Tuning the Cadillac SRX

"Tuning guide to the greatest Cadillac SRX modifications."

We examine the options for your SRX tuning and show the best mods that work. Cadillac SRXs are fantastic to work on and with the ultimate performance parts you can definitely improve your driving fun.

The SRX is a awesome car tuning project to fill your spare time. With the right mods your SRX can be transformed into an awesome motor. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade to avoid wasting money.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for loads of people first priority in your SRX tuning project.

We found that most SRX factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, 0.9 to 1.5, and some negative camber will often improve your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 22mm - 38 mm. on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

Our aim in SRX engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and performance modifications are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get started.

Getting the best uprated upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Remap, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 22mm - 38 mm.).

Modifying to Stage 2:

 high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam.

Modifying to Stage 3:

 Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam.

Peak power is good on competition cars but for a drivable and fun car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a limited introduction to the best modifications for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance mod.One of the biggest mechanical uprated mods you can do to your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The intake & exhaust durations play a huge role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car challenging to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

If you find you have flat spots and power surges after your performance kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Improving the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is generally a small if any power gain reached by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts balance the flow of gases through the engine. But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of your flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional gas flowing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. Your clutch can slip as you increase the power if it starts to break and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 46%. Fit an upgraded clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods in our experience for your SRX 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 significant 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. It is usually easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working. Turbos give boost in exponential proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Alternatively you could add water injection to control knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are generally less heavy than the steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a directional tread pattern tire. The drawback to large alloys on your SRX is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration.

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 SRX options in more detail with our SRX owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Cadillac tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.

We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.

This article was written by Waynne Smith on TorqueCars, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Cadillac. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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