Monaro Tuning

"Turning a Monaro into a monster"

When you think muscle car we tend to think of big American cars like the Mustang and the Challenger. Australia have turned out a stunning muscle car and in the UK it is badged as a Vauxhall, elswhere in the world it is badged as the Holden and Pontiac. So which model are we talking about?

It has to be the Monaro, both well recieved and highly praised by the various media outlets we are starting to see some stunning tuned Monaros hitting the road. Vauxhall introduced the VXR but other tuning houses are offering remaps, reworked engines and superchargers.

Whatever version you have most owners will often ask if it is possible to get a little more power (or a lot if TorqueCars members are anything to go by!)

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for people often first priority in your Monaro tuning project.

If you set the toe out to degrees on the front, and add a bit of negative camber then cornering will dramatically be enhanced.

We would go to a maximum drop of 22mm - 35 mm on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

This is no feather weight car and it will respond very well to a program of weight reduction but we would suggest some suspension upgrades as well. Throw on some decent coil overs and make sure the bushings are in good condition.

You can drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 35mm and fit stiffer dampers (or better still get fully adjustable shocks). Set the rear damping to be less than the front and it will give the car a nice balanced cornering feel. With adjustable shocks you can play with the setup until you get it right.

Turning our attention to the Monaro's engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end raise the rev limit and maximise the full torque range as far as possible.

Vauxhall Monaro Tuning modifications.

Typically these performance upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

Getting the best sports mods for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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: Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Panel air filter, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel.

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

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

You really need to keep as much low end power as you can and aim for a wide power band rather than a top end spike. These are lazy toquey engines and need to be treated with respect.  One of the best mechanical mods you can do is to fit a fast road cam.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

The largest power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working on the Monaro.

With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it hard to map.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve.

Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection but we have seen forced induction set ups running at 10.5:1 compression ratio on the Monaro with no reported problems.

Vauxhall Monaro Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. On the Monaro engines (including supercharged and turbo models) an induction kit will help increase power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 2 to 2.5 inches.

Getting the head ported and polished will further help more air into each cylinder. This is definately a job for a professional with a flow bench.

Read our article on clutches for more information about high performance clutches and clutch problems. NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications although the Monaro responds well to some tighter timing parameters but the best gains come from internal engine modifications combined with a remap.

Vauxhall Monaro Wheel modifications.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down. Large Monaro alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio which kills your acceleration.

Aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases we do not recommend going above 18 inches without doing some extensive suspension realignment work.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our car forums where you can discuss Monaro options in more detail with our Monaro owners.

It would also be worth reading our unbiased Vauxhall 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 Vauxhall. 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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