Fiat 124 Spider Tuning

"Thank you for reading my Fiat 124 Spider tuning guide."

We examine 124 Spider tuning and summarise the ultimate modifications for your car. Fiat 124 Spiders provide a fun base for your project and with the optimum modified modifications you can definitely improve your driving opportunities.

The 124 Spider is actually a very credible roadster, we are surprised that more units of this little gem were not sold, but the dedicated following it has will ensure it lives on and thrives.

There are not many cars that we would call a future classic and Fiat have always had a sporty roadster, we fondly remember the X1/9 and the 124 spider will certainly become another future classic from the Fiat stable.

Fiat 124 Spiders are popular cars and with carefully picked motorsport inspired upgrades you can definitely enhance your driving pleasure.

The 124 Spider is a good tuning project to have. If you do your homework then you can create an awesome 124 Spider but don't be fooled there are lots of sports mods out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Tuning tips and articles

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

Turning our attention to the 124 Spider's engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

124 Spider make good sleepers if you debadge them and fit the most powerful engine upgrades and handling upgrades you can find!

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and modified mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the right performance parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Guide to the Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

  1. Mods that Remove a Restriction

    If the intake or exhaust are restricted in any way this will have an impact on your cars performance, so use an induction kit/filter upgrade and better flowing exhaust whenever your tuning creates a flow restriction.

  2. Mods that Improve Handling

    Braking, Suspension and general alignment of the suspension components is vital for any tuning project even before you start increasing power.

  3. Fit Stronger Parts

    Tuned cars will show up weaknesses, typically in the turbochargers, clutch and internal engine components. Whilst most engines can cope with mild tuning mods, TorqueCars recommend that you upgrade the internal components before these weak spots manifest themselves.

  4. ECU Tunes & Remapping

    While some cars can be easily remapped, others may require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project as it fully releases the power from all of your mods and upgrades. Expect 10-20% on NASP engines and 30-40% on turbocharged units.

  5. More Power Needs More Fuel & Air

    Every tuning project will aim to increase the air supply, but fuel supply is just as vital and will need to match the air the engine can utilise. Fuel to Air ratio is vital so upgrade the fuel pump & injectors. Also you can look to perform head mods (flowing and porting), bigger valves, fast road cams and forced induction upgrades to improve fuel.

Stages of Tune

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

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

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

Your goal when modding your car should be a wide torque output. You want to avoid sending all the torque to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.

The whole point of our pointers is to give a little insight into the world of car tuning upgrades 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 uprated modifications and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam proves to be one of the best NASP power mods you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. TorqueCars would 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 ramp up the fuelling.

Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Fiat project after fitting other tuning kits. Higher capacity injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned 124 Spiders uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Please note that WE DO NOT SEE IMPROVEMENTS WITH INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car with over 30 percent more power and are finding that the standard air intake has become limited.

For most 124 Spider engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow through the engine but do not go too large or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head work including a gas flow (ported and polished) and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. Your clutch can slip as the power goes up if it starts to fail and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 46%. Fit an upgraded clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods in our opinion for your 124 Spider are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

NASP engines do not achieve big power gains if you remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A remapped turbo will give large power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners toying with twincharged applications and making some seriously high power figures.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. It is generally cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is directly proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Alternatively you could perhaps add water injection to cut down knock.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many 124 Spider owners uprate the handling of their cars with fast road suspension upgrades as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We found that most 124 Spider factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -1-1.7, and a tiny bit of negative camber will radically enhance your cornering and handling.

We suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 27mm - 39 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are generally less heavy than the steel ones. Don't forget that your choice of rubber greatly affects your cars grip and handling. It is not worth compromising performance with cheap tyres when you can buy track legal slick performance tires.

We'd like to point out although they can look cool on the 124 Spider big alloy wheels 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.

Although some people have installed larger rims without problems we would restrict ourselves to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.

There is a more updated version of this Fiat 124 Spider Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss 124 Spider options in more detail with our 124 Spider owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Fiat tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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