What’s the difference between Lb/Ft and NM

First lets explain what torque is, as the above two measurements refer to the same thing. And why it’s important for ECU-tuners like Kraken Racing.

The easiest way to explain it is to imagine you are using a spanner to tighten a nut. If the spanner is 1 meter long and you are using 1 newton of force, you are in effect using 1 Newton Meter (NM) of force to tighten the nut. If you apply double the amount of force at the end of the spanner or using a 2 meter long spanner, you are using 2 NM to tighten the nut.

I guess you’re already familiar with the term horsepower. If horsepower is telling you how fast your car can go, the torque is used to tell you how hard it can push the car. The torque is what you feel when you accelerate as it pushes the car forward. So indeed this measurement is very important and maybe even more important to the horsepower of the car.

When we tune the ECU of your car we use the modified ECU files that our engineers in the UK is doing on our two state of the art Dyno Jets. 

In the UK, Lb/Ft (foot pound) is often used to measure the torque rather than the metric way to do it, Newton Meters.

One Nm equals 0.738Lb/Ft.

So at Kraken Racing, as we use the metric system, we have to recalculate that into NM which is the more common measurement in our market.

So for example, a 2014 BMW 430d tuned with our stage 1 ECU Tune.

Original: 560 NM = 413Lb/Ft            

Modified NM: 640 NM = 472Lb/Ft

Some dyno jet charts that show the difference in horsepower and torque from a standard ECU and a modified ECU might have different measurement units than the ones you are familiar too. So in order to fully appreciate the difference in a tuned car, the correct units of horsepower and torque must be used.