Explore F16D3 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Vauxhall F16D3

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Vauxhall F16D3 engine!"

Popular tuning sites like TorqueCars are frequently seeing threads about how to improve the F16D3 from people inquiring about getting more power from the F16D3 and wanting to know what are the optimum F16D3 upgrades. So let us look into Vauxhall F16D3 mods and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

The Vauxhall F16D3 make a good tuning project and with the best tuning upgrades like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will greatly improve your driving experience.

Car Tuning Tips will look into F16D3 tuning and outline the greatest modifications for your car.

When talking about the ultimate parts for your F16D3 engine, we are going to focus on the parts that give the best power gain for you spend.

Improving air intake on the F16D3

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 a lack of air it runs rich losing 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 Pulling air and fuel into the F16D3 engine is the aim to any engine performance tuning project.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the F16D3 when considerably more air is being sucked into the engine.

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

Intake headers transmit the air from the intake filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

The size of bore and shape and flow rate of the Plenum can make a large change to fuel atomisation on the F16D3.

Commonly we find the intake manifold are crying out for an upgrade, although a few car makers provide reasonably good intake manifold.

Adding a F16D3 larger valve kit, getting port work and head flowing will also improve bhp and torque, and importantly will raise potential for a better bhp and torque increase on other modifications.

F16D3 performance cam tips.

Some F16D3 engines respond better to less aggressive cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and injectors and fuel pump also have an effect on the power gains you'll make.

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.

Altering your F16D3 cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine power band. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the power band accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams tend to boost the power throughout the rev range, you might lose a little bottom end torque but the higher rpm power will be better.

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

A Competition camshaft is not great driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally match your torque band to your usage of the car so for a car used daily stick with a mild fast road F16D3 camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the F16D3

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 F16D3 parts:

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

Stage 2 F16D3 parts:

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

Stage 3 F16D3 parts:

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

A remap allows a tuner to fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your F16D3.

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 the outcome will depend much on the parts you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the F16D3

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 F16D3.

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

If an engine has a turbocharger upgrades are giving better power gains and we find turbocharged engines already contain harder and stronger components.

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

Research these restrictions and install more solid crank and pistons to handle the power.

It's not unheard of car owners spending a lots of money on turbo upgrades on the F16D3 only to experience the engine block literally blow up just after it's used on the roads.

Large capacity turbos tend to experience low end lag, and low capacity turbos spool up really quickly but don't have the top end torque gains.

Thanks to progress the world of turbochargers is always moving on and we commonly find variable vane turbochargers, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and feed these at differently profiled vanes in the turbocharger. They also improve 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 difficult to setup. We have this guide to twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the F16D3

When you improve the torque you will need to uprate to the fuel system.

More torque needs more fuel. It is important to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and allows some 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 F16D3 performance exhaust upgrades

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

On most factory exhausts you'll see the exhaust flow rate is 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 balance the flow of air through the engine.

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

Usual exhaust restrictions can be located the filters installed, so adding a higher flowing sports 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 F16D3

Like most engines an F16D3, 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 F16D3, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned F16D3 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 F16D3 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about F16D3 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their F16D3.

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