Modifying and improving: "2.0 Duratec Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Ford 2.0 Duratec

"Comprehensive guide to performance tuning the Ford 2.0 Duratec engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars are always seeing threads about how to improve the 2.0 Duratec from people inquiring about getting more power from the 2.0 Duratec and wanting to know what are the optimum 2.0 Duratec mods that work. So let us look into Ford 2.0 Duratec upgrades and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

This pages aim is examine 2.0 Duratec tuning and summarise the greatest modifications for your car. Ford 2.0 Duratec make awesome project engines and with carefully chosen modifications like ECU maps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will improve your driving enjoyment.

Just because particular parts are are common on 2.0 Duratec it doesn't mean its worth having, we shall focus on the ultimate parts that will give your 2.0 Duratec the best power gain for you spend.

Without us subscribing to the popular 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 2.0 Duratec

You need air and 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 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 the fundamental goal to any tuning job to feed more air and fuel into your 2.0 Duratec but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is not unusual that there is a limit in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the 2.0 Duratec when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

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

Intake manifolds flow the air from the intake filter and allow it to be fed into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Shape and flow characteristics of the air Intake manifold can make a big change to fuel delivery on the 2.0 Duratec .

It's not uncommon that intake headers are needing aftermarket tuning parts, although some OEM provide fairly well optimized intake headers.

Big valve conversions on the 2.0 Duratec , getting port matching and head flowing will also raise bhp, and more importantly will make space for increasing the bhp increase on other tuning parts.

2.0 Duratec performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to different cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The map and fuelling also have an effect on the torque gains you'll make.

Longer 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.

Altering your 2.0 Duratec cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine bhp. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the bhp accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts tend to bump the bhp across the rpm band, you might lose a little low end torque but the top end will improve.

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

On a car used daily you must carefully try to match your power band to your cars usage.

I would be surprised if you find a 2.0 Duratec Motorsport camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the 2.0 Duratec

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 2.0 Duratec parts:

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

Stage 2 2.0 Duratec parts:

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

Stage 3 2.0 Duratec parts:

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

Mapping should help to release the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your 2.0 Duratec .

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 power output usually rely on the tuning mods you've done and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the 2.0 Duratec

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 2.0 Duratec .

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 a car has a turbo already fitted upgrades are going to make more power and we find turbocharged engines use many forged and stronger components.

However you'll find engines will need better parts at higher power limits

It is important to find these limitations and install better quality crank and pistons to cope with the power.

We've seen car owners spending a lots of money on turbo upgrades on the 2.0 Duratec only to experience the car go up in smoke soon after it's first rolling road session.

Bigger upgraded turbo units tend to suffer low end lag, and little turbo units spool up much more quickly but don't have the peak rpm engines power gains.

Thanks to new tech the range of turbo chargers is always increasing and we are seeing variable vane turbo chargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and direct these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. 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 difficult to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the 2.0 Duratec

Don't omit to increase the fuel system when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty. It is important to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add another 20% when specifying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and allows 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 2.0 Duratec performance exhaust upgrades

You only need to to uprate your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your 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 can help increase the flow of air through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too large, ie: it's over two and a half inches diameter, you will lose a great deal of the flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a higher flowing sports 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 2.0 Duratec

Like most engines an 2.0 Duratec , 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 2.0 Duratec , failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned 2.0 Duratec 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 2.0 Duratec why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about 2.0 Duratec tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their 2.0 Duratec .

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