Everything You Need To Know About "E16SE Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Vauxhall E16SE

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Vauxhall E16SE engine!"

Popular tuning sites like TorqueCars often are getting emails requesting information on how to improve the E16SE from people inquiring about getting more power from the E16SE and wanting to know what are the optimum E16SE power upgrades. So let us look into Vauxhall E16SE parts and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

Therefore we review E16SE tuning and outline the ultimate modifications for your car. Vauxhall E16SE offer good returns when tuned and with carefully picked modified parts like ECU maps, turbo kits and camshafts you will really maximise your driving enjoyment.

When talking about the top parts for your E16SE engine, we are going to concentrate on the tuning parts that give the best power gain for you spend.

Improving air intake on the E16SE

You need air and 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 resulting in lost 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 fundamental goal to any car tuning job to push fuel and air into the E16SE engine but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

You'll commonly see there is a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the E16SE when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

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

Intake headers transmit the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

Shape and flow rate of the Headers can make a big improvement to fuel atomisation on the E16SE.

On popular production engines intake manifold are needing a performance upgrade, although a few car makers provide reasonably well designed intake manifold.

Increasing the E16SE valve size, getting port work and head flowing will also lift performance, and importantly will allow you to get an improved performance increase on other upgrades.

E16SE performance cam tips.

Different E16SE engines respond better to extreme camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

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

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the torque 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 E16SE camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine bhp. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the bhp accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams commonly boost the bhp and torque across the rpm band, you may sacrifice a little low end power but your high end rpm power will be better.

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

In a car used daily you should ideally to match your engines power to your typical driving style.

I'd never have ever thought a E16SE Motorsport and race camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the E16SE

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 E16SE parts:

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

Stage 2 E16SE parts:

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

Stage 3 E16SE parts:

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

ECU mapping helps fully realize the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your E16SE.

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 usually depend much on the tuning mods you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the E16SE

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 E16SE.

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

If an engine has a turbo already fitted upgrades are simpler to install and turbo charged engines are made using stronger components.

There are practical limits for every engine, with some being very over engineered and some only just able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these restrictions and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to cope with the power.

It's not unheard of drivers spending a loads on turbo charger upgrades on the E16SE only to have the engine explode on it's first outing after it's been enthusiastically driven.

Larger capacity turbo chargers commonly experience low end lag, and little turbo chargers spool up really quickly but won't have the top end torque gains.

In the last 10 years the range of turbo chargers is always improving and we are seeing variable vane turbo chargers, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

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

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large power gains, although harder to get working. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the E16SE

Don't overlook the need to boost the fuel delivery when you are increasing the performance - it makes the car more thirsty. It makes sense to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add another 20% when buying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and allows you some 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 E16SE performance exhaust upgrades

Only look to replace your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your exhaust is actually causing a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the 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.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get you'll reduce 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 come around the catalysts installed, so adding a freer flowing race 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 E16SE

Like most engines an E16SE, 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 E16SE, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned E16SE 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 E16SE why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about E16SE tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their E16SE.

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