Peugeot RCZ Tuning

"Tuning guide to the greatest Peugeot RCZ modifications."

Revealed initially as a concept car, as part of a PR exercise, the RCZ became a reality thanks to the awesome critical acclaim and public reception it garnered.

We would argue that the RCZ is one of the best looking production cars around today, and certainly one of the best looking Peugeot's.

The RCZ was released in 2010 and during it's production run has received many awards and much favorable press coverage.

The RCZ is a good project car to try. With the right mods your RCZ can be transformed into a stunning project. Don't waste money, do your homework and follow our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade so you don't waste your money.

Tuning tips and articles

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

Top end power should be your overall aim on the RCZ with a nice fat peak torque band.

Enjoy your RCZ to the limit with our dependable tuning guides - do the right mods in the right order.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes.

The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

There are many great candidates in the Peugeot range to perform a swap with. But let's look at improving the engines themselves with a few mods.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and tuning modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the correct grade of performance modifications for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

Please watch TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

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

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

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

Peak power is all well and good but for a daily driven car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The point of our pointers is to give a little insight into the world of modding modifications 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 sport upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road camshaft is widely accepted as one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

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 hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully realise your gains.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to increase the fuelling.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after performance parts are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues.To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is often very little power gain obtained by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you boost the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

For most RCZ engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Sports exhausts equal out the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of your flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional head porting and polishing.

These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. A good triple plate fast road uprated clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or expect a standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods that we recommend for your RCZ are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Turbo engines are just begging to be Remapped. You will see impressive power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and impressive modifications for your money.

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

Adding forced induction will see large power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than turbos. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

The nice directly proportional 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 engine compression ratio .

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the RCZ.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you RCZ usually improving your drive.

We would go to a maximum drop of 30mm - 35 mm on most models. You risk handling compromises if you go lower than this.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include reducing your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. 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 directional tread pattern performance tires.Large RCZ alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Due to this endeavour to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases without going larger than 18 inches.

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

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss RCZ options in more detail with our RCZ 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.

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