If you hear anyone talking cars and performance, one of the things sure to come up is horsepower. Before you get confused about what horses have to do with vehicles in the 21st century, here are a few things to know about this seemingly antiquated term and what it means to you and your car.
What is horsepower and why is it important?
One horsepower is defined as the amount of power it takes to move 550 lbs of weight one foot per second, or 33,000 lbs one foot per minute. Horsepower is a measure of the amount of work your engine has the capability to do. With an internal combustion engine, the number of “horses” increases exponentially. Horsepower is not measured in comparing your motor to a horse in a harness, but rather by measuring the ability of your engine to move weight over time.
How to increase your vehicle’s horsepower
The amount of horsepower required is a function of how much a vehicle weighs, and how fast it needs to go. A typical lawnmower has anywhere from 3 to 10 horsepower. Of course, for a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds, that’s hardly enough to get your wheels turning. For more horsepower – such as for racing, accelerating in the passing lane on the highway, or towing a heavy load –there are a few things you can do to get more power out of your motor.
Advanced aftermarket products
- Wheels: Lighter wheels made from alloys will reduce the weight of your vehicle and make it easier to power it down the road.
- Supercharger: Superchargers run constantly with your engine and actively draw air into your engine’s intake manifold. More oxygen allows for more combustion with fuel as well as a cleaner burn, which in turn produces more horsepower. The more power your engine generates, the more air it draws in more air, and the more your power output increases. It’s like putting a bellows on a fire.
- Turbo: Like superchargers, turbos draw more air into your engine and therefore burn fuel more efficiently and produce more power. Turbos activate at higher RPMs, unlike superchargers, which are always running.
- Nitrous oxide: The oxygen in the air your car pulls into the engine’s combustion chamber allows for oxidation of fuel and ignition. But what if the “air” you added to the combustion process was also combustible? Installing a nitrous oxide system allows you to add combustible air to your engine to increase combustion and horsepower.
- Electronics: Most cars today rely on complex computer systems to ensure proper ignition, combustion, exhaust, and timing. Aftermarket electronics can improve these functions and produce greater horsepower.
- Premium gasoline: Fuel with a higher octane prevents pre-firing and inefficient burning of fuel. Higher octane fuels improve your horsepower by ensuring the delivery of un-combusted fuel to ignition, which improves performance.
- Lubrication: Generating more horsepower creates more heat as well as kinetic movement of the cranks, cams, and gears in the motor of your vehicle. Using more advanced lubricants can ensure that your motor can withstand these extremes without seizing up.
- ELEV8: ELEV8 Powertrain Treatment uses nanotechnology to get into the cracks, crevices and microscopic imperfections of your powertrain’s moving metal parts when mixed with oil. ELEV8 increases your powertrain’s efficiency by improving lubrication and reducing heat and friction between moving parts, which increases horsepower as well as torque. When working with aftermarket parts, you need a oil additive that will allow the different alloys and parts of the engine, transmission and differential to “play nice” and work well together, with effective bonding to metal parts and reduced friction and heat. And that is exactly what ELEV8 Powertrain Treatment does!
A crucial piece of the puzzle
When coaxing more horsepower out of your powertrain, there are plenty of options, but without the added security of a high-performance oil additive, you could be taking a big risk. Many options can be very expensive with no guarantee of meaningful results. And, if not implemented perfectly, some options could result in engine seizing or complete engine failure, or even engine fire. You could even be putting your life at risk by running a motor too hot with aftermarket parts that can’t take the heat, literally and figuratively. Compared to many of these options, simply mixing ELEV8 Powertrain Treatment with your oil is not only affordable but proven to be both safe and effective. From motorcycles to cars car to ocean-going cargo ships, ELEV8 has what it takes to reduce friction, increase horsepower and protect your investment.