Expert: Dan Liddy - 7/16/2006

Question
Hello Mr. Liddy,
  I really appreciate your information on making my truck faster, it will be such a good help for me to get started! I took at look at your link you sent me to the K&N website: http://www.knfilters.com/ and I searched for my vehicle, found it, but I do not have a v-6 engine, it is only a four cylinder. When I completed my search it didn't give me any available intake kits, but it just gave me available K&N air filters. Am I stuck with having to only get just the air filter and no complete intake kit? And I know its never wasting time working on a vehicle and enhancing its performance, but do you think a truck like this has no potential to ever be fast?

THANK YOU again so much for your time
   I appreciate how polite you were it made me want to write again.

  Robert

Answer
Hi again Robert:

Speed in a motor vehicle happens in direct relationship to the amount of fuel you can effectively burn. The more fuel, the more power,  That's a little simplistic but when I go racing I am always impressed by the big Chevy race cars that sometimes top 190 MPH at one of our tracks.   But if you talk to one of the owners, you learn that they will spend US $ 250 per weekend just on gasoline !!  and $1100 to $2000 on tires. It's a VERY expensive game they play, and it takes a wealthy person to persue it.

So back to your truck.  You can definately make it perform better with a few modifications, but you'll never make it as fast as most of the V-6 and V-8 trucks. The thing to remember is that you CAN make it faster than the other 4 cylinder models.  Since most real racing is based on verious clessed of vehicles, you would do well in your "class".

The question that must be answered, is if the work involved is worth it to YOU - -  to have a faster truck even though it is not going to outrun the high horsepower vehicles of other people. Or shoudl you save your first paychecks toward buying something with more potential.

Think hard about this because all racing and all automotive motorsport is expensive, and sometimes it's better to wait until you are sure you can afford to do the jobs riight, and with the right parts and knowledge.

Good luck again !

Dan Liddy