Suzuki SX4 S-Cross Tuning

"Tuning guide to the most effective Suzuki SX4 S-Cross modifications."

We examine SX4 S-Cross tuning and summarise the greatest mods that work. Suzuki SX4 S-Cross's provide a fun base for your project and with the ultimate motorsport modifications you can definitely increase your driving fun.

The SX4 S-Cross is a good project car to do. If you do your research then you can create an awesome SX4 S-Cross but don't be fooled there are lots of sports mods out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are the thing most do first for the SX4 S-Cross.

If you set the toe out to 0.9 to 1.5 degrees on the front, and add some negative camber then cornering will often benefit.

We suggest that you fit modified suspension and lower the car by 28mm - 36 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

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 SX4 S-Cross.

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 mods.

This list of the stages and performance upgrades 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 tuning mods for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Stages of Tune

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

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

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

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

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 upgrade.A fast road cam often proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications 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 performance chip. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

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

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after tuning modifications are done can usually be traced to timing or fuelling issues.Increasing the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Air induction kits are only beneficial to add performance if your air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NONE OF A 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.

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 generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head work including a gas flow (ported and polished) and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. When you heavily modify your SX4 S-Cross you will see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we would do for your SX4 S-Cross are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

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 big power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners playing with twincharging applications and making some very high power figures.

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 revs.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is simpler. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engine compression ratio .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

As alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire. The drawback to large rims on your SX4 S-Cross is that you're changing your effective final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on performance.

Due to this fact try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases avoid going above 16 inches.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss SX4 S-Cross options in more detail with our SX4 S-Cross owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Suzuki 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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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 Suzuki. 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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