Tuning the Ford 1.4 Duratec

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Ford 1.4 Duratec engine!"

We often are getting emails inquiring about getting more power from the 1.4 Duratec and wanting to know what are the best 1.4 Duratec upgrades. So let us look into Ford 1.4 Duratec upgrades and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

Now we shall detail the best approach to 1.4 Duratec tuning and report on the greatest upgrades. Ford 1.4 Duratec great bases for a tuning project and with carefully chosen sports tuning mods like ECU maps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will dramatically maximise your driving fun.

Just because particular parts are popular with 1.4 Duratec owners it doesn't mean it is good, instead we will best parts that will give your 1.4 Duratec the best power gain for you spend.

Significant gains on the 1.4 Duratec can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the power band and power output.

NB: Fast road cams normally bump the performance across the rpm band, you could drop a little bottom end power but higher rpm power will be better.

Competition cams, bump the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

In a car driven daily must carefully try to optimize your power band to your cars usage.

I'd be amazed if you find a 1.4 Duratec Competition camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Some 1.4 Duratec engines respond better to less aggressive camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The map and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the power gains you'll make.

A longer valve duration can alter the power band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

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1.4 Duratec Tuning Stages

Stage 1 1.4 Duratec modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Panel air filters, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers.

Stage 2 1.4 Duratec modifications: Ported and polished head, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 1.4 Duratec modifications: Competition cam, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves).

ECU flashing helps to establish the full potential of all the parts you've done to your 1.4 Duratec.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but figures achieved usually rely on the parts you've applied and the condition of your engine.

It is vital to any performance tuning job to pull more air and fuel into each cylinder

Intake headers carry the air during the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Shape and flow rate of the Headers can make a large change to fuel mixing and power on the 1.4 Duratec.

It's not uncommon that intake headers are needing aftermarket parts, although some makers provide reasonably well designed intake headers.

Adding a 1.4 Duratec larger valve kit, doing some 1.4 Duratec port enlargement and head flowing will also improve bhp, the fantastic side effect is it will permit increasing the bhp increase on other parts.

Turbo upgrades for the 1.4 Duratec

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your 1.4 Duratec

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes excellent power gains.

When the engine is fitted with a turbocharger mods are relatively easy and we find turbo charged engines are made using strengthened components.

However most engines have limits

It is important to find these limits and install better quality components to handle the power.

There are many drivers spending a lot of money on turbo upgrades on the 1.4 Duratec only to have the motor literally blow up on it's first outing after it's been completed.

Bigger capacity turbo chargers often experience no power at low rpm, and small turbo chargers spool up quickly but do not have the peak end engines power gains.

Thanks to progress the market of turbo chargers is always increasing and we now see variable vane turbo chargers, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into two channels and flow these at differently designed vanes in the turbo charger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there is a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the 1.4 Duratec when considerably more air is being fed into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more complex to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating 1.4 Duratec fuel injectors

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so must increase the fuelling when you start going beyond 20% of a power increase.It is important to over specify your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and gives a bit of spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Best 1.4 Duratec performance exhausts

You only need to to uprate your exhaust if your current exhaust is actually creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Don't go with the largest exhaust you can find you'll reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Usual exhaust restrictions are in the emissions filters installed, so adding a better flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the 1.4 Duratec

The 1.4 Duratec engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the 1.4 Duratec, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your 1.4 Duratec engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our 1.4 Duratec owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our 1.4 Duratec guides and tips are kept up to date.

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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 Ford. 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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