Tuning the Vauxhall Crossland X
"Thanks for reading my Vauxhall Crossland X tuning guide."
The Crossland X is a brilliant project car to try. Think carefully and research Crossland X tuning to save yourself making the usual expensive mistakes we typically come across.
Opels attack on the subcompact crossover SUV was a big hit, and shares a platform with the C3 Picasso and Peugeot 2008.
This pages aim is review Crossland X tuning and provide tips on the premier mods that work. Vauxhall Crossland X really good project cars and with the right performance parts like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically improve your driving enjoyment.
Tuning the Vauxhall Crossland X and best Crossland X performance parts.
Handling/Suspension upgrades
Many Crossland X owners uprate the handling of their cars with modified suspension parts as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.
Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you Crossland X dramatically improving your drive.
We would go to a maximum drop of 28mm - 37 mm. on most models. You risk handling compromises if you go lower than this.
Top end torque should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide peak torque band.
Sadly with smaller engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.
Power mods.
These are the tuning mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.
- 1.2 81 hp
- 1.2 Turbo 110hp and 130 hp
- 1.6 Diesel 99hp
- 1.6 Diesel 120hp
Getting the right tuning upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 (competition) mods just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Suspension upgrade (drop 28mm - 37 mm.), Sports exhaust, Remap, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter.
Modifying to Stage 2:
Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox.
You should keep as much low end power as possible and aim to achieve a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.
In this article we shall give an overview and introduction to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance upgrade.A fast road camshaft will be one of the best NASP power mods you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.
It improves the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a competition cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.
You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.
If you find you have flat spots and power surges after your motorsport modifications you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to increase the injectors on your engine.
Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Crossland X's uprated injectors.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is often very little power gain obtained by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!
For most Crossland X engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.
Do not go with the widest exhaust you can find this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
gas flowing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can lose you loads of power as you increase the power if it starts to fail and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 48%. Fit a power clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods we would do for your Crossland X are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.
NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A remapped turbo will give impressive power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost builds exponentially with engine speed.
The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Alternatively you could perhaps install water injection to reduce the risk of knock.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
The benefits of alloy wheels include reducing your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. Get a good soft compound tire to improve your handling and help improve traction on your Crossland X. It is worth noting that although they can look cool on the Crossland X large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.
Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Crossland X options in more detail with our Crossland X owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Vauxhall tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
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