Mitsubishi Lancer Tuning

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The Lancer is a good tuning project to have. Plan ahead and research Lancer tuning to avoid making the usual costly errors we typically come across.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for people often first priority in your Lancer tuning project.

We found that most Lancer factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, around 1.5, and a tiny bit of negative camber will substantially enhance your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 27mm - 35 mm. on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Our aim in engine tuning should be to increase peak torque at the top end.

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 mods.

The following tuning mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

Getting the right uprated parts for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts 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 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, Suspension upgrade (drop 27mm - 35 mm.), Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Sports exhaust.

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

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

You really need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a wide power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power spike.

In this article we shall give your a good starting base to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance part.A fast road camshaft will be one of the best NASP power mods you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

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

Most power losses, and erratic idling after tuning parts are done can usually be traced to timing or fuelling 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 Lancer's 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 massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction.

For most Lancer engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of supplying cold air.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get this will slow the exhaust 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 the head gas flowed will further help more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a pro with a flow bench. When you start tuning your Lancer you will usally see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods that we recommend for your Lancer are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give big power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twincharging applications and making some impressively high power gains.

The most phenomenal power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with revs.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is directly proportional to engine speed so is easier to map. Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than steel ones. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good track legal slick tire can really enhance your cars handling. Large Lancer alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Although some people have installed larger rims without problems we would stick to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.

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

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