Daewoo S-Tec Tuning

"All you need to know about performance parts and tuning the Daewoo S-Tec engine!"

The Daewoo S-Tec are awesome to work on and with the optimum sports mods like remapping, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will enhance your driving opportunities.

Here we provide a guide to S-Tec tuning and point out the premier modifications for your car.

History, Power & Specs of the Engine

The S-Tec is a collaborative engine from Suzuki and Daewoo (now part of GM) and was fitted to the Tico, Fino Matiz Kalos and Kwid.

S-TEC

0.8 L

(796 cc) 36 kW (49 PS 48hp @6000 rpm 71.5Nm 52.7 lbft @4000 rpm

1.0 L

(995 cc) 48.5 kW (66 PS 65hp @5400 rpm 91Nm 67 lbft @4200 rpm

1.2 L

(1,150 cc) 53 kW (72 PS 71hp @5400 rpm 104Nm 77 lbft @4400 rpm

S-TEC-II

Used in the Aveo Sail and Beat or Spark models

1.0 L

(995 cc) 50 kW (68 PS 67hp @6400 rpm 93Nm 69 lbft @4800 rpm

LMU

62 kW (84 PS; 83hp @6000 rpm 114Nm 84 lbft @3800-4400 rpm

LMH

60 kW (82 PS; 80hp @6400 rpm 111Nm 82 lbft @4800 rpm

80.5 PS 59.2 kW 79.4hp @6200 rpm 108Nm 80 lbft @4400 rpm (Gasoline)

80.04 PS 58.87 kW; 78.95hp @6400 rpm (LPG) 104 Nm (77 lbft)
@4400 rpm (LPG)

LL0

62.66 kW (85 PS; 84hp @6400 rpm 112.05Nm (82.64 lbft @6400 rpm

S-TEC III

LCU

1.4 L (1,399 cc) 76 kW (103 PS; 102hp @6000 rpm 131Nm (97 lbft @4200 rpm

L2B

1.5 L (1,485 cc) 85 kW (116 PS; 114hp @6000 rpm 144Nm (106 lbft @3800 rpm

LJO

1.5 L (1,451 cc) T 110 kW (150 PS; 148hp @5500 rpm 230Nm (170 lbft
@2000-3800 rpm

Use in the second generation Chevrolet Sail

Tuning the Daewoo S-Tec and best S-Tec performance parts.

Best S-Tec tuning mods

Just because particular parts are are common on S-Tec it doesn't mean you should fit it, we shall our attention and tuning advice focus on the parts and upgrades that will give your S-Tec the best value for money to power increase.

Significant gains on the S-Tec can be made from camshaft upgrades. Altering the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the torque and power output.

Fast road camshafts tend to raise the power through the rpm range, you may lose a little low end bhp but your high end rpm power will be higher.

Race camshafts, raise the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Race camshaft is not great in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your torque band to your typical driving style so for a typical daily driver stick with a shorter duration S-Tec camshaft

Different S-Tec engines respond better to different cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The map and fuelling also have a large bearing on the power gains you'll achieve.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the power band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

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: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust header/manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Intake manifolds, drilled & smoothed airbox.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Twin charging conversions, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam.

Remaps allows a tuner to fully realize the full potential of all the modifications you've fitted to your S-Tec.

(In some cases, as the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it setup properly.)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but the end result will differs on the modifications you've done and the condition of your engine.

Pulling air into your S-Tec is the aim to any engine upgrade project.

The intake plenum flow the air during the suck phase from the filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The bore size, shape and flow characteristics of the Plenum can make a substantial improvement to fuel atomisation on the S-Tec.

Commonly we find the manifolds are in desperate need of a performance upgrade, although some makers provide fairly well optimized headers.

Larger S-Tec valves, doing a bit of port work and head flowing will also raise bhp and torque, and as an added benefit will afford you a greater bhp and torque increase on other modifications.

Turbo upgrades

NA (naturally aspirated) engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your S-Tec

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes significant power gains.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor MAP/MAF/AFM on the S-Tec when loads more air is being sucked into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more difficult to setup. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Fuelling

When you boost the performance you will need to uprate to the fuel system.

More performance needs more fuel. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your injector capacity.

As a rule of thumb add 20% to the flow rate when specifying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and provides some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Exhaust

Only look to increase your exhaust if the existing exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the flow rate is fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow through the engine but do not go 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.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst installed, so adding a higher flowing performance catalyst removes the restriction. We note that performance cats perform similarly to decats and have the added benefit of keeping your car street legal, as decats or catalyst removal is illegal in most territories for road going cars.

Weak spots, Issues & problem areas on the S-Tec

The S-Tec engines are generally reliable and solid units, as long as you follow the manufacturers service schedules, and use a good quality oil to ensure longevity. Few problems should happen as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Carbon build up in the head, particularly around the valves which will sap power or create flat spots, this is a larger issue on direct injection engines but should be looked out for on all engines. We have tips on removing carbon build up.

Some of our members have had issues with flat spots or glitches after applying mods and upgrades or tuning, this is not usually related to this engines design, so instead see our article on diagnosing flat spots and problems after tuning which should help you get the bottom of this issue.

Regular oil changes are vital on the S-Tec, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your S-Tec engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our S-Tec owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Chevrolet, Daewoo, GM. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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