Want more horsepower without paying much to get it? Here are three easy ways to get more horses out of your car without taking out a small loan to do it.

Replace and/or upgrade your air filter

During the life of your engine, thousands of cubic feet of air will be drawn from within the car hood and passed through the engine cylinders. Dust and other foreign materials in the engine can cause excessive wear and operating problems, so it is imperative that you keep air filters clean by regularly replacing them. To further enhance performance, upgrade to a performance air filter, which can free up an additional 2-3 horsepower. While this is not a tremendous power gain, the relatively low cost of the filter and ease of installation (about 5 minutes) more than make up for it.

Upgrade your lubricants

Friction and heat from engine components and the drive train rob horsepower and performance. Minimizing this power loss can be as easy as upgrading to one of the newer families of high performance lubricants that are available. For instance, in a test by Horsepower TV, upgrading to Royal Purple® high performance lubricants on a LS1 Camaro freed up 9 horsepower. Not bad for less than a $100 and less than an hour of work. While there are a number of high performance lubricants on the market, only Royal Purple® has been endorsed by Hot Rod magazine. More information on its lubricants can be found at www.royalpurple.com.

Use higher octane gas or an octane booster

Go for the good stuff the next time you’re at the pump. Depending on your vehicle, high octane gasoline provides a meaningful increase in horsepower. Even a marginal gaining in switching from the lowest octane gasoline to the highest octane is worth the few extra pennies at the pump. But for those who want to see a more measurable increase in power, a race blend of gasoline will work well for those willing to put the time and effort into finding and purchasing it.

Upgrading your gas, lubricants and air filter are a cheap and easy way to see increase horsepower. They’ll also extend the life of your engine and help prevent expensive repairs.