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"Thank you for reading my Commodore tuning guide"
We have seen some awesome Commodore tuning projects and there seems to be quite a loyal fan base of Commodore owners. Think carefully and research Commodore tuning to avoid making the usual common mistakes we often .
Many Commodore owners uprate the handling of their cars with sports suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car. Drop the car by as much as 35mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.
Top end power should be your overall aim on the Commodore with a nice fat 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.
Engine tuning mods.
Typically these tuning mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.
Getting the right sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow 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:
Alloy wheels, Remap, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel.
Modifying to Stage 2:
fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).
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.
The point of our pointers is to give a limited introduction of tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best tuning upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.One of the best mechanical modified modifications you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .
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 reflashed ECU. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.
If you find you experience flat spots and power surges after your sports kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Commodores uprated injectors.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction. 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 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 generally help improve air flow through the engine but do not go too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.
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 lose you loads of power if it starts to suffer and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit an upgraded clutch to avoid power leak through the transmission. Turbo engines are just crying out to be Remapped. You will see big power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and big modifications for your money.The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are often easier to add than a turbo. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.
It is simpler to map a supercharger because the boost is directly proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and better brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Commodore is that you're altering your final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on performance.
Due to this fact endeavour to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases not going over 16 inches.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Commodore options in more detail with our Commodore owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Holden 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.
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