Your engine's best friend. Transmission fluid and motor oil aren't just for your engine to run, they affect the power performance of your vehicle. Heat and friction steal horsepower from your engine by slowing down moving parts, which causes the engine to work harder. Choosing high-grade lubricants can reduce friction and keep your engine cooler, which will increase horsepower.

Changing out your spark plugs, wires and coil can be a quick and easy way to boost your horsepower. When changing your spark plugs, try to invest in an expensive set. By increasing your spark, combustion can improve, further resulting in better mileage. Give your engine some breathing room. Your air filter is vital to your engine's performance. Fresh air allows your engine to breathe, giving you better horsepower. A clogged, dirty air filter not only blocks the fresh airflow to your engine, it allows dirt and debris to get sucked in as well, clogging your moving parts and burning your fluids to sludge. Clean and replace filters regularly.

The hotter your engine runs, the harder it has to work. By installing a cold air kit, you provide your air filter with fresh, cool air instead of allowing it to suck the warm air from under the hood back into the engine.

Use the octane appropriate for your engine. While 87 octane may look enticing with today's gas prices, cheaper gas will not do your engine any favours (if it is not built for it). It might keep your car running, but it's not recommended for long-term use. More octane equals more power. Go for a higher grade gasolene or add a bottle of octane booster for an instant increase in horsepower. The bigger your engine, the greater the difference. Adding fuel injection allows very precise metering of fuel to each cylinder. This improves performance and fuel economy.

More displacement means more power because you can burn more gas during each revolution of the engine. Displacement can be improved by making the cylinders bigger.

Higher compression will produce more power. The more you compress the air/fuel mixture, however, the more likely it is to spontaneously burst into flame (prior to the spark plug igniting it). High-octane gasolenes prevent early combustion. That is why high-performance cars generally need high-octane gasolene - their engines are using higher compression ratios to get more power.

If you can cram more air (and, therefore, fuel) into a cylinder of a given size, you can get more power from the cylinder. By compressing air, its temperature will be raised. You need the coolest air possible in the cylinder. The hotter the air is, it will expand less when combustion takes place. Therefore, many turbocharged and supercharged cars have an intercooler. An intercooler is a special radiator through which the compressed air passes to cool it off before it enters the cylinder.

As a piston moves down in the intake stroke, air resistance can rob power from the engine. Air resistance can be lessened dramatically by putting two intake valves in each cylinder. Some newer cars are also using polished intake manifolds to eliminate air resistance there. Bigger air filters can also improve airflow.

If air resistance makes it hard for exhaust to exit a cylinder, it robs the engine of power. Air resistance can be lessened by adding a second exhaust valve to each cylinder (a car with two intake and two exhaust values has four valves per cylinder, which improves performance - when a car ad tells you the car has four cylinders and 16 valves, what the ad is saying is that the engine has four valves per cylinder).

If the exhaust pipe is too small or the muffler has a lot of air resistance, then this can cause back-pressure which has the same effect. High-performance systems use big tailpipes and free-flowing mufflers to eliminate pressure in the exhaust system. When a car has "dual exhaust", the goal is to improve the flow of exhaust by having two exhaust pipes instead of one.

Keep in mind that these tips won't make your vehicle ready for a drag race, but it will give it more power off the starting line the next time you race past the stop light.

Send feedback to patrick.james@gleanerjm.com.