Renault D4D - D4F Tuning

"All you need to know about tuning the Renault D4D - D4F engine!"

The Renault D4D - D4F provide a fun base for your project and with carefully picked tuning upgrades like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will definitely increase your driving opportunities.

In this article we examine D4D - D4F tuning and show the premier mods that work.

History, Power & Specs of the D4D - D4F Engine

The D series engine was designed to take up little space and a low height, it had a hemispherical cylinder head incorporating camshaft, and exhaust placement at the rear of the head.

D4F

D4F-702, D4F-712

16-valve SOHC  75 PS (55 kW; 74 hp) at 5500 rpm and 105 Nm (77 lbft) at 3500 rpm

D4F-722

Better intake & larger air filter box giving more mid range power (3500rpm to 4250 rpm)

D4F-740

Revised camshaft and valve lifters to allow lower idle.

Applications:

2000–present Renault Twingo
2001–2017 Renault Clio
2006–present Renault Symbol
2004–2012 Renault Modus/Grand Modus
2005–2011 Proton Savvy
2009–2016 Dacia Logan
2009–2016 Dacia Sandero

D4D  16V 1.0 L

Applications:

1997–2001 Renault Clio
1998 Renault Kangoo
2000 to 2001 Renault Twingo
2001 to 2005 Peugeot 206 in Brazil with motor 1.0
2000 to 2016 {Renault Clio, Renault Sandero and Renault Logan in Brazil with motor 1.0 Flex Fuel
2011 to 2015 Nissan March in Brazil (made in Mexico or made in Brazil) with motor 1.0 Flex Fuel

Tuning the Renault D4D - D4F and best D4D - D4F performance parts.

Best D4D - D4F parts

When talking about the best modifications for your D4D - D4F engine, we are going to concentrate on the mods that give the biggest return for your cash.

Significant gains on the D4D - D4F can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the power band and power output.

Fast road camshafts normally push up the torque over the rev range, you may sacrifice a little low end power but higher rpm power will be better.

Competition camshafts, push up the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

For a car used daily you need to optimize your power band to your usage of the car.

I'd be completely gobsmacked if you have found a D4D - D4F Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas. This is because a competition cam causes a very lumpy idle, and makes the car more prone to stall or jerk along in stop start traffic, sadly though many ignore this and end up ruining a perfectly good car and having to revert back to a fast road, or OEM cam profile.

Some D4D - D4F engines respond better to more aggressive cam durations than others.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the torque gains you'll get.

Altering valve durations can alter the torque 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 mods for your D4D D4F

1. Fast road Camshafts are generally the biggest mechanical mod upgrade, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they are doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
2. Intake and Exhaust - NB: on their own these mods won't ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
3. Tunes - A Remapped D4D D4F ECU provides the biggest gains compared to cost, replacement ECUs, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
4. Turbo upgrades - Adding a turbocharger is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. Although one of the most costly upgrades it offers big 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.

D4D D4F Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include:
Sports exhaust header/manifold, drilled & smoothed airbox, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Intake manifolds, Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters.

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

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

Remaps allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your D4D - D4F.

(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 power output often vary depending on the upgrades you've done and the condition of your engine.

Forcing fuel and air into your D4D - D4F is the aim to any engine upgrade project.

Air Intake manifolds flow the air during the suck phase from the air cleaner and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The size of bore and shape and rate of flow of the Intake manifold can make a substantial change to fuel mixing and power on the D4D - D4F.

We often see intake manifold are in desperate need of aftermarket parts, although a few car makers provide reasonably good intake manifold.

Increasing the D4D - D4F valve size, carrying out D4D - D4F port enlargement and head flowing will also boost torque, & more importantly will permit raising the torque increase on other tuning mods.

D4D - D4F 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 D4D - D4F

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes impressive power gains.

When a car is turbocharged, upgrades are relatively easy and you will discover turbo charged engines are made using many forged and stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being very over engineered and some just sufficiently able to handle stock powerResearch these limitations and upgrade to forged components to handle the power.

It's not unheard of car owners spending a lot of money on turbo upgrades on the D4D - D4F only to suffer the indignity of watching the engine block go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's been finished.

Large turbo chargers often suffer low end lag, and low capacity turbo chargers spool up quickly but don't have the peak end torque gains.

In recent times the range of turbo units is always improving and we are seeing variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and feed these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the D4D - D4F when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large power gains, although harder to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so should uprate the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a performance increase.It is important to be generous with your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add another 20% when buying an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and affords some spare capacity should the engine need 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.

D4D - D4F Performance Exhausts

Only look to uprate your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is still 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 balance the flow of air through the engine.

But if your exhaust is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a great deal of the flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the filters installed, so adding a faster 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 D4D - D4F

The D4D - D4F 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 D4D - D4F, 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 D4D - D4F engine please join us in our car forums where you can discuss D4D - D4F tuning options in more detail
with our D4D - D4F owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Renault tuning articles to get insights into each modification and how effective they will be for your car.

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