A combustion engine makes energy by compressing gas and air in a cylinder, then igniting it. The tighter you compress the combination, the extra energy you make. That is the compression ratio in a nutshell. Most engines have a compression ratio of lower than 10:1.

The engine on this Lada has a 22:1 compression ratio. The loopy crew from Garaga 54 needed “free horsepower” in order that they tore aside a Lada four-cylinder engine and elevated the compression ratio.

Bumping up compression is definitely pretty frequent within the aftermarket world, nevertheless it’s normally performed by altering heads and putting in stronger pistons. Moreover, resurfacing heads may also enhance the compression ratio barely, just because the resurfaced head is ever-so-slightly narrower, thus shrinking the combustion chamber. These modifications normally require stronger elements elsewhere, similar to connecting rods, bearings, and so forth.

Storage 54 simply decked the top and welded a bunch of aluminum to the tops of the pistons. Appears legit.

They did at the least measure the quantity of the cylinders and created a mildew of the combustion chamber. That allowed the workforce to do some tough calculations on the compression ratio, which got here out to roughly 22:1. Utilizing the mildew as a information, they welded aluminum to the tops of the pistons, leaving little or no room for combustion to happen. And in a stunning flip of occasions, they erred on the facet of warning and added a second head gasket, successfully dropping the ratio to round 16:1. A compression examine on the cylinders confirmed that the strain was certainly manner up.

Surprisingly, the engine begins up, and with high-octane gas in a particular tank, it even runs fairly effectively. In truth, the little Lada spins its tires on the full-throttle take a look at run, however that is when issues like engine balancing, preignition, and detonation come into play. There might have been “free horsepower” for just a few seconds, however the ensuing carnage after shifting into second is not far faraway from an I Do Vehicles engine teardown.

Will the workforce strive once more for an ultra-high-compression Lada? Primarily based on what we have seen from Storage 54 over the past a number of years, it is not a query of if, however when.