Tuning the Renault D4D & D4F

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Renault D4D D4F engine!"

We are regularly getting emails requesting info on the best D4D D4F mods that work. So let us look into Renault D4D D4F upgrades and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

The Renault D4D D4F have loads of potential and with the optimum modified upgrades like ECU maps, turbo kits and camshafts you will certainly improve your driving pleasure.

We shall outline options for your D4D D4F tuning and highlight the best mods that work.

When talking about the best parts for your D4D D4F engine, we are going to concentrate on the parts that give the best power gain for you spend.

Altering your D4D D4F cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine power band. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the power band accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts normally increase the torque over the rpm range, you could drop a little bottom end bhp but your higher rpm power will be lifted.

Motorsport camshafts, increase the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

On a daily driver should ideally to match your power band to your preferences.

I would be surprised if you find a D4D D4F Race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Each engine responds better to more or less aggressive cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The engine timing and fuelling also have a large bearing on the bhp gains you'll hit.

Longer valve durations can alter the bhp band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

D4D D4F Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

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Guide to the best tuning mods & Upgrades

  1. ECU Map Tuning & Remaps

    Some cars may require a piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's to change the OEM map, but remapping is the most vital step of your tuning project to fully maximise your mods. Expect 10-20% on NASP engines and 30-40% on turbocharged units.

  2. Strengthen Your Engine

    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.

  3. Mods that Remove a Restriction

    A restricted intake or exhaust will have an impact on your performance, so use a better flowing air filter/induction kit and better flowing exhaust (sports cats where legal are a good option) whenever your tuning creates a flow restriction. Turbo engines also benefit from intercooler upgrades as these resist heat soak for longer periods of time.

  4. Mods that Improve Fuelling

    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,  a fuel pump and injector upgrade are usual mods, but also in many cases the fuel regulator will need improvement.

  5. Mods to Provide better Airflow

    Increasing the air supply is just as essential as improving fuelling, we suggest you look at head mods (flowing and porting, 5 angle valve jobs), fit bigger valves, fast road cams and forced induction upgrades (adding a better flowing turbo) to improve air intake.

Tuning Stages

Stage 1 D4D D4F modifications: Sports exhaust manifold, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters, Intake headers.

Stage 2 D4D D4F modifications: Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit.

Stage 3 D4D D4F modifications: Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam.

The D4D D4F power plant are fantastic to work on and we note that there is a lot of modifications and performance parts out there.

Remaps allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the modifications you've done to your D4D D4F.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the outcome will vary depending on the modifications you've done and the condition of your engine.

It is the aim to any performance tuning job to force more air and fuel into your D4D D4F

Intake manifold take the air during the suck phase from the filter and allow it to be fed into the engine cylinders.

Structure and flow rate of the Intake manifold can make a big change to fuel delivery on the D4D D4F.

On popular production engines intake are in dire need of an upgrade, although some makers provide fairly well optimized intake.

Big valve conversions on the D4D D4F, doing some D4D D4F port enlargement and head flowing will also boost bhp and torque, and more importantly will allow you to get increasing the bhp and torque increase on other mods.

Turbo upgrades for the D4D D4F

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your D4D D4F

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes superb power gains.

When your car is fitted with a turbo parts are relatively easy and you will discover turbocharged engines are built using strengthened components.

However you will find that an engines has weakspots so we recommend you find these restrictions and upgrade to stronger pistons, crank and engine components to utilize the power.

There are many guys spending a lots of money on turbo upgrades on the D4D D4F only to suffer the humiliation of seeing the engine throw a rod soon after it's used on the roads.

Large turbo chargers commonly experience no power at low rpm, and little turbo chargers spool up quickly but don't have the peak rpm power band gains.

Thanks to progress the choice of turbos is always moving on and we commonly find variable vane turbos, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and flow these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the D4D D4F when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp gains, although more difficult to get working. We have this article covering twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating D4D D4F fuel injectors

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will have to uprate the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a power increase.

We strongly recommend you to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% when specifying an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and gives some spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Best D4D D4F performance exhausts

You only need to to increase your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is still fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts increase the flow of gases through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions come around the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a faster flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the D4D D4F

The D4D D4F engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the D4D D4F, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your D4D D4F engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our D4D D4F owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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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 D4D D4F guides and tips are kept up to date.

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