Glossary & FAQ
Air fuel ratio (AFR)
Air-fuel ratio (AFR) is the mass ratio of air to fuel present, during combustion. This is particularly important for performance tuning reasons. Making your engine more powerful involves trying to squeeze as much air as possible inside your combustion chamber, then trying to add as much fuel as you can to it and ignite them to produce the power.
Brake Horse Power (BHP)
The BHP is a measure of the power required to stop the engine at a given speed. It also indicates that the engine's power was measured on a device called a brake dyno. A brake dyno has the engine spin a shaft attached to a brake. The dyno operator adjusts the brake to hold the engine steady at a particular RPM and records the forces acting on the brake, then moves on to another RPM so as to get a map of the engine's performance throughout its RPM range. Then the measurements can be used to calculate the engine's horsepower and torque.
Dynamometer (Dyno)
A dynamometer, "dyno" or "dyn'r" for short, is a machine used to measure torque and rotational speed (rpm) from which power produced by an engine, motor can be calculated.
Engine control unit (ECU)
The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) controls the fuel injection system, ignition timing, and the idle speed control system. The ECU also interrupts the operation of the air conditioning and EGR systems, and controls power to the fuel pump (through the control relay). The ECU consists of an 8-bit microprocessor, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), and an input/output interface.
Horsepower & Torque
An engine’s output is rated in horsepower and torque.
Horsepower determines how fast a vehicle can travel. Torque determines
how quickly that speed can be reached. Horsepower and torque work
hand-in-hand, as horsepower is calculated from torque. Torque is
arguably the most important component in an engine's output. As a
general rule, the lower the engine rpm, the better. Engine designers
are forever striving to increase the torque but not increase the rpm at
which the peak occurs.
Manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP)
A manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP) is one of the sensors used in an internal combustion engine's electronic control system. The MAP provides instantaneous manifold pressure information to the engine's (ECU). This is necessary to calculate air density and determine the engine's air mass flow rate, which in turn is used to calculate the appropriate fuel flow.
For a more detailed explanation of the above or for any other technical questions contact us.
