Alfa Romeo 156 Tuning

"Italian Flair at its best."

Probably one of the most distinctive cars to come out of the Alfa Romeo stable.

The 156 is a superb Alfa with a loyal dedicated fan base. There are plenty of performance tuners out there (if you know where to look).

With the right mods you can turn the 156 is a real stormer of a car. Power levels are limited only by your imagination and your budget.

To improve handling on older models, we suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 30-35mm and fitting sporty bushings will tighten up the cornering and handling. Larger drops than 35mm will usually require arch work or the fitting of much stiffer shocks- especially on models already equipped with sports suspension.

Turning our attention to the 156s engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end. A fast road cam will be one of the best power mod you can do mechanically to your engine but there are plenty of internal mods that can be done and supercharger kits really hike up the power. (You'll need pretty deep pockets to convert the engine to forced induction though.)

Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power above 40%. Tuning  makes the car more thirsty as more power requires more fuel (and air of course). Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

The following modifications are usually performed by our members on the 156, but we suggest you decide how far you want to go and what your budget is before you begin.

Getting the right mods for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your 156

1. Lightened Flywheels - a lower mass flywheel will significantly improve the engines ability to rev freely. But not always not a great upgrade for all 156 engines.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but ideally be setup by someone familiar with setting them up on your car and some cams are hard to find but there might be a local firm to regrind a stock cam for you.
3. Brake Upgrades - Improve your 156's stopping power ought to be listed in your priority list.
4. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.
5. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase your intakes air supply, ensuring you are able to utilize more fuel and make better power figures. It is one of the most technically difficult upgrades it offers big gains.
6. Intake and Exhaust Upgrades - Be aware on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they enable you to lift power after other modifications by losing a restriction.
7. Tunes - A tune/remap provides the most power for the money, aftermarket ECUs, and Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
8. 156 Suspension Tuning - Replacing worn bushings and shocks greatly enhances your 156 road holding and cornering. Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods

156 Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Exhaust, Panel air filter, Engine Tunes/Remapping, lighter flywheel

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, ported and polished head, fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades,

Typical stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), competition cam.

The Engines used in the 156 varied but included the following.

Alfa Romeo 156 Induction kits and sports Exhausts.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Induction kits work well on turbo engines and larger engines, for the smaller 156 engines you should go with a sports panel air filter. Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches.

When you start tuning your 156 you will find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The larger v6 engines respond quite well to tighter timing and are certainly under stretched in standard form.

The largest power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with engine speed. It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the compression ratio of the engine.

156 Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many 156 owners uprate the handling of their cars with modified suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We should say Alfa Romeo did a fine job on the 156, but as they age there is more scope for improvement and I've found this to be the case on all the 156's I've driven and played with.

Many people believe that a big drop in the order of 80mm lower from a boy racer style 156 suspension kit from a modified car part shop would be optimal. However, this is not the case - suspension design and setup is quite complex.

Spring rates and bushings are the areas to focus on, rather than going for a massive drop.

We would go to a maximum drop of 23 - 39 on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Upgrades to the 156's suspension and handling

One of the most popular reasons for tweaking your 156 suspension is to better its handling. In spite of this, we often witness the same mistakes over and over again.

Coilovers allow you to lower or raise the car and this allows you to tweak your cars handling.

What considerations must you make when setting up and selecting your suspension if your 156 serves as a daily car as well?

Upgrading your Bushes

Enhancements to the bushings: Things you need to know

Bushings, which are rubber mounts, allow the 156's suspension components to be connected with the car's chassis. The rubber ones will wear out over time.

Installing new OEM rubber bushings may dramatically improve the performance of your car.

Because polyurethane bushings are stiffer, the ride may be rougher, but the bushings will last longer and maintain the car's handling over a longer time.

They may also quicken the depreciation of other suspension components due to the increased vibration and play.

A new set of polyeyurothane bushes will help to lessen the excessive play associated with rubber bushes but the rubber ones have been carefully designed so are hard to beat in practical terms with poly versions on this car.

Vendors may assert that their 156 suspension kits are compatible with any or all of the 156 model years and engine types. But to adequately support a diverse variety of vehicles, the "compromized" approach is obviously a mistake as engine weights and equipment trim levels all affect the cars handling characteristics.

How low should you go on the 156?

When it comes to road vehicles, the maximum suspension drop is 23 - 39 mm, but when it comes to hot hatchbacks with lower OEM suspension, the maximum suspension drop is 20 mm, according to TorqueCars.

These tolerances may be drastically reduced if the wheel size is changed. Even with 17" wheels and stock suspension, lowering the vehicle might result in lots of issues.

Stability may be improved by lowering the 156, but the ultimate goal should always be to enhance handling. It is critical to use the right shocks when employing lower springs.

If you set the toe out to 0.8 to 1.3 degrees on the front, and add slight negative camber then cornering will greatly improve.

For greatly enhanced stopping you should get better high friction brake pads and mate this with meatier brake discs.

Please note that race pads can be noisier and will need to be really hot before they start to work.

On a road car the brakes are occasionally used so will not be effective so specify friction pads which don't need to be really hot.

Alfa Romeo 156 Wheel modifications.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than the steel ones. Large 156 alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. Aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases we do not recommend going above 18 inches.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the 156 options in more detail with our 156 owners. It would also be worth reading our Alfa Romeo tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Alfa Romeo. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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