Tuning the MG MG3

"Thank you for reading our MG MG3 tuning tips."

The MG3 is a great car modification project to do. The key to MG3 tuning is getting the right mods - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

Here we examine the options for your MG3 tuning and highlight the best upgrades. MG MG3 are popular tuning projects and with carefully picked modified tuning mods like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically maximize your driving enjoyment.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many MG3 owners uprate the handling of their cars with coilover suspension parts as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Good suspension tweaks that radically improve handling for the MG3 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe in or out on the front wheels. Toe in for stability, or Toe out to improve cornering. It would also pay to improve the brakes, by adding larger discs and or higher friction pads..

We suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 26mm - 39 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Our aim in MG3 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Engine tuning mods.

These are the modified mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

Getting the right motorsport upgrades for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 26mm - 39 mm.), Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Remap, Alloy wheels.

Modifying to Stage 2:

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

Modifying to Stage 3:

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

Your targets when modding the engine should be a nice flat torque band. You want to avoid sending all the torque to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

The point of our tips is to give a limited introduction of customizing modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best modified mods and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road camshaft usually proves to be one of the best NASP power mods you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

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 remap. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sport 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.

Using high octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your MG project after fitting other motorsport modifications. Increasing the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up.  Contrary to popular belief there is generally very little power gain obtained by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you boost the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Derestricting the air feed into the engine is a primary goal of car tuners so get a better flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound great but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not do much to increase power and often rob you of power on most cars.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

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. When you heavily modify your MG3 you will see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your MG3 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Remaps offer phenomenal power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a chipped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Alternatively you could install water injection to cut down knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are generally lighter than the steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a soft compound tire. Large MG3 alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Although some people have gone larger than this without issues we would restrict ourselves to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss MG3 options in more detail with our MG3 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased MG 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 MG. 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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