Ssangyong Tivoli Tuning

"Thank you for reading my Tivoli tuning tips"

We review and look at Tivoli tuning and summarise the greatest modifications. Ssangyong Tivolis provide a fun base for your project and with the best sports modifications you can enhance your driving experience.

The Tivoli is marketed as a subcompact SUV and if you read backwards, the name reads I love it! Actually it was named after the Italian town of the same name

The Tivoli is the first car to be produced by Ssanyong under the new Mahindra ownership, the Tivoli made quite an impression and a new version was unveiled in 2019.

The Tivoli is a good car tuning project to try. The key to Tivoli tuning is finding the right mods you can waste loads of money if you do it wrong.

There were 2 petrol engines and a diesel engine option on the Tivoli.

• 1.5 L e-XGi150T T-GDI I4 (petrol)
• 1.6 L e-XGi160 i4 (petrol)
• 1.6 L e-XDi160 I4-T (diesel)

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for most drivers, is rated as a top priority mod in your Tivoli tuning project.

Putting some negative camber at the front wheels and a degree or two of toe in to improve stability or toe out for better cornering, will radically benefit your Tivoli in handling and cornering.

We would go to a maximum drop of 22mm - 37 mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

A nice wide torque band and sweet spot of peak power at one third of your RPM range is optimum.

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 mods.

Typically these modified modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.

Getting the best uprated parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. 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. Mapping - 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: Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Alloy wheels, Remap, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter.

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

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

Your aim when tuning should be a flat and wide torque band. You don't want all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

The point of our tips is to give a brief overview of customizing modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best performance modifications and all aspects of modding cars.One of the most cost effective mechanical performance upgrades you can do on your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road cam .

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sport 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.

Using high octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Ssangyong project after fitting other motorsport mods. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is usually very little power gain got by fitting an induction kit, they only become beneficial and are recommended after you boos the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you could very well end up with a reduced flow rate. So generally speaking, keep to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

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 tune up your Tivoli you will discover that the standard clutch starts to suffer so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our experience for your Tivoli are a remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intakeTurbo engines are just asking to be Upgraded. You will see impressive power gains on most modern turbo charged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and impressive modifications for your money.

We've also seen some tuners playing with twin charging applications and making some very high power gains.

Adding forced induction will see massive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is often easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with revs.

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 alloy wheels include reducing your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire. Large Tivoli alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Due to this fact try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases avoid going bigger than 17 inches.

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

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This article was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under SsangYong. 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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