Tuning the Ford C-Max

"Thank you for reading this Ford C-Max tuning guide."

If you do your planning then you can create an awesome C-Max but don't be fooled there are lots of modified modifications out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

The Ford C-Max make awesome project cars and with a few sensible sports enhancements like ECU maps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will improve your driving opportunities.

Our aim here is to examine the options for your C-Max tuning and outline the greatest modifications for your car.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are the thing most do first for the C-Max.

If you set the toe out to degrees on the front, and add some negative camber then cornering will often improve.

Drop the car by as much as 22mm - 43 mm. and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

For radically enhanced braking fit better performance pads and mate this with larger brake discs.

Bear in mind that motorsport pads can be noisier and will have to be hot before they are effective.

On a road car the brakes are only used rarely so won't stop you as well so specify pads which have a low working temperature.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more power out of 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 mods.

This list of the stages and motorsport mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

Getting the best modified parts for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 22mm - 43 mm.), Remap, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels.

Modifying to Stage 2:

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

Modifying to Stage 3:

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

Peak power is all well and good but for a daily driven car you need a wide power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The whole aim of our pointers is to give a starting base of tuning performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best motorsport mods and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a bolt on upgrades goes on a NASP engine.

The intake & exhaust flow play a major role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a remap to fully realise your gains.

Don't forget to look at the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after performance mods are done can usually be traced to timing or fuel delivery issues. To get sufficient fuel you may need to increase the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

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 usually very little if any power gain obtained by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you boost the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

For most C-Max 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 biggest exhaust you can get this will slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

flowed (porting and polishing) 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 When you tune up your C-Max you will reach a point that the standard clutch starts to fail so get an uprated clutch. The best mods that we recommend for your C-Max are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Remaps offer significant power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remapped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are usually easier to add than turbos. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is correlating to engine speed so is easier to map. Alternatively you could install water injection to cut down knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good track legal slick tire can really enhance your cars handling. Please note that although they can look cool on the C-Max 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 17 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss C-Max options in more detail with our C-Max owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Ford 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 Ford. 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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