just got a forte koup sx turbo has 201 hp wondering what i could do to increase that hp the most. any suggestions?
Unless you plan on spending a lot of money, don't bother. If you just want to throw money at it for shits sake you can do the usual cold air intake, throttle body spacers etc etc. it will change exactly nothing about your hp, but its your car so go nuts.
Higher octane fuel will do exactly nothing except spend more money. The car is designed to make all the power it possibly can with low octane. Octane has 0 to do with power in an engine, it's a measurement of the fuel resistance to detonation. The car computer will NOT advance timing to the point that detonation is an issue regardless of what octane you have so you will see 0 difference in performance. Advancing timing with a correct fuel/air charge is what builds HP, but as iit advances you will get detonation. That requires higher octane to prevent it from happening. That's how it works.
The stock intake flows far more air than the engine can possibly use and it is a cold air intake. The throttle body is the limiting factor in most systems, and with forced air it's MUCH less of an issue than with NA. CAI are actually warm air intakes and can't possibly flow more air than the stock. But if you like the look, go for it. You won't lose much HP from the added heat. But you'll hear the engine more. Noise isn't power though.
Consider this. Every car manufacturer out there is in a non stop battle with every other one to deliver an engine that does more (with less) than every other one. They want the most power and the least fuel usage. They spend a bajillion dollars in research and engineering to do that. If a $0.12 pipe could deliver an extra 5hp or deliver an extra mpg, they would install it.
Every bolt on part you can get off ebay has an "up to" number. 0 is included in that number, and at best that's the number you will usually see. Beyond that if you see a difference in dyno pulls (and back to back pulls on the same car will show variables in excess of your bolt on parts claims) you see that your amazing 1hp improvement exists for about 1/10th of a second at a very specific rpm. Unless you are driving at exactly that rpm all the time, you see exactly 0 change in your times. If you want to improve your 1/4 mile times by 1 second, the usual rule of thumb says you need to either shave 1000 pounds or add another 100hp.
That covers pretty much every part you find on the internet and can bolt on. They're garbage.
Enter the world of tuning. If you want to see an actual improvement in a modern car, the only place to find it is in the computer. Tunes do nothing magic, all they do is bypass the safety nets the manufacture builds in. And it basically only does it by adjusting timing and matching fuel/air delivery to take advantage of that. So the car company wants you to not blow up your engine. That hurts sales. So the safety net is built in that the computer will only advance timing to x degrees. It can/will retard timing if there is detonation, but it will never advance past X. At X timing the engine can use a max amount of fuel Y. It will never inject more than Y. That has to match the amount of air capable of being delivered, Z. So x,y,z, dictates the maximum amount of power the engine can possibly produce.
So where does power come from? It comes from the amount of gas, burned with the right amount of air, ignited at the right time. So I want more power, I have to increase the fuel load. But if I just do fuel, I run rich, i lose power. So I have to also match the fuel load with the right amount of air. Since I have forced induction, I can sent a LOT more air into the engine than a NA engine can suck in. So I can send in a LOT more fuel and still be at the right ratio. And now that I have all this extra power possible, I need to ignite it at the right time to really take advantage and not send all that extra power down the exhaust. So I need to ignite the fuel load SOONER, so I need to advance timing. But if I advance too far, I get detonation. To prevent that I need to raise the octane level of the fuel load.
So now I have raised everything as far as I can and I'm making as much power as the engine in stock form can possibly make. But I want more! Now we get into the actual hard parts. I'm maxed out in fuel, so now I need larger injectors to deliver MORE fuel. But I'm maxed out in air so I'll be rich if I run more fuel. Now I need a bigger turbo to deliver more air. But now I have a restricted air supply, so I need to increase the size of all my intakes, and get a better intercooler. Now I'm pushing a ton of air, gallons of fuel, but I'm still restricted by the exhaust. I need new downpipes an exhaust tubing to let all this new found goodness flow. Now I have all this dialed in, I can advance my timing even further. But detonation pops up again, so I guess I'm on to REALLY high octane...
And of course doing all this DESTROYS any warranty you may have. Everything done increases stresses, it will find weaknesses because the engine wasn't designed for all this to happen. So if it goes all explodey, it's not their issue.
So in summary, either save your money and do nothing. Spend some money on 'bling' don't brag about how it 'feels faster'. Spend a decent chunk of money and see some actual improvement. Or spend a lot of it and see some real improvement. A 10hp improvement is only noticeable on a 5hp go kart and you would be damn lucky to get 10hp from most 'mods' out there.