Kia XCeed Tuning

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Take one awesome Kia Ceed, extend the wheelbase by 85mm, and fit 16-18 inch alloys on tweaked suspension and you have a Crossover coupe that turns heads.

Revised bumpers and interior add the finishing touches, to make what we think is one of the best Kia's to date.

Even before the XCeed is released we are being asked about modifications, upgrades and tweaks so we'll keep this page updated with all the best mods as and when they become available.

The XCeed is a good car tuning project to have. If you do your planning then you can create an awesome XCeed but don't be fooled there are lots of sports kits out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are high on most peoples lists for the XCeed.

If you set the toe out to around 1.5 degrees on the front, and add a little negative camber then cornering will often benefit.

We would go to a maximum drop of 24mm - 36 mm on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

Top end power should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide 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.

Typically these uprated modifications are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the right performance upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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

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

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

The XCeed was released with the following engines, and all respond well to tuning.

• 1.0 T-GDi ISG (118 BHP)
• 1.4 T-GDi ISG (138 BHP)
• 1.6 CRDi ISG (114 BHP)
• 1.6 CRDi ISG (134 BHP)

You should keep as much low end torque as you can and aim to get a long power band rather than a narrow top end power spike.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance upgrade.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest power gains for your money as far as a solitary tuning parts goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to uprate to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Most power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after tuning modifications are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.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 XCeeds uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a limitation.

Derestricting the airflow into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound great but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not add noticeable power and often rob you of power on most cars.

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

Getting a professionally ported and polished head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. When you tune up your XCeed you will often find that the standard clutch starts to slip so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our experience for your XCeed are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

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

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twin charging conversions and making some very high power figures.

Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. 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 alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and better brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of track legal slick tire. Large XCeed 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 17-18 inches, although we know some of our members have installed the larger rims with no problems, we feel they ruin the fine ride of the XCeed.

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 XCeed options in more detail with our XCeed owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Kia 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 Kia. 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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