Torque vs. Horsepower ???

[Spoonya]

Ok, don't make fun of me for asking this.........but what exactly does Torque mean?

And according to the 3400 specs:

HP: GT: 175 HP @ 4800 RPM
TORQUE: 2000+ GT: 205 @ 4000 RPM

I don't get that? what's the diff?

[4kQuad]

Torque......is the power the motor makes and it changes through the RPM scale.

Hores Power is what is left of the torque after it goes through the trany, drive lines and to the wheels. It also changes with the RPM's.

So torque is the true power of the motor, at the crank shaft.

Horse Power is what is at the wheels as they turn on the ground.

That's why you may here people saying that is a torquey little motor.

Or I have 180 HP at the wheels at so many RPM's.

I hope this makes since/helps.

[Spoonya]

Originally posted by 4kQuad
I hope this makes since/helps.

No! :P LOL j/k

Well why wouldn't they work it so the car's Torque and HP are equal?

:nervous: that's it......I'm changing my signature........

[Gimli]

Hmmm, know. Torque is the strenght of the engine to get the car moving (fight inertia). HP is the strenght of the engine to keep it moving (fight air resistance, friction, etc.). Both can be calculated either at the crank or at the wheel.

Trucks have very high torque to be able to pull heavy weights (like a trailer).

[Themeneea]

hi angie

torque is what the engine creates and horsepower is a calculation using torqure at a certain RPM.

[LargeFish]

How stuff works - Horsepower (http://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower1.htm)

[Spoonya]

Haha, thanks everyone.......... so is it safe to say

Torque = Strength
HP = Speed

[Gimli]

Originally posted by Spoonya
Haha, thanks everyone.......... so is it safe to say

Torque = Strength
HP = Speed

Yep, plus torque = how quickly you get to that speed.

[Colin]

;) Ok , Hp & Torque 101

[Spoonya]

Originally posted by Colin
;) Ok , Hp & Torque 101

Haha, WHOA! I think something popped in my brain when I read that. LOL..... it was starting to sound Greek and look cryptic. LOL

Thanks! :D

[Colin]

Originally posted by Spoonya
Haha, WHOA! I think something popped in my brain when I read that. COOOOOL ! :explode:

[Pte Socks]

How bout this phras i stole from someone off this site and i still cant bloody remember who it was.. any help?

Hp sells cars
Torque wins races

Or in my understanding. Torque is the muscle that gets yoru car moving intially off the line. The higher it is ( like in trucks ) the more power it has off the line. Hp starts kicking in when your in motion and its the force that accelerates your car when you car is already in motion. I dont know if this is right but it seems to be the case. I usually take cars off the line because of my high torque ( 195 compared to many imports which are 140 ) but then they start to pull away on a few occasions becasue of thier higher hp ( 200 compared to my 170 to use and Acura RSX type-S ) as an example

[Old Guy]

Originally posted by Unrealoaded
How bout this phras i stole from someone off this site and i still cant bloody remember who it was.. any help?

Hp sells cars
Torque wins races



I know I've said that a few times on here, and I'm sure that the other guys around my age have also. That's an old drag racing saying.

Torque is a funny thing. A car can have more torque at it's peak HP, but still be slower off the line because its peak is at a higher RPM than an engine with less. That's what happens when you start modifing an engine. You can move the peak torque up and down the RPM band. For example, if you modify the exhaust, you may increase HP, but move your peak torque up the scale.

Typically on the older cars, the modifications were Carb, intake, headers and gears. Get the engine to breathe better and increase HP, then move that HP to the wheels at a lower RPM by lowering your gear ratio.

[kmikl]

I may get long winded here... be forewarned:

The hp/torque arguement can be boiled down to this:

Torque is dependent on the bore and stroke of the motor, the more volume you can stuff into the cylinder, the more air/fuel mixture will get in and then you will have an explosion that has more force. (I'm not including the rest of the drive line because that clutters the arguement... I'm going for simplicity)

HP is dependent on the ability to get the fuel air mix into the cylinder. That way, if you have a free-flowing head, throttle body and exhaust... you'll have high HP.

Basically HP and torque depend on 2 different parts of the 4 stroke process:

HP: Intake & Exhaust
TQ: Compression & Ignition.

This is why you can find that a lot of imports can make huge HP numbers but have comparitively smaller torque numbers. The Engines flow a ton of air, but they don't need to have a lot of power to get the car going because they're fairly light.

HP is an amount of energy expended (746 watts = 1 HP)

Torque is the force with which that energy was expended over a given distance.

It's a bit of an arbitrary measure, if you read the How stuff works link. You'lll find that in a lot of places in Europe, Australia and Asia, the power ratings of most cars are expressed in Newton/meters (torque) and Joules or Watts. These are a LOT more precise, and make more sense when you look at the units.

Any other questions?

[Night Wolf]

tourqe and horsepower are not directly related.....

...simply put, tourqe is the energy requireed to get things moving, while hp keeps it moving.... tourqe is a twisting motion, hp is just a measure of how long/fast it can keep doing what it's doing...

I believe that saying hp sells cars and tourqe wins races....

it seems like it is also an import vs. domestic thing, look at many imports, yeah, they might makes 200hp but it might only be 160 ft lbs (notice how they don't advertise that?) while domestics usually have a higher tourqe rating (IMO tourqe means alot more then hp) and especally younger kids (well, my age) think that hp is everything, and tourqe is nothing.

I love my engine with 275ft lbs. at 3000rpm...... 200hp at 4100rpm, but that is why the car is better at speeds below 40 for racing and stuff.

[afterburn]

HP = (rpm × Torque) ÷ 5252

HP and torque are definetly related. You need BOTH torque and horsepower to win races, that "HP sells cars" thing is a load of excrement. Horsepower is a measure of torque over TIME, and time is very important in racing.

Racing isn't JUST about torque and/or HP - it's about the curves! HP and torque curves determine how you will run, not just your peak of either. There are tons of opinions on how best to build a race motor, but basically, you want torque as far through the curve (RPMs) as possible. That way, the RPMs build on that torque to make more HP.

This one site explains it well:

To help put horsepower into perspective, imagine two engine that both make 300 ft. lbs. of torque One engine makes it at 3000 rpm and the other makes it at 6000 rpm. Which one makes more power? The one revving at 6000, because the same amount of torque is being used twice as fast. Gearing the engine down to the the same 3000 rpm will double the torque at the final drive making it 600 ft. lbs. If both engines had the same final drive, they would be able to do the exact same amount of work (300 ft. lbs. worth), but the 6000 rpm engine will do it in 1/2 the time.


Torque + rev = good. :agree:

I prefer V8s with a lot of torque, but a pretty flat curve. This means I have more HP coming off the line (because I have a lot of torque at low rev = decent HP), but as you get higher into the RPMs you build on that torque to produce more power (still lots of torque at high rev = great HP).

For instance, some of the VTEC engines have 195 HP and 140 #ft of torque. They are relying almost completely on the RPM of the engine to produce power.

My engine (when it was stock) had 190 HP, but 285 #ft. of torque. The max torque was at 2800 RPMs, so you hit your power pretty quickly. My max HP was at 4,000 RPM giving me a small power range, but I did some things to open that up, and now I have power till about 5,000 RPM (which is my redline).

I'm currently having an engine rebuild, and when I get it back I should have about 290 HP @ 5,000 RPM and 350 #ft. of torque @ 2800 RPM. It should be a nice power range, which I can take advantage of off the line w/a high stall torque converter.

I'm not saying import racing is wrong, it's just coming at the problem from a different angle. I think my angle is better. :)

[LargeFish]

So you have a LB9, TPI I take it, as I think the L69 HO had less torque... Sounds like it will be a dandy when you get it back...

[Themeneea]

so the reason a intake and a exhaust gives more power is because the powerband is wider and the torque is rasied up the band?

[afterburn]

Actually, no, in '86 90% of the engines had a 4 barrel quadrajet carb. I think it's called an LG4, but I always get the names confused. To make a long story short, I picked up a 305 TBI and a 700R4 tranny, cause mine were dying.

My friend was gonna rebuild the stuff before mine died, but mine died a lot quicker than I thought. We were going to take our time with the engine, but in a rush, we're gonna put it out 60% stock. :(

I see you have a Camaro too. A kindred spirit. :)

In response to the intake/exhaust question, yes, part of it is adding to your power range. In my Camaro, it's so old that the stock exhaust system is just plain crap...a hi-flow cat opened up my power band a lot, with just that alone.

The other part is that it adds airflow to the engine. The more air, the more bang you get for your buck. You also have to take into account fuel/air mixtures, escape velocity, and back pressure....just adding big pipes won't necessarily help you. I'm not an expert at all on the GA - my friend sends me links here all the time, and finally I was like "That's it - I have to post here."

So...yeah. I'm a loser, hanging out on other cars' boards. :P

[HondaCivicsSuck]

"I have a honda Civic and i can beat everyone on this site i make 170hp and 105 pounds feet off"..............

[LargeFish]

Originally posted by afterburn
Actually, no, in '86 90% of the engines had a 4 barrel quadrajet carb. I think it's called an LG4.
....
I see you have a Camaro too. A kindred spirit. :)

Yeah, my son has an '87 Z28 with the LG4, so there are two in the family thus far...