Engine tuning

Engine tuning or engine building is the adjustment, modification or design of internal combustion engines to yield optimal performance, either in terms of power output or economy. It is a popular pastime with amateur mechanics or "gearheads" and "petrolheads". It has a long history, almost as long as the development of the car in general, originating with the development of early racing cars, and later, with the post-war hot-rod movement.

Tuning can describe a wide variety of adjustments and modifications, from the routine adjustment of the carburetor and ignition system to significant engine modifications. On older engines, setting the idling speed, mixture, carburetor balance, spark plug and distributor point gaps and ignition timing were both regular tasks on all engines and the final but essential steps in setting up a racing engine. On modern engines some or all of these tasks are automated.

At the other end of the scale, performance tuning of an engine can involve revisiting some of the design decisions taken at quite an early stage in the development of the engine.


Engine Tune-up

Tune-up describes the normal, routine adjustments -- without modifications -- of the engine to meet the manufacturer's specifications. Tune-ups are periodically needed, for example every 12 months or 19,000 km to ensure an automobile runs as expected. Modern vehicles now often run over 160,000 km (or 10 years) without requiring a tune-up.

Tune-ups may include the following:

* Re-fastening of cylinder head bolts
* Adjustment of the carburetor idle speed and the air-fuel mixture
* Inspection and possible replacement of ignition system components like contact points, distributor cap and rotor button
* Replacement of air filter and other filters
* Inspection of emission controls

The engine manufacturer specifies the schedule and method of engine-tuneup. However, the method tuning car engines goes beyond the manufacturer's suggestions.



Performance tuning

Performance tuning focuses on tuning an engine for motor sport, although many cars built by hobbyists never compete but rather are built for display at motor shows or the simple pleasure of owning and driving such a car. In this context (and depending on the particular event), the power output, torque, and responsiveness of the engine are of premium importance, but reliability and economy are also relevant. To win, a car must complete the event. This means the engine must be strong enough to do so, often far stronger than the production design on which it is based, and also that the vehicle must carry sufficient fuel. The weight of this fuel will affect the overall performance of the car, so fuel economy is a competitive advantage. This also means that the performance tuning of an engine should take place in the context of the development of the overall vehicle. In particular, transmission, suspension and brakes must match the performance of the engine, otherwise the car will be unreliable, uncompetitive, and perhaps extremely dangerous.

In most cases, people are interested in increasing the power output of an engine. Many well tried and tested techniques have been devised to achieve this, but all essentially operate to increase the rate (and to a lesser extent efficiency) of combustion in a given engine. This is achieved by putting more fuel/air mixture into the engine, using a fuel with higher energy content, burning it more rapidly, and getting rid of the waste products more rapidly - this increases volumetric efficiency. The specific ways this is done include:

* Increasing the engine displacement. This can be done by "boring" - increasing the diameter of the cylinders and pistons, or by "stroking" - using a crankshaft with a longer stroke (in combination with pistons of shorter compression height, to maintain the original compression ratio), or both.

* Using larger or multiple carburetors, to create more fuel/air mixture to burn, and to get it into the engine more quickly. In modern engines, fuel injection is more often used, and may be modified in a similar manner.

* Increasing the size of the valves in the engine, thus decreasing the restriction in the path of the fuel/air mixture entering, and the exhaust gases leaving the cylinder. Using multiple valves per cylinder results in the same thing - it is often more practical to have several small valves than have larger single valves.

* Using larger bored, smoother, less contorted intake and exhaust manifolds. This helps maintain the velocity of gases. Similarly, the ports in the cylinder can be enlarged and smoothed to match. This is termed "Cylinder head porting", usually with the aid of an air flow bench for testing and verifying the efficiency of the modifications.

* The larger bore may extend right through the complete exhaust system, using larger diameter piping and low back pressure mufflers, and through the intake system, with larger diameter airboxes and high-flow, high-efficiency air filters. Muffler modifications will change the sound of the car's engine, usually making it louder; for some tuners this is in itself a desirable property.

* Increasing the valve opening height (lift), by changing the profiles of the camshaft or the lift (lever), ratio of the valve rockers (OHV engines), or cam followers (OHC engines).

* Optimising the valve timing to improve burning efficiency - usually this increases power at one range of operating RPM at the expense of reducing it at others. For many applications this compromise is acceptable. Again this is usually achieved by a differently profiled camshaft. See also Four-stroke cycle#Valve Timing, variable valve timing.

* Raising the compression ratio, which makes more efficient use of the cylinder pressure developed and leading to more rapid burning of fuel, by using larger compression height pistons or thinner head gasket, or by milling "shaving" the cylinder head.

* Forced Induction; adding a turbocharger or supercharger. The fuel/air mass entering the cylinders is increased by compressing the air first, usually mechanically.

* Using a fuel with higher energy content or by adding an oxidiser such as nitrous oxide.

* Changing the tuning characteristics electronically, by changing the firmware of the engine management system (EMS). This chip tuning often works because modern engines are designed to give a great deal of raw power, which is then reduced by the engine management system to make the engine operate smoothly over a wider RPM range, with low emissions. By analogy with an operational amplifier, the EMS acts as a feedback loop around an engine with a great deal of open loop gain. Many modern engines are now of this type and amenable to this form of tuning. Naturally many other design parameters are sacrificed in the pursuit of power.

The choice of modification depends greatly on the degree of performance enhancement desired, budget, and the characteristics of the engine to be modified. Intake, exhaust, and chip upgrades are usually amongst the first modifications made as they are the cheapest, make reasonably general improvements (whereas a different camshaft, for instance, requires trading off performance at low engine speeds for improvements at high engine speeds), can often improve fuel economy, generally don't affect engine reliability much (because no moving parts are modified), and are in any case essential to take full advantage of any further upgrades.

* Manufacturer Detuned Engines - Changing the tuning characteristics electronically, by changing the firmware of the engine management system (EMS). This chip tuning also works because many manufacturers produce one engine which is used in a range of models and the power and torque characteristics are determined solely by the engine management system software. This allows the manufacturers to sell cars in various markets with different tax and emissions regulations without the huge development cost of designing different engines. Cross platform engine sharing also allows for a single engine to be used by different brands, tuned to suit their particular market.

Examples of models using one engine with different ECU software providing varying specifications:

The Volvo V70 D5 Euro IV is available as 126 bhp, 163 bhp, and 185 bhp, all sharing the same 2.4 turbo diesel engine. The Mini One and Mini Cooper are available as 90 bhp and 127 bhp respectively, both sharing the same 1.6 normally aspirated engine. The Ford Focus ST225 and Volvo S40 T5 both share the Volvo 2.5 turbo petrol engines, with different power outputs controlled by the engine management system.




Definitions

NOTE: None of these terms necessarily mean new pistons, block line-boring, balancing, etc. The proof is in the fine print. Ask your engine builder for details in writing before committing to purchase engine work.



Overhaul

An engine Overhaul means putting the engine back to factory specifications. This generally involves new piston rings, bearings and gaskets. When done by a competent engine builder, you can be confident the engine will perform as new.



Rebuild

Rebuild is a marketing term with no fixed definition. It is often taken to means a professional overhaul with certain parts replaced with new units whether needed or not. For example some rebuilders will always replace the pistons (which not usually replaced during an overhaul unless damaged).



Re-manufacture

Re-manufactured is a marketing term to mean an engine put together to match factory specifications e.g. "as new". Although often a buyer may take this to mean all-new parts are used, this is never the case. At the very least, the cylinder block will be used, as may most other parts. High-quality rebuilds will often include new pistons and line-boring of the crankshaft and camshaft bores.



Blueprinting

In engine blueprinting, all the specifications are double-checked. Usually this indicates closer-than-factory tolerances, with custom specifications appropropriate for a street car or a race car. The goals usually are to:

* Ensure the engine puts out the rated horsepower (because not all mass-production engines put out the rated horsepower) for its manufacturer's design

or

* Eke more horsepower out of a given engine design, by extra careful measurement and assembly

* balancing of reprocating parts and rotating assemblies, to reduce engine vibrations thus achieving more horsepower due to recover of horsepower "lost" to vibrations

Ideally, blueprinting is performed on components removed from the production line before normal balancing and finishing. If finished components are blueprinted, there is the risk that the further removal of material will weaken the component. However, lightening components is generally an advantage in itself provided balance and adequate strength are both maintained, and more precise machining will in general strengthen a part by removing stress points, so in many cases performance tuners are able to work with finished components.

For example, an engine manufacturer may list a piston ring end-gap specification of 0.003 to 0.005 inches for general use in a consumer automobile application. But or an endurance racing engine which runs hot, a "blueprinted" specification of 0.00045 to 0.00050 may be desired. For a drag-racing engine which runs only in short burts, a tight 0.00035 to .00040 inch tolerance may be used instead.