Holden Commodore Tuning

"Thank you for reading my Commodore tuning guide"

We have seen some awesome Commodore tuning projects and there seems to be quite a loyal fan base of Commodore owners. Think carefully and research Commodore tuning to avoid making the usual common mistakes we often .

Many Commodore owners uprate the handling of their cars with sports suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car. Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 35mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Top end power should be your overall aim on the Commodore 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.

Engine tuning mods.

Typically these tuning mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the right sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road 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

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: Alloy wheels, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel.

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

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

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

The point of our pointers is to give a limited introduction of tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best tuning upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.One of the best mechanical modified modifications you can do on your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road cam .

It improves the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

If you find you experience flat spots and power surges after your sports kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Commodores uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction. 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 generally help improve air flow through the engine but do not go too large or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional gas flowing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. Your clutch can lose you loads of power if it starts to suffer and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit an upgraded clutch to avoid power leak through the transmission. Turbo engines are just crying out to be Remapped. You will see big power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and big modifications for your money.The most significant power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are often easier to add than a turbo. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is simpler to map a supercharger because the boost is directly proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and better brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Commodore is that you're altering your final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on performance.

Due to this fact endeavour to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases not going over 16 inches.

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 Commodore options in more detail with our Commodore owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Holden tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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