MENUMazda CX5 Tuning
"Thank you for reading my CX5 tuning guide."
The mid sized SUV from Mazda is a great car, and very well equipped.
The 2.0 SKYACTIV-G - 165 (121) ps (kW) engine is lovely and responds well to tuning mods
We review and look at CX5 tuning and point out the ultimate modifications. Mazda CX5s make awesome project cars and with carefully picked motorsport parts you can assuredly enhance your driving opportunities..
We look at CX5 tuning and report on the ultimate upgrades. Mazda CX5s provide a fun base for your project and with the ultimate parts you can definitely increase your driving experience.
The CX5 is a good car modification project to play with. If you do your research then you can create an awesome CX5 but don't be fooled there are lots of upgrades out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.
Handling/Suspension upgrades
Handling modifications are high on most peoples lists for the CX5.
Putting slight negative camber at the front wheels and a degree or two of toe out, will usually enhance your CX5 in handling and cornering.
We would go to a maximum drop of 23mm - 36 mm on most models. You risk grounding out if you go lower than this.
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.
Tuning modifications.
This list of the stages and modified modifications are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.
Getting the best sports parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods 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:
Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Remap, Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel.
Modifying to Stage 2:
Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).
Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide power band and perhaps extending the rev range.
In this article we shall give a limited 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 mod.
One of the biggest mechanical motorsport mods you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road camshaft .
It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and increases 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 motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.
When pushing up the power you will need to increase to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.
Using high octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Mazda project after fitting other tuning mods. Upgrading 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 CX5s uprated injectors.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Induction kits will only help to add power if your air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NO POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.
For most CX5 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 supplying cold air.
Do not go with the largest exhaust you can find this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.0 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
Head work including a head port and polished and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. Your clutch can fail as you increase the power if it starts to complain and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%.
Fit a power clutch to avoid power leak through the transmission. The best mods we recommend for your CX5 are a remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake
Remaps offer large 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.
We've also come across some owners playing with twincharged applications and making some impressively high power figures.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a track legal slick tire.
The drawback to large alloys on your CX5 is that you're changing your final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance.
Although some people have fitted larger wheels we would restrict ourselves to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss CX5 options in more detail with our CX5 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Mazda 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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