TORQUE MOVES YOUR VEHICLE

It is true! Torque is what actually forces you down the road. When you step on the pedal, and your vehicle moves, what you are feeling is torque. What you need is lots of torque whenever you feel like it. That includes towing, racing, cruising, or just goofing around in traffic like we all do. The question is how to get more. There are many answers. Here are some: More cubic inches, longer stroke, higher compression, turbos, superchargers, blowers, headers, bigger valves, high rise intakes. Here are some other factors in getting that lovin' feeling from your gas pedal pushing: Lighten-up you car. Use aluminum or fiberglas body parts like doors, fenders, hood, trunk and bumpers. If you lighten up you car then less torque will be required to move that weight. This is an old trick. Another trick is to put an engine out of a big lead sled like a Lincoln or Cadillac into a smaller lighter car. It's that power to weight ratio we are trying to improve. So, less weight and more torque. Also remove any restrictions inside the engine that requires torque. Examples are; use roller rocker arms, light weight connecting rods, light weight flywheels and torque converters, aluminum engine parts, light weight and efficient exhaust systems, balance the rotating assembly, and port and polish the cylinder heads.

About that last one, an awful lot of power is used to move air through the head. Streamlining the air flow in the head is something that can't afford to be overlooked. I've ridden in cars with professionally ported heads and thought they had a turbo. I was stunned to find out there was no turbo or blower. I've ridden in small block Chevy trucks with ported heads and found out there wasn't a Big Block under the hood like I thought. Porting and polishing adds a lot of torque to your ride.

Dr. Denny does custom head porting & polishing. For more information go to DR.DENNY.COM