Proton Campro Tuning

"All you need to know about performance parts and tuning the Proton Campro engine!"

TorqueCars will outline options for your Campro tuning and point out the best modifications.

Proton Campro make awesome project engines and with a few sensible modifications like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will positively enhance your driving pleasure.

An all new engine design for the Proton range, developed alongside Lotus.

By focusing on one block, Proton were able to develop the cam, intake and valve timing systems and have proved they are capable of making a good engine.

History, Power & Specs of the Engine

• S4PH 1.6L 110hp 109lbft
• S4PE 1.3L 94 hp 89 lbft
• CamPro CPS (Triple cam lobe design) 1.6 138 hp 151 lbft
• CamPro IAFM variable-length intake manifold
  1.3 98hp 83lbft
  1.6 109hp 111lbft
• CamPro CFE turbocharged 138 bhp 151 lbft
• Campro VVT engine Variable valve timing
  1.3 94 bhp 89 lbft
  1.6 107 bhp 111 lbft 

Best Campro parts

Just because particular upgrades are popular with Campro owners it doesn't mean its worth having, instead we will recommend only what we regard as the greatest upgrades that will give your Campro the best power gain for you money.

Early campro engines have a flat spot at the low end, with a cam profile and piggy back ecu it is possible to smooth this right out and create a pretty neat engine setup.

The camshaft profile plays a big part in the engines power output so camshaft upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake and exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large bhp gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

Fast road camshafts tend to bump the power across the rpm band, you may lose a little low end bhp but high end rpm power will be better.

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

A Motorsport cam makes it harder when in heavy traffic because low end power will be very lumpy. Competition cams are designed for maximum power at the top end of the RPM range, a place that most daily commutes will not permit!

You should ideally match your engines power to your usage of the car so for a road car stick with a shorter duration Campro cam

Some Campro engines respond better to mild cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuelling also have an effect on the power gains you'll get.

A longer valve duration 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, Panel air filters, drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust header/manifold, Fast road camshaft, Intake manifolds.

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

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

A remap will help fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've fitted to your Campro.

(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 figures achieved usually vary depending on the parts you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Pulling more air into the Campro engine is the whole point to any engine upgrade task.

The intake plenum carry the air from the filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders.

Shape and flow rate of the Intake manifolds can make a substantial improvement to fuel delivery on the Campro.

Most intake manifold are in desperate need of aftermarket parts, although some manufacturers provide reasonably good intake manifold.

Fitting big valve kits, doing a bit of Campro port enlargement and head flowing will also lift power, and importantly will afford you a better power increase on other parts.

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 Campro

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.

When the engine is fitted with a turbocharger tuning mods are giving better power gains and you'll see that turbo engines are made using harder and stronger components.

However you'll find engines have weakspots

See where you'll find these limits and fit stronger pistons, crank and engine components to utilize the power.

We've seen drivers spending a a stack of money on turbo charger upgrades on the Campro only to see the engine go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's been finished.

Larger turbos commonly suffer a bottom end lag, and small turbos spool up quickly but don't have the peak end bhp gains.

Over the last 20 years the selection of turbo units is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbo units, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into a couple of channels and direct these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on these engines when a lot 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 sapped bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp gains, although more challenging to install. We have a twincharger bhp adding guide if you want to read more.

Fuelling

Don't miss you'll need to ramp up the fuelling when you are increasing the bhp and torque - it makes the car more thirsty. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add another 20% when specifying an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and allows you some spare capacity should the engine require 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.

All the following flywheel power targets will assume an injector duty cycle of 80% and a base of 58psi of fuel pressure at idle.

• 4 Cylinder turbocharged engines
• 58 PSI 340cc/min 200hp

• 4 Cylinder NA (naturally aspirated) engines
• 58 PSI 285cc/min 200hp
• 4 Cylinder supercharged engines
• 58 PSI 312cc/min 200hp

Exhaust

You only need to uprate your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll find your 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 help balance the flow of gases through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions are traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a freer flowing sports alternative is the answer. This keeps the car road legal and will flow much better due to it's higher internal surface area and design, so has the added benefit of keeping your car road legal. The alternative decat should be considered an off road only mod, as removing a catalyst is illegal in most territories and regions for road registered cars..

Weak spots Issues & problem areas on the

The 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 , 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 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our 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 Proton. 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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