As all regular Car Tuning Tips readers know, hot air carries less oxygen than cold air. This can have a big impact on your engines performance. As most cars have an air intake in the engine bay it becomes essential to ensure that you keep these temperatures as low as possible. One of the largest contributors to heat in the [...]

The coolant needs to run round the engine taking the heat from the block and dissipating it in the radiator. Most cars come with mechanical water pumps which have a number of drawbacks, www.CarTuningTips.com will take a look at the benefits of upgrading to an electric water pump. Mechanical pumps take a lot of power from [...]

The catalyst (also referred to as a pollution or smog control) resides inside the exhaust. Its job is to create cleaner emissions by causing a reaction which reduces the CO2 and NO2 in the exhaust. Because they are constructed of a matrix they impede the flow of exhaust gases and have been blamed by many [...]

Roll cages are considered a safety requirement on most circuits. Although the safety benefits are obvious they also help to improve the handling of the car. The basic shape of a car, particularly its requirement to have opening doors decreases the rigidity of the body. Add to this some serious weight reduction and you are left [...]

The valve springs pull the valves up when they are closed thereby sealing the valve. The camshaft pushes the valve open against the spring. As you can imagine this is a high wear high stress component of the engine.  They need to be fitted using a valve spring compressor - any other attempt at installing them [...]

As the car turns on a radius the outside wheel has a greater distance to travel compared with the inner wheel. If both wheels rotated at the same rate the car would skid or at the very least you would lose traction and continue on a straight line. The diff or differential is the component [...]

Nitrous has many names, the most popular is NoS which is actually a brand. Dinitrous Monoxide is the chemical name but for the purpose of this article we shall refer to it as nitrous. We will explore how it works and the various setup options available and see what this does for performance. We understand that [...]

A fast gear change is an essential in any form of competitive driving. One of the easiest modifications to allow you to achieve this is a quick shift gear change kit. We look at what a quick shift gear kit does and how it will help to improve your car. A gear stick is pretty much [...]

What is an aerofoil and spoiler and what does it do? Well, an airplane wing pushes the plane up by using the Coinda effect and the Bernoulli paradox. Air keeps travelling in the same direction after deflection, fast moving air creates low pressure. When the air over the wing is going faster than that underneath [...]

A boost controller will increase the amount of power you get from your turbo. The boost controller will alter the exhaust gases flow into the turbo allowing the turbo to spin at a faster rate. Standard boost control in most production cars can only be describes as crude. In order to keep costs down manufacturers [...]

The driveshaft takes the power from the engine and takes this to the rear diff where it is transferred to the wheels. The driveshaft rotates at a fair rate and will to some extent act like a flywheel, resisting change in the rotational speed. A carbon fibre driveshaft has the following benefits. It is much lighter than [...]

One of the best value modifications has to be an engine swap. Tuning a small engine will only ever give small returns for your investment. There is a plentiful supply of engines from your local breakers or salvage yards and with most makes and models can be a simple modification. When doing an engine swap you [...]

A supercharger compresses the intake air effectively forcing more air into the engine. More air means you have more oxygen and when this is matched to more fuel you will benefit from more power. There are a number of benefits to superchargers compared to turbos, but there are also some drawbacks. We aim to provide [...]

There is an ever increasing array of fuel on offer. With the addition of a whole plethora of additives the motorist can be left wondering what is the best for his car. Which octane is best and should you use additives? Are all brands of fuel the same? The quick answer is that all fuels and [...]

In a turbo engine the pressures build up as air is compressed and forced into the engine. The turbo is driven by the exhaust gases so the faster the engine goes the more air you get forced into the engine. This is fine until you lift off the accelerator. You engine speed does not instantly [...]

The spark is quite literally the life of the engine. A good strong spark makes the difference between thorough combustion and a misfire. Spark plug technology has come a long way over the last few years. First we will look back at the “good old days”.  The components of a spark plug are primarily the tip, the [...]

You may have noticed that your car feels much more powerful on cold mornings than it does in the middle of summer.  This is due to the effects of air temperature.  It is a simple fact that cold air carriers are more oxygen and warmer air. An intake vent will help to address this problem, and [...]

Due to the need for doors and windows in a car the whole body is subject to flexing.  For just commuting or the daily drive around town this is not a problem.  However when driving near the limits or on the track, the flexing can seriously reduce your cornering ability. A strut brace is the solution [...]

It is surprising how much difference a tire can make to the handling of a car.  Motor sports teams select a tire for the prevailing conditions of the track so have a range of wet weather dry weather and of roads tires with various stud profiles and patterns. Normal drivers however have to opt for [...]

The job of the intake valves is to control the flow of air and fuel into the engine, and then released exhaust gases after combustion.  The intake valves have quite a hard life due to the rapid opening and closing, and have a big impact on the performance of the engine.  The intake valve is [...]