Ways to Improve Your Truck’s Horsepower

Trucks are endlessly practical, providing immense utility, especially for heavy-duty workloads. You can always trust your truck to deliver the goods, whether it’s an onsite industrial job or one in an urban environment.

However, even reliable trucks sometimes need a little boost to improve performance.

Let’s discuss ways to improve your truck’s horsepower, so you can get the performance you need for certain tasks.

Install an Aftermarket Exhaust System

Installing an aftermarket exhaust system is an easy and common method for improving truck horsepower. The muffler fitted by the manufacturer is mainly designed to minimize noise without much focus on horsepower.

An aftermarket exhaust system will not only increase horsepower but also give your truck a robust sound. You can even replace the original exhaust manifold with aftermarket headers for additional power.

Overall, you can expect an increase of anywhere between 20 to 30 horsepower with this simple upgrade.

Install a Cold-Air Intake

Installing a cold-air intake is an inexpensive way to improve truck horsepower. The cooler air going to your engine from a cold-air intake is much denser than regular air, which means it has more oxygen.

This extra oxygen can help increase fuel burning for more power generation in the engine. You can expect anywhere between 5 and 15 additional horses and improved throttle response with a cold-air intake.

ECM Remapping

Your truck’s engine control module or ECM controls vital functions like fuel injection, fuel-to-air ratio, throttle adjustment, etc., in your truck’s engine. Factory-fitted ECMs focus on fuel efficiency and optimal performance.

However, if you want your truck to give a better performance in terms of power, you can get the ECU remapped for some serious horsepower. Professional ECM experts, like those at CAT ECM, know exactly how to remap or reprogram the ECM of your truck to increase horsepower optimally.

Depending on the make and model of your truck, you can get more horsepower from ECM remapping alone than the previously mentioned methods combined.

Upgrade the ECM

Another option is to upgrade the ECM of your truck. You can change the existing ECM for a superior one that allows you to get more performance and horsepower out of your truck.

Since the ECM controls and manages the engine, an ECM upgrade can allow your truck to optimize controls and management for the highest possible power generation.

An ECM upgrade can often provide even more horsepower than remapping an existing ECM. Of course, this will depend on the make and model of your truck because not all ECMs are compatible with all trucks.

Installing an aftermarket exhaust system and cold-air intake and opting for an ECM remap or upgrade will give you the boost in horsepower you need for your truck.

Of course, there are other ways to boost horsepower, but we recommend a simple ECM remap or upgrade for improving truck horsepower in the most efficient and convenient way.

The ECM experts at CAT ECM provide reliable ECM remapping and upgrades, including warranties for certain modules like those from Caterpillar.

If you want to learn more about ways to improve your truck’s horsepower or about the comprehensive ECM services of CAT ECM, please get in touch today.