MENUTuning the Nissan 240SX
"Tuning guide to the most effective Nissan 240SX modifications."
In other regions the 240SX was badged as the 180SX 200SX and s13 just to cause confusion! The pop up headlights are peculiar to this model but we have seen an S13 front end on the S14 and S15.
We review 240SX tuning and summarise the premier modifications. Nissan 240SXs are awesome to work on and with the optimum uprated mods you can dramatically enhance your driving enjoyment.
The 240SX is a awesome car tuning project to have. With the right mods your 240SX 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
Handling modifications are the thing most do first for the 240SX.
Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you 240SX usually enhancing your drive.
We suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 26mm - 40 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.
Top end power should be your overall aim on the 240SX 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.
The following performance mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.
Engine choices ranged from 1.8 to 2.4
Getting the best modified modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don'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:
Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 26mm - 40 mm.), Remap, Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels.
Modifying to Stage 2:
Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Engine balancing.
You really need to keep as much low end power as possible and aim to achieve a long power band rather than a narrow top end power spike.
The point of our pointers is to give a limited introduction of car tuning modifications 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 sport parts and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam usually works out as one of the best NASP power modifications you can do mechanically to your engine.
The exhaust and intake valve durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully realise your gains.
When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to 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 Nissan project after fitting other parts. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate 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.
Air induction kits only help to boost power if your cars air intake is restricted!
Adding an induction kit to most stock engines will see NO LOW END 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.
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.
Do not go with the largest exhaust you can find this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.
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. When you heavily modify your 240SX you will see that the standard clutch starts to suffer so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we would do for your 240SX 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. Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than turbos.
It is harder to map a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with rpm.
It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the compression ratio of the engine .
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Because alloy wheels are less heavy they improve performance and they can help to cool the brake disks.
If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a soft compound tire. Large 240SX alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.
Because of this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 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 240SX options in more detail with our 240SX owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Nissan 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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