Toledo Tuning

"Toledo Tuning"

The Toledo started life back in 1991 being one of the first VAG designed cars. It shared a similar platform to the MK2 Golf and has a very practical boot. Many complain about the lack of rear leg room, but that is not something that bother the typical TorqueCars member who concentrate on sitting in the drivers seat.

The Toledo also enjoys pan European success and is particularly popular in Spain and France. Perhaps VAG saw it as a way to reach new markets and the car certainly has a Euro Chic of its own.

The choice MK1 Toledo model for a tuning project has to be the 146 bhp 2.0 16valve engine in the guise of the GTi.

Other engine sizes seem underpowered so many TorqueCars members will recommend an engine swap to the 2.0 16valve or for the more adventurous a VR6 or more modern 1.8T engine conversion.

The later versions using the TFSi turbo are stunning units with plenty of tuning parts around for them, including turbo upgrades, and remaps.

The Toledo, based on the Mk2 Golf offers a lot of potential to the enthusiastic tuner.

Due to the abundance of parts and tuners for the VAG group you will not have too much trouble sourcing suitable high performance parts. Body styling parts are somewhat thin on the ground though. So what should your priority modifications be?

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 then apply the following mods.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and performance parts are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.

Getting the right modified upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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

  1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  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.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: high flow fuel injector, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Engine balancing, Competition cam, Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

You should keep as much low end torque as you can and aim for a wide power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.

The whole aim of our articles is to give a little insight into the world of customizing mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best sport upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.One of the biggest mechanical motorsport upgrades you can do on your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The exhaust and intake durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to ramp up the fuelling.

Using higher octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your SEAT project after fitting other kits. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction.

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 generally help improve 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 the head flowed (ported and polished) will assist in flowing more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a pro with a flow bench. When you tune up your Toledo you will usally see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we recommend for your Toledo are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

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 massive power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Superchargers are often easier to add than turbos. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it harder to map.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. Alternatively you could fit water injection to cut down knock.

Seat Toledo Wheel modifications.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Large Toledo 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 17 inches.

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

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