Free tuning mods.

obi_waynne

obi_waynne

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Deal, Kent UK
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A3 1.4 TFSI 150 COD
Ok so money is getting tight.

What FREE tuning mods do you recommend? (We can also count trips to the breakers yard for cheap parts in this but the aim is to get some tuning tips that do not cost a lot of money to do.

1) Smoothing out your airbox will improve induction flow into the engine.
2) Make your own high flow panel air filter, Take a standard paper filter, cut out the paper, wrap a layer of boiled hessian (which shrinks) and then wrap round some fine cotton, perhaps an old shirt a few times and hey presto, a high flow DIY Air filter! Just make sure it is securely wrapped round the last thing you want is for the engine to suck in the fabric you have used, perhaps a layer of chicken wire will keep it all in place.
3) Drill out holes in the bottom of your air box and fit some ducting to channel cold air to it.
4) Remove the spare wheel to save weight!;)

Can you think of any others?
 
3 and 4 mate spring into my mind

if you have an induction kit, take out the air box, including the part of it that sits down behind the bumper, all it does is add weight and restrict air flow, take it out

spare wheel is a handy thing to have, but what i have instead is a bottle of puncture repair, big weight differance there

1 that ive done in the civic type r was adjust the distribater cap so the revs are above 1000 rpm, not 800 rpm while ideling, it drinks more juice, but its wicked quick from the line, its like a little boast advantage over other cars

unfortunatly this cant be done to some cars as they have an automatic way to find their own revs, my prelude no matter what way i put on the cap, it just levels out to 800 rpm
 
Is this just performance mods or mods in general?
Painting a few things to colour code it to the body is cheap and very simple to do. Also removing the badges is a free mod. All you really need is a hair dryer. Just don't heat the paint up too much.
 
Or fitting the 1.1 badge to a 2.2 and go and amaze everyone at how well you've tuned your 1.1.

This, incidentally, is much cheaper than an engine swap and achieves exactly the same goal.

And you don't even have to tell your insurer.
 
HDI ... lawl.. I thought about putting a 1.2 badge on whatever my next car is, just for a laugh :)



FREE mod...

Remember to make sure that your accelerator cable (if you have one) can fully open the 'butterfly' when the accelerator pedal is all the way down. Mine was only doing 75% until the other month ;)
 
Mine's a drive by wire arrangement but you can get significant gains by clearing all the crap out of the car. Not, as some think, because of the reduced weight, but simply because you can get the pedal down further without the obligatory coke can obstructing its travel :)
 
Lol @ HDI

and yes you are correct Jeff :)

Get somebody to push the accelerator all the way down with the car off, and get somebody else to look under the bonnet and make sure that the throttle cable is pulling the 'thingy' :embarrest: all the way down :)
 
Another thing to check on the throttle cable is that there is no slack when the pedal is fully depressed. You do not have to remove anything to check this on most cars.
 
It probably is pretty clean. My Primera used to walk through emissions tests even at 160,000 miles with original cat, lambda and exhaust system in place.

And I mean CO output of less than 0.005% (the lowest that can be recorded is 0.01%.

It was driven pretty enthusiastically throughout its time in my care. As such it makes a good case for using a car properly.

(And it's still going now - current owner has 224,000 on the clock with no reported issues)
 
Keep the windows wound up to reduce drag.
Make sure the tyres are the right pressure for acceleration, braking and steering.
Keep the car clean for aerodynamics/weight depending on how much dirt your car can carry.
Cut the air conditioning compressor belt or if you're feeling handy remove the heavy compressor altogether. Admittedly a lot of modern compressors have clutches on them so there's less loss when its not switched on though.
Remove (most of) the seats.
Only buy a little bit of fuel at a time to save weight.
Buy a higher octane fuel and advance/retard the timing. Mostly just for a laugh and to make you think you've done some engine tuning.
Carb/injection cleaner. And trust me the more expensive it is the more gains you'll make yourself believe you've achieved. Like go faster stripes, but subtler.
I've probably got loads more of these - I should write a book!
 
Two that come to mind,

1] By-pass the coolant feed to the TB.

2] Fabricate a Cold Air Duct or Intake for your stock airbox that can feed cooler air from around the headlight or intake grill as opposed to air that is heated under the bonnet (hood).
 
Bottle of Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 to revive and protect your paintwork, only £17 for the bottle from your local well known chain of car stores and works an absolute treat! Then go down the scrappy and buy replacement trim for your car (assuming you have black plastic bumpers and side trim like mine), primer them and paint them gloss black. If it looks naff, it hasn't cost you much to try. If you get it right, it looks the bomb, guess what I'll be doing at some point this summer?
 
Clean the inside of the car thoroughly. This is effective as a means of weight reduction.

More importantly though, you can utilise the full travel of the accelerator pedal when it's not impeded by pizza boxes, squashed coke cans etc. :)
 
1 lag the exuast to get the gasses too travle faster
2 lose the 2nd piston ring/ less friction and weight lol
3 for every 100 deg's drop in air box temp will give aroung 10% power increse so plum your spare freezer in the back on the car and run a pipe the the air box. will do some thing to mine along these lines but not a whole one.
4 heilum in the tyers make the car lighter lol
5 a good insolator between inlet manufold and head ( inlet side cold exuast side hot as poss
 
Munday said:
And definatly not sure about 3). For the added weight and complexity you will see the square root of feck all gain :lol:
Click to expand...
yes but the fringe benifits is some were to keep all the beer
 
nig said:
yes but the fringe benifits is some were to keep all the beer
Click to expand...

I've got a couple of fridges at home for that purpose. Now, my car has a tow bracket fitted with full electrics. So all I need is some castors for one of the fridges and a 230 VAC inverter. ANd perhaps some castors for the woodie so that I can feed visitors to the local TQ meet. Much easier than digging up my lawn.

Easy :) :)
 
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