Mitsubishi Outlander Tuning

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We review Outlander tuning and outline the premier modifications. Mitsubishi Outlanders make awesome project cars and with the right modifications you can greatly increase your driving pleasure.

The Outlander is a brilliant car tuning project to have. The key to Outlander tuning is finding the right mods - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

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

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you Outlander dramatically enhancing your drive.

We suggest that you fit motorsport suspension and lower the car by 25mm - 43 mm for best handling on road surfaces. Bear in mind the Outlander was build as an off road style SUV, so rather than drop it we see most people jacking it up even higher to maximize the ground clearance.

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

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.

The following upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the right uprated upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades 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: Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 25mm - 43 mm.), Engine Tunes/Remapping, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter.

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

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

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a limited introduction to the best mods for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.A fast road cam is one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.

The intake & exhaust flow play a major role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a tune/remap to fully release the power gain.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to pay attention to the fuelling.

If you find you have flat spots and power surges after your performance parts you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Improved 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 Outlander'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 with over 30 percent more power and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for Outlander engines you should just fit a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust is too large, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a great deal of the flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Head work including a polish and port and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. When you start tuning your Outlander you will find that the standard clutch starts to slip so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your Outlander are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

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 significant power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. It is usually cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to fit a working turbo. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with rpm.

Superchargers however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is easier to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engine compression ratio .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Get a good directional tread pattern tire to improve your handling and help improve traction on your Outlander.

The drawback to large alloys on your Outlander is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio so this will have a negative effect on performance.

With this in mind we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 19 inches, although we know some of our members have with bigger wheels with no problems.

We would stick with 17 or 18 inch rims, and add some chunky off road tyres, this would give a good ride and help stabilise the handling over rough surfaces.

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 Outlander options in more detail with our Outlander 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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