Things to make your car run better

As we try and figure out how make our cars go faster, we often find ourselves going through hot rod or tuner magazines, and read what the featured cars did to attain those extra ponies. Changing camshafts is one way to get them. But we often see the term head works. A camshaft basically dictates how long an intake valve or exhaust valve stay open. Changing the size of the valves can also determine the amount of air/fuel mixture entering the chamber. These are what we call head works. Meaning, altering or modifying cylinder head specifications from factory or stock specs. The cylinder head plays a key role in how an engine breathes better.

One way of making the engine breathe better is to match port or polish the intake and exhaust ports, and match it (internal diameter) to their respective manifolds. This minimizes any minor obstructions that may hamper the flow of air/fuel mixture to the chamber and as the burned mixture leaves. If you mount a stock head on a flow bench and compare it with a modified head, and you get a 3-percent increase in flow rate, that is good. Efficiency is still the goal when you massage any engine. You can go one step further by changing the shape or size of the ports. By doing so, you can increase the flow rate but it would have to match the specs of your cam. If not, it can affect the drivability of your car. By having the wrong port designs, your engine will drown from the excess flow of air/fuel mixture or it can starve. It is possible for the air/fuel mixture to swirl or stay to long in the ports before going into the chamber even when the intake valve is open.