It isn’t every day that you see a question like this come up in a conversation, but today is that day. My wife has been dreaming of the day she would get this minivan, so I made it happen last year, and we picked one up. Of course, this was the day I was dreading because I don’t want to be driving any stinking van.
Remembering my childhood and terrible road trips in the van, would my children’s fate be the same? So the question came up. How can I increase the horsepower in my Town and Country? So I started looking and researched for hours, and this is what I found.
To increase the horsepower of any engine, you need to improve the
four things that your engine requires, and that is air, fuel, spark, and compression. It seems easy enough, but let’s look deeper into this is we can understand it even better.
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Why would I want to increase the horsepower in my town and country?
Many people look to modify their vehicle in one way or another. The modification they choose all depends on what they require of their vehicle.
A great example is a person who owns a truck and wants to haul or tow more they would add horsepower to give the truck more power to pull a load. The big thing I saw with our Town and Country is that it doesn’t have as much get up and go as our Dodge Durango had. Yes I know one
is an SUV, but that doesn’t limit the minivan to low horsepower. My wife has even noticed the acceleration power that our van has, and she wants more as well. That is how all the modifications start.
The owner wants more of their vehicle but does not want to buy another vehicle due to the changes they want to their vehicle are not so significant to buy another vehicle.
What would I use to increase the horsepower in my town and country?
So just like I said when starting this article it is not every day that you have someone modifying a minivan, but this project is no different than any other vehicle. You need to increase the main requirements of the engine, and by doing so, you will have an increase in power, so here we go.
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Air
We need to increase the rate of airflow that our vehicle is receiving. This is why on vehicles there is a cold air intake, ram air, or a blower. These are all ways to get colder and more air.
So the choice we are going to go with on this requirement is an upgraded air filter by K and N. I could not find a cold air intake system for the Town and Country, but if you wanted to, you could always customize one to work for our vehicle. Even though the K and N air filter is still the factory size filter, this filter is a high flow air filter.
Unlike the factory filter made of paper, K and N make their filter out of cotton, and it increases the airflow by 50% which will give you between 1 – 4 increase to your horsepower.
I love these filters because you can wash it and it will be as good as new (make sure you use the K and N recharge kit to ensure thorough cleaning to filter.) In doing so, you will never have to repurchase another air filter.
This filter will not set you back too much because the average cost is around $55, but I found it here on Amazon cheaper.
Fuel
We have a couple of options with this requirement, and that is we can upgrade the fuel filter to a high flow filter. Then we can enhance the fuel injectors to a higher flow as well. Do you see the cycle here?
We are increasing everything to a higher flow, and more air means you need more fuel and more air and fuel means you need a reliable and robust
spark. To increase your fuel to air ratio we are going to need to change our computer, which means we will be doing a performance chip in our Town and Country.
We are looking at the Accel Performance Fuel Injectors with a high flow fuel filter from K and N. Price for this is going to run right around $350.
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Spark
Spark has changed so much over the years, and it is interesting to watch how our vehicles have changed. Herewith spark we do not have a distributor and spark plug cables; we have coils.
So to increase our spark, we are going to upgrade our spark plugs to the NGK Laser Iridium spark plugs and install some performance coils to bring that shine out from the spark upgrade.
Here are the NGK Laser Iridium spark plugs on Amazon. If you are looking to see what other modifications we made to our Town and Country to best suit our needs check out our article on it. I do have to say after changing a few things that I didn’t like with the van, and I enjoy going on road trips now with my family.
My wife and I have six children, so getting a vehicle that suits all of our needs is near impossible, so thankfully we have a great base to start from and to modify. The price is this modification was not bad at all. The spark plugs go for $10 apiece, and the coils are going to run an average of $170 for the whole set. I was able to find them cheaper here on Amazon.
Compression
Compression is where all the magic happens, and I only included this one because there will be that person out there that says bore and stroke your engine out! (As they scream it from the peanut gallery) So here is to that mysterious person that we all know and love, thank you, sir!
For those who do not know what bore and stroke are. Bore and stroke your engine is when you increase the size of the diameter of the cylinder. The diameter in which a piston travels.
This modification will increase the displacement of your engine and give you a lot more horsepower than a simple bolt-on would provide.
Yes, this modification is pricey, and most people would only do this if they are looking to start drag racing their vehicle. It will be hilarious if you beat someone with your minivan.
Price on this modification differs from what shop you take your vehicle to, but the average I priced out was $70 per cylinder.
Where would I take my town and country to increase the horsepower?
It all depends on if you have the machinery needed to make the modifications and if you feel comfortable modifying the vehicle yourself. The bolt-on modifications are not complicated, but the bore and stroke take machinery and experience. The price isn’t too bad that I would say I want to do it myself.
I want the job done right the first time, so I can enjoy why I spent my money. So in my case, I would not do the bore and stroke myself because I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to do it, and I would probably put a hole in my block. Also, do not forget that if the hole is bigger, you will need hardware to match.
That means if you make your cylinder diameter larger, then you are going to need a larger piston. But this is where this modification gets all its power from, and you make a bigger hole to go boom in, then the boom will be more significant, bigger boom = more go. (That was my lamens term)
Is the horsepower gain permanent in my town and country?
With these modifications, they are permanent as long as you keep the bolt-on modification on the vehicle of course. Remember that your fuel economy and sound of your car will be changed due to the new parts you have installed and modified, so keep that into consideration.
If you are doing a lot of road trips, maybe the loud exhaust wouldn’t be the best idea, but it’s all up to you. Make your vehicle more you, and it best suits your needs!
I hope you enjoyed this article and it helped you with gaining more horsepower in your Town and Country! I hope you check out my next piece!
