MENUDaewoo Lacetti Tuning
"Something laced with power!"
The Lacetti is a good Astra alternative from Daewoo. It can be rewarding to drive and surprises a lot of people. The capable chassis is crying out for more power though so we'll take you through the best engine mods and then we'll look at some handling mods to help you create the perfect car.
Tuning the Daewoo Lacetti and best Lacetti performance parts can be hard to track down so we'll discuss some general tuning mods and things you can do yourself to your car or with some professional help to maximise your power and cornering abilities.
We really want our visitors to avoid the common pitfalls and tuning myths out there so we've written our unbiased tuning guides giving a realistic opinion of the gains on offer for each type of mod and performance part.
Handling/Suspension upgrades
Handling modifications are top of many to do lists for the Lacetti.
We found that most Lacetti factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, (0.8 to 1.3) and a little negative camber will usually benefit your cornering and handling.
We would go to a maximum drop of 29mm - 39 mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.
Top end power should be your overall aim on the Lacetti with a nice fat peak torque band.
The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.
Engine tuning mods.
These mods are usually performed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get going.
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 as it makes the car 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
- 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,Lighter flywheel,Panel air filter,Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).
Typical stage 2 mods often include:
Power clutch,Fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades,Ported and polished head,Fast road cam,.
Typical stage 3 mods often include:
Engine balancing,Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger),Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves),Competition cam,Sports gearbox.
Your goal when tuning the engine should be a nice flat torque curve. You want to avoid sending all the torque to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motorsport car. The aim of this article is to give a little insight into the world of car tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your project and all aspects of modding cars.
The intake and exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully release the power gain.When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to the fuelling.
More power needs more fuel. Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Daewoo project after fitting other mods. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Lacettis uprated injectors.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is usually very little power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only work well 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 increase the flow of air through the engine. But if the exhaust is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of your flow rate and end up losing power and torque.
Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional head porting and polishing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. A good multi plate fast road upgraded clutch will help to keep that power going where it should.
Never make false economies 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.
The most impressive power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it more challenging to map. Superchargers, however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. Large Lacetti alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.
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 Lacetti options in more detail with our Lacetti owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Daewoo tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
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