Tuning the Ford EcoSport

"Thanks for reading my Ford Ecosport tuning tips."

The Ecosport is a good car tuning project to carry out. With the right mods your Ecosport can be transformed into an awesome motor. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade to avoid disappointment.

We look at Ecosport tuning and highlight the greatest modifications for your car. Ford Ecosports make awesome project cars and with the optimum enhancements you can dramatically maximise your driving experience.

Tuning tips and articles

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

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

Spending a little bit of money on the right engine and handling mods should transform your car into a potential super car beater.

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.

The following mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get going.

Getting the correct grade of performance modifications 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.

  • Zetec-Rocam
    1.0 L gasoline 8v supercharged, 70 kW (95 PS) (to 2006)
  • Zetec-Rocam
    1.6 8v gasoline/ethanol, 82 kW (111 PS)
  • Duratec 2.0 L 16v 107 kW (145 PS)
  • Duratorq 1.4 L TDCi Diesel, 50 kW (68 PS) (export only)

Second generation (2012–present)

  • 1.0 L I3 EcoBoost turbocharged
  • 1.5 L I3 Ti-VCT
  • 1.5 L I4 Ti-VCT
  • 1.6 L I4 Ti-VCT
  • 2.0 L I4 Ti-VCT
  • 1.5 L I4 TDCi (diesel)

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Guide to the Best ECOSPORT 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: Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Remap, Sports exhaust.

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

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

You really need to keep as much low end power as you can and aim to achieve a long power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power hike.

In this article we shall give your a good starting base 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 mod.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a single tuning upgrades goes on a NASP engine.

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

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

If you find you experience flat spots and surges after your performance mods you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Increasing 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. Contrary to popular belief there is generally a small power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Derestricting the air feed into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a better flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound great but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not really increase power and more often than not rob you of power on most cars.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

flowed (porting and polishing) the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools In nearly all cases of Ecosport tuning your clutch will start to complain and this should be improved - read our article on clutches for more information. The best mods in our opinion for your Ecosport are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

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 fully release the potential power of the engine. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Superchargers are usually easier to add than turbos. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Alternatively you could perhaps add water injection to control knock.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

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

Good suspension tweaks that greatly improve handling for the Ecosport include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.

We suggest that you fit motorsport suspension and lower the car by 22mm - 39 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include reducing your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow.

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 soft compound performance tyres.The downside to large rims on your Ecosport is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance and acceleration.

With this in mind aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the standard factory sizes. In all cases we do not recommend going above 16 inches.

There is a more updated version of this Ford Ecosport Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

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

 

  • 2018 Ford Ecosport Tire Size
    S 205/60R16
    SE 205/60R16 & 205/50R17
    SES 205/50R17
    Titanium. 205/50R17
  • 2019 Ford Ecosport Tire Size
    S 205/60R16
    SE 205/60R16 & 205/50R17
    SES 205/50R17
    Titanium. 205/50R17
  • 2020 Ford Ecosport Tire Size
    S 205/60R16
  • SE 205/60R16 & 205/50R17
    SES 205/50R17
    Titanium 205/50R17

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