Hyundai Tucson Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Hyundai Tucson tuning guide."

The Tucson is a good car tuning project to execute. If you do your research then you can create an awesome Tucson but don't be fooled there are lots of modifications out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

We review Tucson tuning and show the greatest mods that work. Hyundai Tucsons offer good returns when tuned and with carefully chosen uprated parts you can improve your driving pleasure.

A nice wide torque band and sweet spot of peak power at one third of your RPM range is optimum.

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 modified kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the correct grade of tuning upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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

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

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

First generation (2004–2009) engines

• 2.0 L Beta II G4GF I4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L"Beta II G4GC"i4 (petrol)
• 2.7 L Delta G6BA V6 (petrol)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4EA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

Second generation (2009–2015) engines

• 1.6 L Gamma G4FD GDI Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Theta II G4KD MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Nu MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.4 L Theta II Inline 4 (petrol)
• 1.7 L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4HA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

Third generation (2015–present) engines

• 1.6 L Gamma G4FD GDi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Theta II G4KD MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Nu Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.4 L Theta II Inline 4 (petrol)
• 1.7 L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)(pre facelift)
• 1.6L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)(facelift)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4HA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

Peak power is all well and good but for a drivable and fun car you need a long torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The whole aim of our articles is to give a limited introduction of tuning performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best modified modifications and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest torque gains for your money as far as a bolt on uprated mods 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 remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Using high octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Hyundai project after fitting other modifications. Bigger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

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.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Induction kits are only beneficial to add performance if your air intake is restricted! Adding an induction kit to most standard 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.

Derestricting the air flow into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a freer 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.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get this will slow the exhaust 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.

Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. When you heavily modify your Tucson you will discover that the standard clutch starts to slip so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your Tucson are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

Remaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a flashed ecu on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with engine speed.

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 compression ratio of the engine .

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the Tucson.

We found that most Tucson factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -0.9 to 1.5, and a small amount of negative camber will radically enhance your cornering and handling.

Drop the car by as much as 30mm - 36 mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and better brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tyre. The downside to large alloys on your Tucson is that you're changing your effective final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance.

Although some people have fitted larger wheels without issues we would stick to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum.

There is a more updated version of this Hyundai Tucson Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Tucson options in more detail with our Tucson owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Hyundai 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 Hyundai. 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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