Modifying and improving: "F4R Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Renault F4R

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Renault F4R engine!"

Sites like TorqueCars often are getting messages requesting info on how to improve the F4R from people wanting to know what are the things tuners recommend when it comes to F4R modifications. So let us look into Renault F4R parts and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

This pages aim is examine the options for your F4R tuning and show the best modifications. Renault F4R great bases for a tuning project and with carefully chosen performance parts like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will greatly increase your driving opportunities.

Just because particular tuning parts are appear in lots of F4R projects it doesn't mean its worth having, we shall focus on the ultimate tuning parts that will give your F4R the best value for money to power increase.

Without us subscribing to the misaprehension 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 F4R

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

So the whole point to any engine tuning task to shove more fuel and air into the F4R engine but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

You'll commonly see there's a restriction in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the F4R when a lot more air is being fed into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped bhp and torque at a much lower level.

The intake plenum flow the during the engines suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The shape and flow rate of the Headers can make a substantial improvement to fuel atomisation on the F4R.

I usually find intake are needing a performance upgrade, although some makers provide fairly well optimized intake.

Fitting big valve kits, doing some port matching and head flowing will also lift bhp, the fantastic side effect is it will allow you to get increasing the bhp increase on other mods.

F4R performance cam tips.

Different F4R engines respond better to mild camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ECU mapping and injectors and fuel pump also will say much on the power gains you'll achieve.

Longer 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.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the F4R can be made from camshaft upgrades. Changing the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts normally boost the torque throughout the rpm range, you could drop a little low down torque but higher rpm power will be better.

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

For a car driven daily you must carefully try to match your power band to your preferences.

I would be surprised if you have ever thought a F4R Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when in heavy traffic.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the F4R

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 F4R parts:

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

Stage 2 F4R parts:

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

Stage 3 F4R parts:

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

Remaps should help to fully realize the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your F4R.

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 your mileage will differs on the upgrades you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the F4R

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 F4R.

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.

When your car is fitted with a turbo parts are going to net you a larger power gain and most turbo charged engines use stronger components.

However engines have weakspots

See where you'll find these restrictions and install higher quality crank and pistons to utilize the power.

We see many people spending a a stack of money on turbo upgrades on the F4R only to see the whole thing literally blow up when it's been enthusiastically driven.

Big turbo chargers tend to experience no power at low rpm, and smaller turbo chargers spool up more quickly but don't have the peak end torque gains.

We are pleased that the world of turbo units is always improving and we now see variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and push these at differently profiled 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 challenging to setup. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the F4R

Don't omit to uprate the fuel delivery when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. Don't forget to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

The rule of thumb is to add 15% to the flow rate when fitting an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and gives a bit of 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 F4R performance exhaust upgrades

You should look to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is 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.

Note that with the widest exhaust you can buy you'll slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalysts installed, so adding a better flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the F4R

Like most engines an F4R, 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 F4R, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned F4R 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 F4R why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about F4R tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their F4R.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

We want to know your experiences with tuning mods on your F4R, it helps us improve our tips and keeps us current so please use the comments box to drop a tip.

This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, Renault
You can leave a response below or join our 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...