Ford Scorpio Tuning

"Scorpio - theres a sting in its tail."

Probably one of the most controversially styled Ford cars in a long while. The Scorpio was aimed at the luxury executive market. Most models have an impressive level of equipment and options with leather seats and lots of gadgets.

The Cosworth powered Scorpio was very nimble despite it's size and this will be the perfect model to base your tuning project on.

See our video which provides a complete introduction to Ford Tuning, it contains some tips on performance and handling modifications.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

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

Adding slight negative camber at the front wheels and around 1 to 1.7 degrees of toe in to improve stability or toe out for better cornering, will substantially enhance your Scorpio in handling and cornering.

We suggest that you fit performance suspension and lower the car by 27mm - 37 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

Turning our attention to the Scorpios engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

To be completely frank and honest, on the more modest engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap to a 2.9 or similar and then apply the following mods.

Scorpio Tuning modifications.

The following mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

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 Scorpio

1. Remaps - Scorpio engine tuning/remapping offers the biggest gains in terms of cost, aftermarket ECU upgrades, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
2. Braking Mods - Improve your ability to stop ought to be listed in your priority list.
3. Turbo upgrades - A New Turbo is the most dramatic method to increase air supply, ensuring you are able to combust more fuel and make power gains. Although one of the most technically difficult mods it does provide the largest gains.
4. Scorpio Suspension Tuning - Upgrading your suspension radically improves your Scorpio handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.
6. Fast road cams are are often the best upgrade for an engine, but TorqueCars recommend they be fitted by someone competent and they are not always easy to source but you'll probably find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
7. Intake Upgrades and Exhaust - Be aware on their own these mods will NOT ADD HP in most applications, but they permit you to enhance power after other modifications by freeing up a restriction.
8. Low mass flywheel - a reduced weight flywheel will enhance the engines ability to rev freely. Not always suitable for all Scorpio engines.

Scorpio Tuning Stages

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

Typical stage 2 mods: 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.

Scorpio Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many Scorpio owners uprate the handling of their cars with sports suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 27 - 35 and fit uprated stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Upgrades to the Scorpio's suspension and handling

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

We would choose a set of Adjustable Coilovers that provide an opportunity for you to set a ride hight to suit your driving style and cars usage

One of the most popular reasons for modifying your Scorpio suspension is to improve its cornering. However, we see the same mistakes often repeated again and over.

Improvements to the bushings

Bushing mods are needed so what's involved?

It is possible to connect the Scorpio's suspension components to the chassis of the Scorpio using poly bushes, which are drop in replacements for the rubber mounts. The rubber ones usually deteriorate with time and need replacing anyway so why not upgrade.

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

Because the polyurethane bushes are firmer, the ride may be a bit bumpier, but they will last longer and maintain the handling.

Worn bushes may also accelerate the degradation of other suspension components due to the increased vibration and play.

With a new set of poly bushes, the excessive play associated with rubber bushings may be lessened.

You may struggle to find a full set of polyeyurothane bushings, but most regions have the primary mounts available. Custom polyeyurothane bushes are often made to your requirements.

How low should you go on the Scorpio?

According to TorqueCars research and testing, the maximum amount of suspension drop for most road vehicles is 27 - 35 millimetres, whereas versions that come with lowered sporty suspension already have a maximum suspension drop of 17 millimetres.

Tolerances may be greatly reduced by altering the diameter of the wheels. Lowering a vehicle, even with 17-inch wheels and stock suspension, will create several complications.

While the fact that the Scorpio being lower allows for less air to travel underneath it may aid in stability, the ultimate goal should always be to enhance handling. When lowering the springs, it is critical to use the proper shocks that match all round.

If you set the toe out to 1 to 2 degrees on the front, and add some negative camber then cornering will greatly be enhanced.

Scorpio Brake Mods

For radically enhanced braking you should get better performance pads and combine this with better brake discs.

As a word of warning please note that some performance brake pads will be noisy and will need a lot of heat before they are effective.

Fitting a set of Fast road cams will offer one of the biggest performance gains as far as a bolt on Scorpio part goes. You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.

A fuel pressure boost valve will make the car more responsive and respond better. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. When increasing your fuelling you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Scorpio Intake and Exhaust.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is often a small power gain got by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

gas flowing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can seriously let you down as you increase the power if it starts to suffer and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 43%.

Fit an uprated clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods we would do for your Scorpio are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Remaps offer phenomenal power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NA (naturally aspirated) engines the benefits are doubtful. However a tuned/remapped ECU on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost builds exponentially with revs.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Scorpio Wheel modifications.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than the steel ones. It is worth noting that although they can look cool on the Scorpio Big alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower you top speed will be due to the change in your effective 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 17 inches.

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

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 Ford. 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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