Modding and performance tuning parts for the Vauxhall Y22XE engine!

Explore Y22XE Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Vauxhall Y22XE

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Vauxhall Y22XE engine!"

Sites like TorqueCars are always getting emails asking how to improve the Y22XE from people wanting to know what are the things tuners recommend when it comes to Y22XE modifications. So let us look into Vauxhall Y22XE tuning mods and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

In this article we review and look at Y22XE tuning and show the optimum mods that work. Vauxhall Y22XE make awesome project engines and with the right performance upgrades like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will certainly increase your driving fun.

Just because particular upgrades are are common on Y22XE it doesn't mean you should fit it, we will concentrate on the best upgrades that will give your Y22XE 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'.

Y22XE induction kits

Improving air intake on the Y22XE

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 too little 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 Getting fuel and air into the Y22XE engine is vital to any engine modification project.

You'll commonly see there's a restriction in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the Y22XE when considerably more air is being drawn 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 sapped torque at a much lower level.

Intake manifolds take the air during the suck phase from the air cleaner and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Structure and flow characteristics of the air Intake manifold can make a noticeable difference to to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the Y22XE.

Commonly we find the intake manifold are needing aftermarket parts, although some manufacturers provide fairly well optimized intake manifold.

Fitting big valve kits, getting Y22XE port enlargement and head flowing will also improve bhp and torque, & importantly will allow you to get a greater bhp and torque increase on other tuning mods.

Y22XE performance cam tips.

Different Y22XE engines respond better to extreme cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The ecu map and fuelling also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll make.

Altering valve 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.

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

NB: Fast road cams commonly raise the performance across the rev band, you could drop a little bottom end bhp but top end will be lifted.

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

A Motorsport camshaft will just annoy you whilst driving in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your engines power to your cars usage so for a daily driver stick with a fast road Y22XE camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the Y22XE

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 Y22XE parts:

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

Tuning tips and articles Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Stage 2 Y22XE parts:

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

Stage 3 Y22XE parts:

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

Carefully think through your options and then find your parts and set yourself a power target to avoid wasting your time and money.

Remaps should help to release the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your Y22XE.

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 fitted and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the Y22XE

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 Y22XE.

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 motor is fitted with a turbocharger parts are relatively easy and most turbo charged engines will have many forged and stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only just able to handle stock power

It is important to find these limits and upgrade to higher quality crank and pistons to handle the power.

There are many people spending a lot of money on turbocharger upgrades on the Y22XE only to have the Y22XE literally blow up soon after it's finished.

Large turbos often suffer low end lag, and small turbos spool up much more quickly but do not have the high rpm torque gains.

Thanks to progress the range 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 two channels and push these at differently designed 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 bhp gains, although more complex to configure. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the Y22XE

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will have to pay attention to the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a power hike. We would recommend you to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% when specifying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and gives 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 Y22XE performance exhaust upgrades

You may need to improve your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the existing exhaust is actually creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is still fine 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 do not go too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches for best results.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalyst installed, so adding a better 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 Y22XE

Like most engines an Y22XE, 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 Y22XE, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned Y22XE 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 Y22XE why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about Y22XE tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their Y22XE.

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