Tuning the PSA EB

"Tuning the PSA EB engine."

We examine the options for your EB tuning and provide tips on the greatest upgrades. PSA EBs make a good tuning project and with the optimum sports tuning mods you can dramatically enhance your driving enjoyment.

The 3 cylinder EB engine offered clean burning engines with a good level of power whilst still retaining reliability.

We rely on our visitors to pass on tips and tell us about their projects and what worked on their car, and this article is the culmination of the feedback we have received. First let us look at the history and specs of this engine and then consider which tuning modifications work best on it.

History of the EB Engine

The PureTech engine from PSa was available in a number of configurations and won the best engine in the 1.0 to 1.4 category in 2015:

• EB0 — 1.0 L (988.9 cc) Euro 5 50 kW
• EB2 — 1.2 L (1,199.9 cc) Euro 6 61 kW
• EB2DT — 1.2 L (1,199.9 cc) turbo Euro 6 81 kW
• EB2DTS — 1.2 L (1,199.9 cc) turbo Euro 6 96 kW
• EB2ADTS — 1.2 L (1,199.9 cc) turbo Euro 6 100 kW
• EB2ADTX — 1.2 L (1,199.9 cc) turbo Euro 6 115 kW

What are the most effective EB engine upgrades

The ultimate modifications on an engine are in our opinion the ones that give the biggest return for your cash.

We won't be swayed by popular EB modifications, they need to be cost effective.

Altering your EB camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the torque accordingly.

Fast road camshafts tend to increase the performance over the rev band, you could sacrifice a little low down torque but the higher rpm power will be lifted.

Competition camshafts, increase the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

For a daily driver should ideally to optimize your bhp range to your typical driving style.

I'd be amazed if you have found a Motorsport cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Some EB engines respond better to less aggressive cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the power gains you'll achieve.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the power band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Please watch our introduction Video tutorial to car tuning. Be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Modifying to Stage 1:

 Panel air filters, Sports exhaust manifold, Remaps, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, .

Modifying to Stage 2:

 high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, .

Modifying to Stage 3:

 Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting, .

Remaps should help to release the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your EB.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and 15% on NASP engines, but you mileage will vary depending on the tuning parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

Pushing air and fuel into the EB engine is vital to any engine upgrade job.

Intake take the air from the filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders.

Structure and flow characteristics of the Intake can make a big difference to to fuel engine efficiency on the EB.

I usually find headers are in desperate need of aftermarket parts, although some manufacturers provide fairly well optimized headers.

Larger EB valves, doing some port work and head flowing will also boost bhp, the fantastic side effect is it will give you an improved bhp increase on other parts.

EB turbo upgrades - which are best?

The more air to get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your EB

If the engine has a turbocharger upgrades are simpler to install and we find turbocharged engines are built using harder and stronger components.

There are common areas of failure for every engine, with some being extremely strong and some only able to handle stock power

We recommend you find these limits and install higher quality components to survive the power.

We've seen car owners spending a loads on turbo upgrades on the EB only to have the whole thing explode on it's first outing after it's completed.

Large upgraded turbos will usually suffer low end lag, and little turbos spool up really quickly but won't have the top end torque gains.

In the last 10 years the world of turbos is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbos, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust gases into two channels and flow these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there's a limitation in the air flow sensor MAP/MAF/AFM on these engines when loads more air is being pulled into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although more difficult to setup. We have a twincharger performance adding guide if you want to read more.

Fuelling

Don't forget to improve the fuel delivery when you are increasing the bhp and torque - it makes the car more thirsty. Most tuners we speak with say to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and gives you some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

EB Exhaust

You may need to improve your exhaust if the existing exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll find your flow rate quite well even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but do not go too wide or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the catalyst installed, so adding a faster flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weakspots and problem areas on the EB

The EB engines are generally reliable and solid as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Regular oil changes are vital on the EB, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

The idle control valve can fail causing erratic idling, but a replacement fixes this.

For more information on Tuning your PSA engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss EB tuning options in more detail with our EB owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased PSA 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 parts 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 Citroen, Peugeot. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.

Check out TorqueCars new YouTube channel, and see their awesome new content...