Performance Auto Parts: the Back-yard Mechanic’s 5 Step Guide to Increasing Performance

In today’s market, there are more performance auto parts available than ever before. While finding performance auto parts can sometimes be difficult, finding a perfect match for your car can be immensely gratifying. There is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you have found the best performance auto parts money can buy, and a lot of satisfaction in knowing your vehicle runs more efficiently because of your personal expertise. As such, the five principles below can help you navigate your way to better fuel efficiency and enhanced performance.

Replacement Auto Parts, Step by Step

1. Weigh Your Priorities
Before deciding which performance auto parts to install, consider the equipment and skill set required for the job. It’s also wise to determine the amount of time and energy you want to commit, especially in relationship to the anticipated performance benefits. While many performance auto parts can easily be installed by the do-it-yourself mechanic, larger jobs often require specialized tools or equipment. For instance, fuel injectors can be quite an undertaking for the backyard mechanic, requiring both special equipment and substantial labor time. In contrast, performance auto parts like high-flow air filters and rapid-fire spark plugs require less of both.

2. Consider Alternatives and Implications
Given the great interrelatedness of performance auto parts as far as how they function together to increase performance, it’s important to look at the entire picture in regards to how one part may affect another, and ultimately the final outcome.

Consider the “horsepower” example:

Some performance auto parts can result in great gains in horse-power indeed. Some of these performance auto parts include camshafts, high flowing cylinder heads, nitrous oxide, etc. However, adding parts that result in smaller gains can often times provide a greater payoff in the long run. A high-flowing fuel pump, for example, may only result in a small immediate horsepower gain, but if you have the foresight to know you’ll be planning on adding a larger throttle body at a later time, you can be confident that the high flow fuel pump will be well worth it. These performance auto parts work in sync with each other, as most all auto parts do; therefore adding one without the other may not provide the best possible benefit.

3. Measure Performance Gains
Adding performance auto parts incrementally is a great way to analyze your performance gains without overextending your budget. By installing one part at a time, you can attain a more isolated and precise view of the horsepower gains yielded by each part. Incremental installation also provides an easy track-back method for uncovering operational problems. If issues arise, the latest installation can be a likely starting place.

4. Observe Best Practices
Although some performance auto parts can increase you fuel efficiency as well as your horse- power, their effectiveness will be markedly reduced in the absence of some basic best practices and common sense caution. To boot, a more efficiently operating vehicle will last longer if you keep it well maintained. Be sure to regularly change your oil and air filters, and keep your foot off the gas where possible.

5. Replace Your Factory Parts
This step is optional, but is certainly a factor worth mentioning. The inevitable reality is that, due to regular wear and tear, parts will need to be replaced. This scenario presents an opportunity to not only repair your vehicle, but increase its horsepower by upgrading to performance auto parts in lieu of regular stock parts. The cost difference is generally minimal, and because performance auto part manufacturers like to stay competitive, they’ll generally create parts that are higher in quality than factory parts.