Tuning the Vauxhall C16SE

"Comprehensive guide to performance tuning the Vauxhall C16SE engine!"

We often are getting emails inquiring about getting more power from the C16SE and wanting to know what are the things we are recommending when it comes to C16SE power upgrades. So let us look into Vauxhall C16SE mods and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

Our aim here is to provide a guide to C16SE tuning and provide tips on the best modifications. Vauxhall C16SE offer good returns when tuned and with carefully picked modified mods like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will substantially improve your driving experience.

Just because particular upgrades are are common on C16SE it doesn't mean you should fit it, instead we will optimum upgrades that will give your C16SE the best power gain for you money.

Altering your C16SE camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the torque accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams normally push up the torque over the rpm range, you might lose a little bottom end torque but the top end will be better.

Motorsport and race cams, push up the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

In a road car must carefully try to match your power band to your typical driving style.

I'd be surprised if you have found a C16SE Competition cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Each engine responds better to extreme cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ECU mapping and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the torque gains you'll achieve.

Altering valve durations can alter the torque 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.

Best C16SE Tuning Mods & Upgrades

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

C16SE Tuning Stages

Stage 1 C16SE modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft.

Stage 2 C16SE modifications: Fast road cam, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, induction kit, high flow fuel injectors.

Stage 3 C16SE modifications: Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

ECU flashing allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your C16SE.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the end result usually differs on the upgrades you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Getting air and fuel into the C16SE engine is vital to any engine modification task.

Air Intake manifolds carry the air from the intake filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Design and flow rate of the Intake headers can make a noticeable effect on to fuel delivery on the C16SE.

Many mass produced engine air intake manifolds are in desperate need of an upgrade, although a few car makers provide decently flowing air intake manifolds.

Larger C16SE valves, doing a bit of 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also raise torque, and significantly will allow you to get an improved torque increase on other parts.

Turbo upgrades for the C16SE

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 C16SE

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

When a car has forced induction parts are giving better power gains and you'll see that turbo engines use strengthened components.

However you will find an engines will need better parts at higher power limits

See where you'll find these limitations and upgrade to forged components to utilize the power.

There are many car owners spending a a stack of money on turbo charger upgrades on the C16SE only to watch the whole thing catastrophically fail just after it's used in anger.

Larger capacity turbo units tend to suffer no power at low rpm, and little turbo units spool up much more quickly but do not have the peak end engines power gains.

Thanks to progress the market of turbo units is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and feed these at differently profiled vanes in the turbo charger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the C16SE when a lot more air is being fed into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited performance at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although harder to configure. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating C16SE fuel injectors

When you raise the torque you will need to pay attention to to the fuel system.

More torque needs more fuel. It makes sense to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when specifying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and gives a bit of 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 C16SE performance exhausts

You may need to boost your exhaust if your current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is 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 will certainly help air flow out of the engine but do not go too wide or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Usual exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a better flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the C16SE

The C16SE engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the C16SE, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your C16SE engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our C16SE owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which modifications were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our C16SE guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

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 Vauxhall. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.