MENUKia Carens Tuning
Tuning the Kia Carens and best Carens performance parts.
We examine in depth Kia Carens tuning projects and outline the optimum modifications. Kia Carens' make awesome project cars and with a few sensible sports upgrades you can dramatically enhance your driving enjoyment.
The Carens is a good car tuning project to play with. With the right mods your Carens can be transformed into an awesome motor.
Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade so you don't waste your money.
Many Carens owners uprate the handling of their cars with suspension parts as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.
We suggest that you fit modified suspension and lower the car by 30-35mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.
Turning our attention to the Carens engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.
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.
Tuning modifications.
These mods uprated upgrades are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.
Getting the best modified parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.
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 Engine Mods for your car
- Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings, aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
- Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
- Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
- Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
- Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.
Typical stage 1 mods often include:
Remap,Sports exhaust,Alloy wheels,Panel air filter,Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm),Lighter flywheel.
Typical stage 2 mods often include:
Fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades,Power clutch,Fast road cam,Ported and polished head,.
Typical stage 3 mods often include:
Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger),Sports gearbox,Competition cam,Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves),Engine balancing.
Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a daily driven car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.
The whole aim of our advice is to give a little insight into the world of tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best modified parts and all aspects of modding cars.
A fast road cam is widely accepted as one of the best NASP power mods you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.
It maximizes the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap.
We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.
Using high octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Kia project after fitting other sports upgrades.
Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Carens uprated injectors.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is usually a small power gain to be had 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!
For most Carens engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter.
On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of supplying cold air.
Sports exhausts can usually air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too big or you could very well end up with a reduced flow rate. So generally speaking, keep to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.
Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains.
A good heavy duty fast road performance clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or expect the standard OEM clutch to cope.
NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story.
A tuned/remapped turbo will give phenomenal power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine.
We've also seen some tuners playing with twincharged applications and making some very high power gains.
The most significant power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction.
Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it harder to map.
It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is directly proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engines compression ratio .
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually less heavy than steel ones. Large Carens alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.
Although some people have installed larger rims without issues we would stick to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum.
If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our car forums where you can discuss Carens options in more detail with our Carens owners.
It would also be worth reading our unbiased Kia tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love hearing about our website visitors projects, especially the mods done and which work best for you on your car. Which helps us keep our guides and tips up to date helping others with their modified car projects. Your feedback and comments are used to keep this page up to date, and help improve the accuracy of these articles which are kept updated and constantly revised.
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