The Art of Building a High-Performance Car: A Guide to Risk Mitigation and Optimization

As a car enthusiast, building a high-performance vehicle can be an exhilarating experience. However, it's essential to approach this project with caution and consider various factors that can impact the reliability and safety of your car. In this article, we'll delve into some common modifications that can enhance your car's performance while minimizing risks.

One popular modification is upgrading to clutch units with additional flow. These units are designed to handle increased torque and stress, reducing the risk of premature wear and tear on your clutch. By installing a high-performance clutch, you'll be able to push your car harder without worrying about engine damage or costly repairs.

Another crucial aspect to consider is spark plug selection. Spark plugs play a vital role in ensuring efficient combustion, and using the wrong type can lead to reduced performance and increased emissions. In this case, the driver has opted for different spark plugs, including some with a higher heat rating. This modification aims to improve combustion efficiency by reducing heat buildup in the engine. By exposing more of the insulator to heat, these spark plugs retain more heat within the cylinder, promoting better combustion.

Cooling systems are also essential to consider when building a high-performance car. In this scenario, the driver has opted for modifications that will help cool the engine more efficiently, including different spark plugs and potentially other upgrades. This is particularly important when pushing the engine's performance limits, as excessive heat can lead to premature wear or even engine failure.

Compression ratios are another critical aspect to consider when building a high-performance car. By dropping the compression ratio, the driver aims to reduce the risk of engine damage or catastrophic failure in case of an engine blowout. This modification also allows for easier maintenance and repair, as it eliminates the need for costly overhauls or replacements.

In addition to these modifications, it's essential to consider the engine's connecting rod bolts and head studs. These components are prone to failure, especially when subjected to high-performance driving conditions. Upgrading to stronger bolts and studs can help mitigate this risk, providing added peace of mind for drivers who push their cars to the limit.

The art of building a high-performance car is all about finding the right balance between power and reliability. By considering various factors such as cooling systems, spark plug selection, compression ratios, and engine components, drivers can create a vehicle that meets their performance expectations while minimizing risks. Whether you're a seasoned mechanic or an enthusiast looking to upgrade your ride, understanding these principles can help you make informed decisions when building or modifying your car.

As Charles pointed out, it's essential to approach this process with caution and consider the potential risks involved. By taking a thoughtful and measured approach, drivers can ensure that their high-performance vehicle is reliable, safe, and enjoyable to drive. Whether you're working on a small modification or a major overhaul, remember that safety should always be your top priority.

Ultimately, building a high-performance car requires careful consideration of various factors, from cooling systems to engine components. By understanding the importance of risk mitigation and optimization, drivers can create vehicles that deliver exceptional performance while minimizing the risks associated with high-speed driving. Whether you're a seasoned mechanic or an enthusiast looking to upgrade your ride, this knowledge will help you make informed decisions and build a car that meets your needs and expectations.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHello, everyone and welcome! As you can see I am here with Charles from HubbleMechanic (Hello) .com (.com)And we're going to be talking about 5 ways to prepare your car for turbocharging, because Charleswhat are you doing to your car?So I have a '98 GTI with VR6 2.8 Literand we are going to be bolting up a turbocharger to it. Super pumped, should see about a hundred horsepower to the wheel increaseWith the turbocharger yeah, so I have a question for you charlesWe're going to we're about five different things in order to you know get your car properly turbocharged, right?What's probably the first thing you need if you want to turbo charge your car, so after you your car, okay?You got a car the next thing you need of course is....a turbochargerwould need a turbocharger or it is really hard to boost your car with aTurbocharger if you don't have a turbocharger, and so you've got this as a kit. Yeah, right this came all a kitThis is a Garrett t3 T4 turbocharger which means it's a hybrid so the compressor inside is different than the exhaust sideokay, cool, this would be quite a bit bigger thanMost most oem gas small engine turbocharged carsAnd how much pressure are you looking to put in your 2.8 will probably be running?About 10 PSI of boost so it's going to be low boost levels. I want this to beIncredibly reliableI'm not trying to push it to the max of this or the max of the engineThat's what is known for pushing it to the max.I was going to say reliabilityand honesty and integrityglad we got all those out. pew pew pew pewIt's the gangster wheel what about I'm not that gangster you can work out. Maybe this oneThe Charles what's next on the list so next up on the list is going be upgrading fuel components in most cases?The stock fuel components meaning fuel pump and tankpressure pump if it has one and fuel injectors are probably not enough to deliver the extraQuantity of fuel that your engine's going to need we're pushing more air into the cylinderAnd we need to back that up with fuel. Right, more power you need more fuel.the oem are probably going to have something capable for you know maximum power obviously and then aRich Air fuel mixture if needed, but not much more than thatso you need to be able to have more flow and that's what these will do for you as well as thefuel pump now the other thing worth mentioning about fuel is if you're going to be turbo charging your car clearly you know you'rePutting some money into it you might as welluse the best fuel out there you can buy the highest octane you can buy and reason being is becauseThat reduces your chance of having knockIt's just one less thing to worry aboutSo get good fuel in it get a higher octane fuel so you don't have to worry so much about pre-ignition or knock occurringin using those low Octane FuelsWhich are more moreCommon to have in these kind of situations--- right and some of this may be a little bit overkill for me and the amount of boost that I'm runningBut I'd rather as this build goes onDo a little bit more than I absolutely need you know you might be able to run on stock injector stock fuel pumpBut the last point you want to run out of fuelDelivery is at the highest boost level right and then your lean and then all of a sudden you're getting pre-ignitionAnd then you have bigger problemsway big way bigger problems. They are problems like holes in pistonsBecause of pew pew. Because of actually not bew bew more like beeeeww...bewwwwwThe third thing we're going to need when we're adding a turbocharger to our car is proper engine managementSo the Ecm monitoring, and we need a way monitor will talk about the monitoring in a secondWe're going to need tohave a computer that can compensate for this increase in air and this fuel demand simply putting new injectors in it is not going toGet it done in fact it'll probably in some ways make your car run worse on an old car mineIt is actually a chip that gets installed. So you've heard people talk about chipping their carThat one literally is a chip if the car's more modern usually it just comes in the form of an Ecm tunedSome ecms do need to be opened up todo this like adding a ground wire is a really common or simply plugging into the andChanging the mapping and letting the computer know that you are now going beIncreasing of course then needs to increase fuel change timing perhaps it really depends on how much boost you're going to beasking from the turbocharger and in certain situationsYou're potentially electrically controlling boost as wellSo we need to have a computer that can compensate for all that stuff. Okay and so on the monitoring endyou're going to be looking at exhaust gas temperatures andWideband O2 sensor for your Air fuel ratio right right depending on how you're doing itYou know a lot of these things a lot of theseTurbocharger setups come as kit so it's going to come a tune or may come with a whole new engine computerThat does make it quite a bit easier, but even though the Ecm is going to be tuned for itwe still want to keep an eye and make sure that we're not running too lean or our timings not way off orWhen we haven't developed some kind of problem like a boost leak like a failing injectorSo that we don't run the risk of doing damage to the engine the great thing about cars that comeTurbocharged all those safety measures yup and good kits will have those safety measures, tooBut monitoring exhaust gas temperature and really more importantly monitoring air fuel with a wideband o2 that's the key is a widebandIs vital to make sure that you don't do catastrophic engine damage now charles toolI have found helpful over the years in explaining on how stuff works. didn't know this was comingIs this white board and so what I wanted to mention?We're going to get the reflections out there we goWe go to the things basically you want to keep it safe and in order to keep it safeYou want to start with a really rich mixture because that reduces the chance of knock so you start rich and then you start leaningOut that mixture while you're tuning it and eventually you know your power is going to keep increasing and then eventually that power is goingTo start to drop and once it starts to drop you go back to where it wasn't droppingYou can get peak power or you can stay a little bit safe and go left of thatSame thing with timing so you're going to start with heavily retarded timing. That's saferYou're not going to run into knock issues or pre-ignition issuesAnd then you slightly advance that time you keep advancing it you'll start to get to a point. Where you reach peak powerYou don't want to get into a point where you start to get knockBut basically you would you advance it as much as you can based on the fuel that you haveThe other parameters of your engine that allow that and then you can reach a peak powerways of tuning itBut basically if you want to be as safe as possibleYou keep it really rich you keep the timing retarded and then you play with that in order you know have a carThat's more funBut still reliable and I think it's really important to mention that this kind of tuning isUsually best done on a Dyno to eliminate all of other variables that would happen and not only it's a thousand times saferBut to eliminate all that stuff that could happen if you did it in the back StreetMoving on to number four we're going to talk about cooling. So we've got three thingsWe're going to talk here our air. Yeah, oil. Yes, and water-ish rightWe'll call it coolant. We'll call it water ethylene glycol. We'll call it coolant. Coolant G 13++ in this caseYeah, so we are going to be putting more airWe want to you know one really common thing on most factory turbocharged cars. Is they have a charge cooler whetherThat's air to air like this one or air to water like some other onesAdding you know adding an intercooler or charge Cooler is notMandatory you don't have to do it, but it's more efficientIt's way moreEfficient and boy if you're going to go to all the trouble to bolt one of these babies on you might as well put ina little extra work andCool that air coming into the engine. I would agree with you. Just don't paint it black. So when you compress air heap upyou don't want that heat going in your engine you want cool air lots of oxygen andSo you get one of these and you cool that you bring that intake air temperature down you make more powerand you do it more efficiently so great thing to do one thing on this you want to make sure you're using anAppropriately sized one you don't necessarily need oneThat's you know three feet tall right, and you also want to make sure you're not blocking too much of the radiatorBy installing one of these because that coolant cooling down the coolant is also vital in this situation right absolutelyAnd you as you mentioned if you get super big with thisYou lose the effectiveness of it, so it's not necessary in the first placeand then also you're going to increase turbo lag because you're needing to fill this thing up with air before it gets into theEngine right so not the smartest thing you want it appropriately-sizedmoving on to the turbocharger itself you could have a liquid coolant in this this one is just oil cooled andAlso, you know allows for what does oil do right, so this is frictionSo when it comes to cooling and lubricating turbocharger this one is actuallyjust oil cooled and lubricated there are other setups that would have coolant lines coming to and leaving theTurbocharger as well, so we need to make sure we're pumping cooled oilInto this turbocharger, and then having a way for it to drain back into the oil pan so typically you'll get an oil panWith a bung welded onto it so can have a returnYou know the feed source for the oil it really depends on the setup on my setupIt's going to be coming right out of the oil filter housing and then as far as coolantIt would be just the you would need cool coolant to it and then a way for it to drain outYou know back to the radiator or whatever the setup?Really best suits for for the vehicle, but you do on every single turbochargerI've ever seen have a spot for oil feed and oil return. And so then finally of courseYou're making more power more power means more energyAnd more means more heat ultimately because internal combustion engines are not perfectly efficientThey're like not that efficient at allThat's like or so we can tellSo anyways you've got a lot of heat that heat needs to go somewhere you may need to upgrade your radiator as a resultSo you can compensate with that that could also mean getting higher flow fansAnd then you knowSome of these radiators if you get into higher temperatures if you're tracking your car things like that you may want to go with likeAll aluminum Tanks rather than just plastic end tanksAnd really it really sorry to cut you off it really depends on the setup for that. You know it my set up radiators fineI will be switching to two electric fans. The car from the Factory had one electric fan and then oneAuxilary Fan driven by a belt off the main fan which is little bitinefficient as far asThe overall efficiency of the cooling system goes so I am going to upgrade to two electric fans which will flow more airBut as far as do you need a radiator. Do you need to upgrade fans it really depends on the setupYeah, often you know it depends where you live - so radiators are always designed for the worst-CaseSo they're assuming you're in Phoenix, Arizona, and it's extraordinarily hot and your flooring it, and you're not really doing that all the timeBut if you are and if you want to - then you know you need to think about that and size your radiatorAppropriately that is a pretty cool storyBro, so number five the last thing we're going to talk about and it's a bunch of different thingsBut basically what you'll learn if you turbocharged your car and do nothing elseIs that there are probably a bunch of weak points that you weren't thinking about that?You should considered when turbo charging itSo you know some of the more obvious ones if you add power?You need to have brakes that can handle that powerYou need to have tires that can handle that power you might want to size your exhaustAppropriately because you have additionalFlow you know these are some the more ones clutch is another one that probably really want to yeah clutch as wellSo it's not slipping but here has some different spark plugs. , why do you have different spark plugsI'm actually going to be dropping a one level of heat range down on spark plugs so that in that higher boostSituation we're pushing the heat away from the spark plug a little bit more efficientlylead to less heat at the spark plug in a more even combustionSo the way that you're changing that heat rating is by changing how much of that?Insulator is exposed and so if you expose more of it and has a higher heat rating itRetains more heat if you expose less of itIt's putting more of its heat back into the cylinder rather than in the combustionOr the cylinder head, I should say cylinder headYou know remember if you are adding this stuff to your carThings like the spark plugs were not necessarily designed for that applicationSo you want to make sure that you're really paying attention to things like spark plugs like our cooling so like all the stuffWe talked about today to make sure that you're getting it rightAnd then one other thing we're going to talk about is compression ratios. So what do we have here Charles right, soDropping the compression ratio is another way to play it a little bit on the safe sideWith this setup. could have easily bolted all of this up andBeen on my way and had a really fun time with itbut adding something like a head gasket spacer orLower compression pistons will drop the compressionAnd it'll really in this situation the reason I did it is for if I ever want to upgrade the turboI'm not having to pull the head offYeah, you know put new pistons and then or put a spacerAnd then I can simply add power with a biggerTurbocharger you might also find that you have other weak points in the engine a really common one on the this generationVr. Is connecting Rod bolts, so I'm going to be upgrading boltsI'm also going to be putting head studs instead of bolts, and then if I saw if I do have a problemI can just pull that off they also have a better strength higher strength, so they'll be less prone to failureBut basically what we're doing here is you're choosing. You know how much riskdo you want to have you can choose to do less of these things and as a result have more risk ofSomething going wrong, or you can choose to play it very safeLike Charles is doing and you know putting in these extra measures to make sure that the car is more reliable, right?So that's kind of you knowThat's the balance you need to make and it would be my personal suggestion that you do all of themAnd your car, and you leave it stuckAnd you just change it at the dealership you let them do it then you take all responsibility out of your own hands I?Definitely agree with you. It's all about risk mitigationYou know I'm going way more deep than I really needed tobut I wanted AReliable car that built good power that I didn't have to worry every single time I put key in to start it for everyTime I mash the throttle that something going to go kaboomHonestly if you blew kablooey if you can't if you don't have the funds to do it the right wayit's probably best that you wait until you do you could easily by turbo kit for$700 that baby on and if you're looking to blow your engine up that night be an awesome ladyIt could be fun greatfeel like we've talked about a lot of different that you want to improve your carAnd it turns out that there's going to be kind of expensive Charles there's a few things you're changing yeah, yeahit's not you know aHundred and fifty dollar air intake or a $700 tune. This is big bucks in fact. I will have spent considerably moreturbocharging this car than I did for the entire car IThink I'm going to be doing this thing my five thousand if I ever start doing itBut the good news Charles actually works on cars rather than just pretending like he will in the futureSo if you're interested in watching his vr6 turbo build you should subscribe to his channelI'll put a circle over your faceNot to cover it up. That's a little bit rude, but I don't want to click his face click my faceAnd that's all we have in this video. Thanks for watching guys questions, or comments leave below hello everyone and welcomeIt gets me every time it was so good - it was glad I've said it 800 times at this point if not more\n"