_redneck

Thanks but I am well aware of what it is and you will find most factory air boxes are designed to draw air that isn't heated by the engine. Alot of after market parts (such as cold air intakes) do not have nearly the research having gone into them as the factory put into their parts. In most cases the hp increase is neglagable which some disadvantages that the factory system didn't have.

Installing headers on most imports is a waist of money with a stock engine as the factory manifolds flow very well in most cases.

I stick with my guess of 5hp gain but because of the headers and exhaust you are probably looking at a significant loss in the lower rpm ranges.

People oftain have a hard time exepting the fact that they spend alot of money on these parts and the result is very little increase in hp how ever its the cold hard truth.

this is funny actually. i have never heard this from anybody i have talked to. with how many car people i talk to i think i would of heard this already. if somebody would back you up, i might believe you a little more. but until then, im not saying anything else in this thread. i dont feel like arguing back and forth.

[Kirwan]

Not funny... sad.

The honest truth is that it's very hard to improve on what the hardworking engineers at Honda have produced. But the people who make and sell all those parts you lust after will never say any of that - Why would they scare off their customers?

Look really closely at the ads - I'll bet you have a very hard time finding any actual claims of power gains.

Also look closely at the power curves, at a place like...

http://www.importreview.com/d_1.8.html

I see a GS-R there, dated 6/15/01 with 157 HP. It has many of the same parts as the one listed in the first post; intake, exhaust, etc. and has the note "One Strong GSR" attached by the dyno tech.

Taking the usual number of 15% loss through the drivetrain, that works out to 180 hp at the flywheel. Gee golly.