Vauxhall Viva Tuning

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The Vauxhall Viva became obsolete but has been resurrected and forms the small fun car sitting just below the Corsa.

The  light small body lends itself well to mods and the Vauxhall parts shelf has no shortage of suitable parts from performance models.

We examine Viva tuning and summarise the best mods that work. Vauxhall Vivas are popular cars and with the best modifications you can maximise your driving enjoyment.

The Viva is a good tuning project to try. Think carefully and research Viva tuning to save yourself making the usual common slip ups we regularly come across.

It only came with one engine, a zippy and economical 1.0 unit pushing out a respectable 75bhp.

Tuning tips and articles

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

Our aim in engine tuning should be to increase peak power and torque at the top end.

Keep the car looking standard but remove the badges creating a sleeper!

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.

Engine tuning mods.

Typically these uprated upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get started.

Getting the best sports upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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

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

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

You need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a wide power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power hike.

The whole aim of our guides is to give a starting base of car tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best motorsport mods and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam typically is one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.

The exhaust and intake 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 difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully release the power gain.

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

Frequently power losses, and erratic idling after uprated upgrades are done can usually be traced to timing or fuel delivery issues.Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Contrary to popular belief there is generally a small if any 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!

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for Viva engines you should go with a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but do not go too big or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Getting the head ported and polished will allow you to get more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a pro with a flow bench. When you tune up your Viva you will find that the standard clutch starts to suffer so get an uprated clutch. The best mods that we recommend for your Viva are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be Reprogrammed. 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.The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are often easier to add than a turbo. Turbos increase power in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Adding forced induction will nearly always require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the Viva.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you Viva substantially improving your drive.

We suggest that you fit modified suspension and lower the car by 30mm - 38 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are generally lighter than steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tyres - ideally with a track legal slick tyre. We should point out that although they can look cool on the Viva large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this fact try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases not going above 16 inches.

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

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

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