[MUSIC]
Hey folks, Cooley here, got another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving, this is an interesting one, it comes in from Colin T. Who has a pretty simple request.
How can I increase the performance of my family's 2004 Toyota Matrix which has a 1ZZ-FE engine, without sacrificing fuel economy.
And making at least 300 horse power, Okay, I gonna tell you [INAUDIBLE] this isn't intriguing, no terrifying idea but I want to take it on here is why, I get a lot of emails from folks who wanna take their pedestrian small engine car and make a lot more of of it.
Maybe not 300 horse out of a matrix, But they want some more oomph.
And they wanna do it without becoming engine builders cuz most of us aren't that.
They're looking for what are called bolt ons.
Performance improvers that are relatively easy to do in your driveway.
Now let's see what those are.
There are four major ones.
You look at a turbo or a blower, also known as a super charger.
Two ways to ram more into the engine.
You look at the exhaust, the other end of the story.
How can you have less back pressure?
We'll talk about that in a minute.
You think about the air intake.
This is the beginning of the process.
How can you have a lower resistance, colder source of air coming into the engine, and you look at the chip tune.
The chip is what runs all the timing and actuation of the engine's parts.
The factory one may be conservative, you can make it a little more aggressive, but there are risks there as well.
Let's step over to the engines to explain each of these.>> Okay, I'm gonna assume we're starting off with your four matrix.
Let's say it's rated at 135 horsepower.
The first big jump you can take is to put on that super charger or turbo.
A super charger is a thing that is belt or gear driven.
Typically sits on top of the engine like on this big Ford V8.
Or a turbo tends to be a little lower on the engine and is driven by exhaust gases.
They both do the exact same thing.
They ram more air and fuel into the cylinders Than the Earth's natural environmental pressure can do.
That's it.
Then when you do that you get a lot more power.
There's a Toyota factory super charger for that 04 Matrix engine that will put another 100 horsepower out of it, give or take.
That's a huge jump.
You can get similar results from one of several aftermarket turbo kits for the 1ZZ-FE.
Either way, you're looking at spending around three grand, that's half or more of your car's value.
But again, 100 horse is a big deal.
So let's say now we're at about 235.
Now when and if you do that huge upgrade of forced induction, the other end of the engine is the thing you think about logically the exhaust system because you wanna evacuate the cylinders very efficiently to get the most power out of your engine.
Get the exhaust out without a lot of resistance.
A cat back exhaust system is the one you wanna look at.
That replaces everything from the catalytic converters on back.
In other words you're not screwing with the car's emission compliance but you are taking out traditional mufflers that create back pressure and get in the way of getting exhaust Out of the engine so it breathes better.
Let's say doing a cat back will give you conservatively five more horsepower.
Now if you're clear up the exhaust you wanna clear up the path to getting air into the engine as well.
At the very head of things your air intake When air flows into your intake manifolds, get mixed with fuel, you deal with that what's called the bouton cold air low resistance air intake.
We did one of these recently on a car to show you how to put one on.
It's really quite simple and the goal is there's less resistance for the car to breath.
A lot of cars in the factory almost breathing through a mask If there's resistance on the air filter if you want to take that out ton of great kits it can do that.
And at the same time you may also get slightly colder air entering the engine.
This is good because colder air is more dense more dense air has more molecules of oxygen and oxygen is fuel when it's combined with.
Gasoline and ignite it.
So that's a good thing also.
These kits are a few hundred bucks.
Super easy project.
Let's say again, conservatively, maybe you pick up five horsepower.
Now we're at 245.
Now once you got the big three bolted on-your forced induction system, your low back pressure exhaust, and your free-breathing cold air intake-the last major one that people do frequently is a chip tune.
A chip that runs your engine has a lot to do with how much power it generates and tends to be set conservatively by the factory for reliability and drive ability.
So it's not peaky or spiky or jerky.
However if you want more power.
You wanna get more out of that chip.
There are a tone kits out there that you plug in that you are gonna reprogram all these different curves of how your engine operates.
Now, know that there are some issues with chip tuning.
First of all, it's a bit of a while west out there.
Lot's of companies make them, it's a black [UNKNOWN] it's literary a black box.
It's little hard to know what's going on and who to trust for engine reliability and drivability Also you're very likely gonna break emissions compliance which I do not advocate.
And a chip tuner is almost always a warranty Voyager though into 2004 matrix 2000 for anything that's no longer a concern.
Ship tunes though can make a big difference compare to some of the other thing we're talking about.
Let's say it will give you ten more horse power.
Now, we've finished up our project, with the 255 horse power Toyota Matrix Not the 300 Colin was seeking but a whole lot more than we had.
Keep those emails coming.
I'm here to answer your questions about high tech cars and modern driving.
It's cooley@theroadshow.com.
