All you need to know about "F14D3 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Chevrolet F14D3

"Comprehensive guide to tuning and performance parts on the Chevrolet F14D3 engine!"

Forums like the one at TorqueCars often are getting emails asking how to improve the F14D3 from people inquiring about getting more power from the F14D3 and wanting to know what are the things tuners recommend when it comes to F14D3 mods that work.

So let us look into Chevrolet F14D3 parts and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

Here we review and look at F14D3 tuning and report on the greatest upgrades. Chevrolet F14D3 are awesome to work on and with a few sensible sports mods like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will increase your driving enjoyment.

Just because particular upgrades are are common on F14D3 it doesn't mean it is good, we will concentrate on the best upgrades that will give your F14D3 the best power gain for you money.

Without us subscribing to the mentality of 'if it's shiny and makes more noise it must be good' you seem to get in many tuning magazines and on car forums'.

Improving air intake on the F14D3

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is too little fuel then it will run lean, if there is too little air it runs rich resulting in lost power . We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Feeding fuel and air into the F14D3 engine is the aim to any engine modification task.

It is not unusual that there's a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the F14D3 when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

When tuning you may well find you need to get an air sensor or flow meter capable of upto 4 bars to cope with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Engine intake manifolds carry the air from the filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The shape and rate of flow of the Headers can make a substantial improvement to fuel mixing and power on the F14D3.

We often see intake manifold are in desperate need of motorsport parts, although a few manufacturers provide well optimised intake manifold.

Larger F14D3 valves, getting F14D3 port enlargement and head flowing will also increase bhp, and as an added benefit will raise potential for raising the bhp increase on other tuning mods.

F14D3 performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to mild cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also have a large bearing on the power gains you'll achieve.

Altering valve 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.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large torque gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly increase the torque across the rpm range, you may sacrifice a little bottom end power but the top end will be lifted.

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

A Motorsport camshaft won't do well if driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally optimize your engines power to your driving style so for a road car stick with a shorter duration F14D3 camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the F14D3

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 F14D3 parts:

Drilled & smoothed airbox, Panel air filters, Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Fast road camshaft, Remaps/piggy back ECU.

Stage 2 F14D3 parts:

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

Stage 3 F14D3 parts:

Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves).

ECU mapping will help to establish the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your F14D3.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but power output will depend much on the upgrades you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the F14D3

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the F14D3.

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

If your motor is fitted with a turbo upgrades are simpler to install and turbocharged engines are built with better components.

However engines will need better parts at higher power limits

See where you'll find these restrictions and install higher quality components to cope with the power.

There are many guys spending a lots of money on turbo charger upgrades on the F14D3 only to have the motor explode when it's finished.

Larger capacity turbo units commonly suffer no power at low rpm, and little turbo units spool up really quickly but won't have the top end engines power gains.

Over the last 20 years the market of turbo units is always evolving and we are seeing variable vane turbo units, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large bhp gains, although more difficult to get working. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the F14D3

When you lift the bhp you will need to look at to the fuel system.

More bhp needs more fuel. Most tuners we speak with say to over specify your injector capacity.

As a rule of thumb add 20% to the flow rate when specifying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and gives a little spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended F14D3 performance exhaust upgrades

You only need to to replace your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the flow rate is still good even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts equal out the flow of gases through the engine.

But if the exhaust pipe is too large, ie: over two and a half inches diameter, you will lose much of your flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalysts installed, so adding a freer flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Decats (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the F14D3

Like most engines an F14D3, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the F14D3, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned F14D3 this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your F14D3 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about F14D3 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their F14D3.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: Chevrolet, engine
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