The Lowdown on "Tritec Engine Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Mini Tritec Engine

"Comprehensive guide to performance tuning the Mini Tritec Engine engine!"

Forums like the one at TorqueCars are frequently getting emails requesting info on how to improve the Tritec Engine from people wanting to know what are the things tuners are recommending when it comes to Tritec Engine upgrades. So let us look into Mini Tritec Engine parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

This pages aim is review and look at Tritec Engine tuning and outline the ultimate modifications for your car. Mini Tritec Engine are popular engines and with a few sensible uprated enhancements like remapping, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will positively maximise your driving fun.

Just because particular mods are appear in lots of Tritec Engine projects it doesn't mean you should fit it, so we'll concentrate on the optimum mods that will give your Tritec Engine the best value for money to power increase.

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 Tritec Engine

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is not enough fuel then it will run lean, if there is insufficient air it runs rich losing power which risks damage to the Tritec Engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So the goal to any engine tuning project to feed air and fuel into the Tritec Engine engine but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is not unusual that there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the Tritec Engine when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

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

The intake plenum carry the during the engines suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

The bore size, shape and flow characteristics of the air Intake manifold can make a large improvement to fuel atomisation on the Tritec Engine.

We often see plenum chambers are begging for an upgrade, although some makers provide reasonably good plenum chambers.

Larger Tritec Engine valves, doing some port work and head flowing will also boost torque, & more importantly will afford you a better torque increase on other tuning parts.

Tritec Engine performance cam tips.

Some Tritec Engine engines respond better to less aggressive camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

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

A longer valve duration can alter the bhp 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.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the Tritec Engine can be made from cam upgrades. Changing the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the torque and power output.

NB: Fast road cams commonly bump the performance across the rev range, you could sacrifice a little low end torque but the higher rpm power will improve.

Race cams, bump the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Race camshaft makes it harder when in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your power band to your usage of the car so for a road car stick with a mild fast road Tritec Engine camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the Tritec Engine

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 Tritec Engine parts:

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

Stage 2 Tritec Engine parts:

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

Stage 3 Tritec Engine parts:

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

Remaps allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your Tritec Engine.

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 figures achieved usually vary depending on the tuning parts you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the Tritec Engine

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 Tritec Engine.

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

When an engine has a turbo already fitted parts are going to net you a larger power gain and most turbo charged engines are built using better components.

There are common areas of failure for every engine, with some being over specified and some just sufficiently able to handle stock power

It is important to find these limitations and install better quality components to survive the power.

We see many people spending a loads of money on turbo upgrades on the Tritec Engine only to suffer the indignity of watching the car literally blow up on it's first outing after it's been completed.

Bigger turbos will usually suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbos spool up quickly but do not have the high rpm bhp gains.

Thankfully the market of turbo chargers is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbo chargers, where the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and push these at differently profiled vanes in the turbocharger. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large torque gains, although more challenging to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the Tritec Engine

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so must increase the fuelling when you start going beyond 20% of a performance hike. We would recommend you to over specify your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and provides a little spare capacity should the engine need 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 Tritec Engine performance exhaust upgrades

You may need to replace your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is actually creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is still ok 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 will certainly help air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches for best results.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a higher flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the Tritec Engine

Like most engines an Tritec Engine, 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 Tritec Engine, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned Tritec Engine 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 Tritec Engine why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about Tritec Engine tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their Tritec Engine.

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