Ford Falcon Tuning

"Tuning guide to the greatest Ford Falcon modifications."

The Falcon is a awesome tuning project to try. Think carefully and research Falcon tuning to avoid making the usual costly mistakes we hear about.

The Falcon name has had a long production run in North America and Australia, with a few revisions and adjustments starting out in 1960.

The early cars were very different to the later ones, and for information we are focusing on the more recent Australian versions prior to 2016, although some of these tuning tips will work well on previous models.

Herein we review Falcon tuning and show the optimum modifications. Ford Falcon are fantastic to work on and with carefully picked performance parts like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically enhance your driving fun.

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

Top end power should be your overall aim on the Falcon with a nice fat peak torque band.

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.

Tuning modifications.

The following performance kits are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get started.

5th Generation (1988–1998)

• EA Falcon
• EB Falcon
• ED Falcon
• EF Falcon
• EL Falcon

6th Generation (1998–2010)

• AU falcon EA169
• BA Falcon
• BF Falcon

Seventh generation (2008–2016)

• FG Falcon
• FG X

Getting the correct grade of uprated upgrade kits 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 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 mods for your Falcon

1. Brake Upgrades - Improve your ability to stop needs to be somewhere in your mods list.
2. Lighter flywheels - a reduced weight flywheel will noticably improve the engines ability to rev freely. Not not a great upgrade for all Falcon engines.
3. Flowing and porting the Head - Head work will get air flowing into the engine while removing turbulence or restrictions.
4. Remaps - Falcon engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of your investment, aftermarket ECU upgrades, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
5. Falcon Suspension - Replacing worn bushings and shocks dramatically improves Falcon handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
6. Air Induction kits and Performance Exhausts - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER for most setups, but they permit you to enhance power after other modifications by freeing up a restriction.
7. Turbo upgrades - A New Turbo is the most efficient approach to increase your intakes air supply, which permits you to utilize more fuel and make power gains. It is one of the most expensive modifications it offers big gains.
8. Fast road cams are are often the best upgrade for an engine, but we strongly suggest they be fitted by someone qualified to set them up properly and tracking one down can be a challenge but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock cam .

Falcon Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 25mm - 36 mm.), Engine Tunes/Remapping, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel.

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

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

Peak power is good on competition cars but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The point of our guides is to give a little insight into the world of car tuning mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best modified parts and all aspects of modding cars.

Falcon Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many Falcon owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension upgrades as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Good suspension tweaks that usually enhance handling for the Falcon include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe (set out to improve cornering or in for better stability) on the front wheels.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 25mm - 36 mm. and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

One of the most popular reasons for uprating your Falcon suspension is to improve its roadholding. However, we see the same issues repeated repeated again and over.

Improvements to the bushings

Enhancements to the bushings: Things you need to know

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

New OEM rubber bushes may have a major impact on the performance of your vehicle.

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

They may also speed up the decay of other suspension parts due to the increased vibration and play.

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

Some poly bushings are hard to locate, but most will find the primary mounts readily available in their regions You may be able to have custom poly bushes created to suit your needs.

Brake Upgrade Mods

For sharper enhanced stopping put better quality pads and match this with better brake discs.

We should point out that motorsport brake pads will be noisy and will need to be hot before they are effective.

On a road car the brakes are only used rarely and won't be as effective at slowing you up so source friction pads which don't need to be really hot.

Fast Road Camshafts

One of the best mechanical upgrades you can do to your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The intake and exhaust durations play a huge factor 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 reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

Don't forget to pay attention to the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you suffer from flat spots and surges after your tuning mods you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Larger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Falcon's uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust.  Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car with over 30 percent more power and are finding that the standard air intake has become limited.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for Falcon engines you should go with a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Head work including a gas flow (ported and polished) and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. When you heavily modify your Falcon you will usally see that the standard clutch starts to fail so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your Falcon are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Turbo engines are just crying out to be remapped. You will see phenomenal power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and phenomenal modifications for your money.

We've also seen some tuners toying with twin charging applications and making some very high power gains.

The most impressive power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. It is more challenging to map a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with revs.

The nice correlating boost and 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.

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. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a track legal slick tire. The downside to large alloys on your Falcon is that you're altering your final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance.

For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18inches, 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 friendly forum where you can discuss Falcon options in more detail with our Falcon owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Ford tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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