Skoda Octavia Tuning

"A serious condender from the Vag group."

The Octavia offers an exeptionally good value route to some of the best VAG engines around. The 1.8T, 2.0T and the modern 1.8TFSi are imminently tunable. We have seen power gains on these engines taking power up in excess of 300bhp!

The vRS is a real stormer of a car and shows what the tuning potential is on the Octavia. Do not overlook the diesels either, the VAG diesel units with a simple remap leave most modern petrol engines standing.

Improving the handling should be your first priority in your Octavia tuning project. We would go to a maximum drop of 40 mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Turning our attention to the Octavias 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. Look to Audi, VW and Seat for suitable donors.

Skoda Octavia Tuning modifications.

Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains as far as a bolt on part goes (second only to a remap/boost controler on the Turbo models). You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling.

You can get a more snappy acceleration by fitting a fuel pressure boost valve. 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.

Skoda Octavia Intake and Exhaust.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit. On small engines you will actually lose low down power so we suggest you use a panel air fitler instead. Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find - the best for power gains are usually between 1.7 to 2.0 inches (depending on the engine).

When you start tuning your Octavia you will find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. Turbo engines are just begging to be custom remapped.You will see big power gains on most turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective modifications.

Adding forced induction will see big power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective (an engine swap is usually cheaper, and certainly easier). Turbos are harder to add than supercharger because the turbos  boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it hard to map.

The nice steady boost to rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation. TorqueCars members report that you could bolt on an Eaton supercharger at low boost without too much of a headache.

Skoda Octavia Wheel modifications.

Because alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. Another plus is that you can fit larger brake discs under the larger alloys. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Octavia is that you alter your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance. Although some people have gone larger we would stick to a 17.5 inch rim size as the maximum with ultra low profile tyres.

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