Peugeot 208 Tuning

"Tuning guide to the best Peugeot 208 modifications."

The popular family car the 208 makes for a great tuning project. The lift off oversteer of the earlier models is sadly lacking but we can still turn the 208 into a hot hatch and track day stormer if we choose our mods carefully.

There are lots of parts around and a lot of the base 208 model owners can look to the performance 208 parts bin for upgrades. Thankfully there are lots of aftermarket suppliers out there with a wide array of suspension parts, turbo kits and internal engine mods.

It's time that we take a look into 208 tuning and highlight the optimum modifications for your car. Sit down first and research 208 tuning to avoid making the usual expensive slip ups we see in our forum.

Tuning tips and articles

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

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the 208. Drop the car by as much as 35mm and fit stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the 208s engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

208 Engine mods.

208 make good sleepers if you debadge them and fit the most powerful engine upgrades and handlign upgrades you can find!

These are the 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 best tuning upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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Guide to the Best 208 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: Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Remap.

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

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

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give your a good starting base to the best modifications 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.A fast road cam is generally one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases 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.

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

If you find you have flat spots and surges after your sports upgrades you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned 208s uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Induction kits are only beneficial to add performance if the cars air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most stock 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 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 add noticeable power and more often than not rob you of power on most cars.

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

Polishing and porting 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.

Your clutch can fail as you increase the power if it starts to complain and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit a sports clutch to avoid power loss through the transmission. The best mods we would do for your 208 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Remaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remapped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also seen some tuners playing with twin charging applications and making some seriously high power hikes.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

Superchargers however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is easier to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many 208 owners uprate the handling of their cars with suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Good suspension tweaks that substantially enhance handling for the 208 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.

Drop the car by as much as 25mm - 38 mm and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than the steel ones. Large 208 alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss 208 options in more detail with our 208 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Peugeot tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered. 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 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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