Everyone who owns a pickup truck has their own unique reason for making it their vehicle of choice. Some people need the extra room in the bed for storage and others just enjoy the aesthetic. But almost all truck owners appreciate the towing power you can only get from a pickup. While trucks coming right out of the factory have plenty of towing power, there’s always more potential locked away inside their engines.
To get at that latent towing power, you need to understand how your truck’s engine works. What many people don’t realize is that increasing towing power is as simple as airflow in and out of your engine. We’ll go over the details so you can get a better idea of where your truck’s towing power comes from.
While we usually focus on diesel engines here at Norcal Diesel Performance, the type of fuel you use doesn’t actually play a large role in your truck’s towing power. While it certainly isn’t insignificant, your engine can’t do anything with your fuel on its own. The air you get from your air intake system really determines your engine’s total horsepower and towing capabilities. You may not get more towing power from increasing fuel consumption, but you can get it by improving the capacity and quality of air the engine takes in as it runs.
If increasing towing power is as simple as air, what steps can you take to improve airflow and get that higher towing capacity? You can think of your truck’s engine as a human’s respiratory system. Your truck’s air intake system is how your engine inhales and gets that all-important oxygen into the engine to mix with your fuel. On the other end, your exhaust system is how your truck exhales. Improving this cycle of air intake and exhaust creates more horsepower, increasing your overall towing capacity.
Cold air intake systems, like this 6.6 Duramax cold air intake, can help with this. They allow colder and more oxygenated air to enter your engine, which improves its efficiency and power. Getting rid of overly restrictive exhaust manifolds or using a larger exhaust pipe can remove unclean air from your engine faster, which produces a similar effect.
Since many modern trucks rely heavily on their ECU to monitor and control electronic elements, you can further improve your horsepower by adding a programmer that can adjust various settings for you. A good programmer can manipulate air intake and fuel efficiency to get more horsepower out of your truck.
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