Nissan S13 Silvia Tuning

"Thank you for reading our Nissan S13 Silvia tuning article."
The S13 Silvia is a good car tuning project to try. The key to S13 Silvia tuning is getting your choice of modification right - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

Tuning tips and articles

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

 

Don't just look at the peak power figures, you need to see the whole torque curve when determining if a mod is right for you S13 Silvia.

Spending justa little bit of money on the top engine and handling mods will transform your car into a very credible performer.

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.

Engine Tuning.

The following motorsport kits are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the correct grade of sports 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: Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Remap, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust.

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

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

Engine choices ranged from 1.8 to 2.0

  • 1.8 L CA18DE I4
  • 1.8 L CA18DET turbo I4
  • 2.0 L SR20DE I4
  • 2.0 L SR20DET turbo I4

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

The whole point of our tips is to give a starting base of customising 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 upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.One of the most cost effective mechanical performance parts you can do to your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The intake and exhaust durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

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

Using high octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Nissan project after fitting other sports kits. Upgraded 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.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is often very little power gain reached by fitting an induction kit, they only become beneficial and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow from the engine but do not go 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.

Getting a professionally gas flowed head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. A good triple plate fast road upgraded clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or expect your standard clutch to cope. The best mods in our opinion for your S13 Silvia 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 phenomenal power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine.

We've also come across some owners playing with twin charging conversions and making some seriously high power hikes.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Superchargers are often easier to add than a turbo. With a turbo the power curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it harder to map.

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

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the S13 Silvia.

Good suspension tweaks that usually benefit handling for the S13 Silvia include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.

We would go to a maximum drop of 26mm - 37 mm on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are usually less heavy than steel ones. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of track legal slick tyre. Large S13 Silvia alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Because of this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.

There is a more updated version of this Nissan S13 Silvia Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss S13 Silvia options in more detail with our S13 Silvia owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Nissan tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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