Suzuki Jimny Tuning

"Tuning guide to the best Suzuki Jimny modifications."

The Suzuki Jimny, a compact yet rugged 4x4 SUV, embodies a spirit of adventure and versatility.

With a history dating back to the 1970s, the Jimny has earned a reputation for its off-road prowess, compact dimensions, and unmistakable boxy design.

It's a true embodiment of the phrase "small but mighty," designed to navigate challenging terrains with confidence while also being well-suited for urban environments.

Whether traversing rocky trails or navigating city streets, the Suzuki Jimny's blend of charm, capability, and nostalgia makes it a standout option for those who value both adventure and practicality in a unique package.

The Jimny is a good car modification project to play with. With the right mods your Jimny can be transformed into a fun car. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade to avoid wasting money.

The car was easy to work on, very practical and offered  a rugged go anywhere appearance so it's no surprise it has sold over 2.9 million units worldwide.

The Jimny wore many different badges depending on the region including.

• Santana Samurai
• Suzuki Caribian
• Suzuki SJ410
• Suzuki SJ413
• Suzuki Farm Worker 4x4 (Not street legal in NZ)
• Suzuki Samurai
• Suzuki Santana
• Suzuki Sierra
• Suzuki Katana
• Suzuki Potohar
• Suzuki Fox

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for lots of DIY modders first priority in your Jimny tuning project.

If you set the toe out to 1 to 2 degrees on the front, and add a tiny bit of negative camber then cornering will greatly improve.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 23mm - 38 mm. and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more torque out of the top end.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

These mods tuning kits are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you begin.

• 539 cc LJ50 2-stroke I3
• 547 cc F5A I3
• 657 cc F6A I3
• 658 cc K6A I3
• 970 cc F10A I4
• 1298 cc G13BA/G13BB I4
• 1324 cc G13A I4
• 1905 cc XUD 9 TD i4 (Santana)

Getting the right sports upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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, Sports exhaust, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 23mm - 38 mm.), Panel air filter.

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

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

Peak power is all well and good but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a brief overview 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 part.One of the best mechanical tuning parts you can do to your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The exhaust and intake valve durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a tune/remap for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to uprate to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Most power losses, and erratic idling after performance mods are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues. Improving the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If have increased 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. Air induction kits only help to boost power if the air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most low power engines will see ZERO LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Derestricting the air flow into the engine is a primary goal of car tuners so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound fun but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not add noticeable power and actually rob you of power.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too big or you could very well end up with a reduced flow rate. So generally speaking, keep to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional flowed (porting and polishing). These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. Your clutch can lose you loads of power as the power goes up if it starts to slip and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 48%. Fit a sports clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods that we recommend for your Jimny are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Remaps offer phenomenal power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NA (naturally aspirated) engines the benefits are doubtful. However a tuned/remapped ECU on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

The nice correlating boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them more straightforward to map. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Due to the fact that alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice. track legal slick tires work well on Jimny, and make a big difference over budget tires. Please note although they can look cool on the Jimny large alloys will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases we do not recommend going larger than 16 inches. Unusually for us we'd also recommend wheel spacers to push the wheels out a little and help with stability, as these were prone to roll quite easily.

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 Jimny options in more detail with our Jimny owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Suzuki 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 Suzuki. 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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