BMW X2 Tuning

"Thank you for reading my BMW X2 tuning guide."

The X2 is a good project car to have. If you do your homework then you can create an awesome X2 but don't be fooled there are lots of motorsport inspired mods out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

We look into X2 tuning and highlight the premier upgrades. BMW X2s are good project cars and with the best sports parts you can greatly enhance your driving experience.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

 

Our aim in X2 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.

X2 make good sleepers if you debadge them and fit the most powerful engine upgrades and handling upgrades you can source!

Sadly with smaller 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.

Power mods.

These mods sports mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.

  • 1.5 L B38 I3 turbo (petrol)
  • 2.0 L B48 I4 turbo (petrol)
  • 2.0 L B47 I4 turbo (diesel)

Getting the correct grade of motorsport parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

Stage 1 modifications: Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Panel air filter, Remap, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel.

Stage 2 modifications: high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades.

Stage 3 modifications: Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).

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

In this article we shall give a limited introduction to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance upgrade.One of the biggest mechanical upgrades you can do to your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .

It improves the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sport cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to look at the fuelling.

If you find you experience flat spots and power surges after your upgrades you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned X2s uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Induction kits will only help to boost power if the air intake is restricted! Adding an induction kit to most stock engines will see LITTLE 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.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for X2 engines you should go with a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can get this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Getting a professionally ported and polished head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. In nearly all cases of X2 tuning your clutch will start to suffer and this should be improved - read our tips on clutches for more information. The best mods in our experience for your X2 are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be flashed. 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 conversions and making some seriously high power gains.

The most phenomenal power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is generally simpler to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them more straightforward to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engines compression ratio .

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many X2 owners uprate the handling of their cars with fast road suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We found that most X2 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -, and slight negative camber will dramatically benefit your cornering and handling.

We suggest that you fit performance suspension and lower the car by 21mm - 39 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Due to the fact that alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they can help to cool the brake disks. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of soft compound tyre. Large X2 alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have installed larger rims with no problems.

There is a more updated version of this BMW X2 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss X2 options in more detail with our X2 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased BMW tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us to improve this article, we need your feedback in the comments box below which is there for you to pass on any tips, pointers or facts we might not have covered..

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which upgrades were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our EZ engine guides and tips are kept up to date and we remind our visitors of our non profit non commercial approach to running this site.

All comments received are used to improve the accuracy of our site and these articles which are continually amended, tweaked and updated.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

PLEASE HELP: I NEED YOUR DONATIONS TO COVER THE COSTS OF RUNNING THIS SITE AND KEEP IT RUNNING. I do not charge you to access this website and it saves most TorqueCars readers $100's each year - but we are NON PROFIT and not even covering our costs. To keep us running PLEASE Donate here

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.

Feedback - What do You Think?

Please use our forums if you wish to ask a tuning question, and please note we do not sell parts or services, we are just an online magazine.

Help us improve, leave a suggestion or tip

Your Constructive comments on this article, I really want to improve this article with your help and suggestions.


Please watch this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.



Member Benefits

Join our forum today and benefit from over 300,000 posts on tuning styling and friendly car banter.

You will also have full access to the modifed car gallery, project car updates and exclusive member only areas.

(All car owners of all ages and from all countries are welcome).