Remove power steering = more power?

[reed dollaz 10+ year member]

I'm going to be buying my neighbors 94' civic coupe. Not sure what model. Assuming DX. Anyway, the car has minor mods. Lowered, rims, full greddy exhaust. The guy took out the power steering, and said it gives the car a little power boost. Is this true? I also read in an issue of Import Tuner that they took out the PS of an Integra LS they were building for drag/show. So that made me somewhat belive the fact that removing PS improves something. Does it just improve handeling when going down a straight line, or does it infact give some sort of HP gain? The car is incredibly hard to steer, but im sure ill get used to it. He did. He drove it daily. This kid didnt do any of the mods. He bought it used for 2,000 and it had everything on it that i mentioned. He joined the airforce, and knowing i wanted the car, gave me a great deal. 800.00 and its mine. So whatsup with this PS ****?

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[crunktimes.com 5,000+ posts]

Yes you will gain 25-45hp by making that modification.

 

[crunktimes.com 5,000+ posts]

another 50-75hp if you toss the brakes

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

for drag/straight line racing but for street apps...you definately want the power steering. the gains are nowhere close to being worth it for driving

 

[crunktimes.com 5,000+ posts]

I take the PS and brakes out of all of my drifting cars, e-brake ftw!

 

[reed dollaz 10+ year member]

come on man im being serious. i want to know if its beneficial at all. if not, ill put PS back in. I wont be using the car to race, so no need to keep stiff steering.

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

come on man im being serious. i want to know if its beneficial at all. if not, ill put PS back in. I wont be using the car to race, so no need to keep stiff steering.

put it back in...

 

[reed dollaz 10+ year member]

put it back in...

yea. i will. i was very doubtfull on the so called power gain. but i do understand removing PS for drag.

 

[ballstothewall 10+ year member]

In theory you will gain power by not having the power steering, it takes power to make it work. Will you be able to tell without a dyno, no way in hell so just put it back in.

 

[SteveSkal]

Your would free up maybe 5-10 prasitic horsepower loss from the engine having to tun the power steering pulley and pump, the gains are nowhere near the risk of having no PS on the street, if it was a straight line quarter mile car then maybe

 

[Racerx250 10+ year member]

I got a friend who had a 95 eclipse. The a/c and PS belt were seperated from the other's. So he took it off. And it did gain quite a bit of power with it off. He had headers, full exhaust, cai, and did a little ait mod. With all that done and with bad struts and shocks he still beat my firebirdv6 by a good bit. As far as leaving it off. I would not. Only thing you'll really get out of it is bigger muscles.

 

[SuperchargedRS 10+ year member]

The PS pump isnt really taxing the engine all that much EXCEPT when your turning (turn the wheel when your parked and look at the tach).

NOW for your situation I would put it back in (did he put a manual rack and pinion in or just ghetto it out and pull the pump or something), also those cars get some pull on the front end under HEAVY acceleration (due to being FWD) so it is a good idea to have it.

ALSO if this guy is this much of a moron you might want to give the car a REAL good go over (compres check to wiperblades!) as god only knows what else he F'd up!

...or just get a unmolested/stock import from a "grown up" and do it up yourself!

 

[Ferendon 10+ year member]

I got a friend who had a 95 eclipse. The a/c and PS belt were seperated from the other's. So he took it off. And it did gain quite a bit of power with it off. He had headers, full exhaust, cai, and did a little ait mod. With all that done and with bad struts and shocks he still beat my firebirdv6 by a good bit. As far as leaving it off. I would not. Only thing you'll really get out of it is bigger muscles.

Sounds like the slowest race ever. An NA Eclipse and a V6 Firechicken.... The fact that it beat one of GM worst mistakes, doesn't mean ****. Pulling the P/S on a car will yield a handful of HP at most. No amount of HP is worth leaving yourself in that kind of danger. I'd like you see you swerve to miss a stalled car, or correct a spin with no P/S. When cars came with no P/S, they also have a different steering box ratio, to make it easier to turn, but they could not turn as tightly, and they had quite a few more room from lock to lock.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

i agree. i think you should put it back in. on a side note, not having power steering isn't that bad. the only time it's hard to steer is while sitting still. some of you act like it's a near impossibility, which tells me that alot of people have never driven a vehicle with no power steering. it really isn't that big a deal in that light little car.

 

[Ferendon 10+ year member]

It's not a matter of difficulty steering the car, it's a matter of how quickly you can do so.