Tuning the Fiat Firefly T3

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Fiat Firefly T3 engine!"

We often are seeing threads requesting information on the optimum Firefly T3 upgrades. So let us look into Fiat Firefly T3 parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The Fiat Firefly T3 really good project engines and with carefully chosen motorsport upgrades like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will substantially maximize your driving fun.

Our aim here is to outline options for your Firefly T3 tuning and summarise the greatest mods that work.

When talking about the greatest parts for your Firefly T3 engine, we are going to focus on the upgrades that give the best power gain for you spend.

Significant gains on the Firefly T3 can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the engines power and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly increase the power throughout the rpm band, you could drop a little low end torque but your high end rpm power will be lifted.

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

A Race camshaft makes it harder when in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your power band to your usage of the car so for a daily driver stick with a fast road Firefly T3 camshaft

Different Firefly T3 engines respond better to different cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the power gains you'll make.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the power 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.

Firefly T3 Tuning Stages

Stage 1 Firefly T3 modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold, Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters, Intake headers.

Stage 2 Firefly T3 modifications: induction kit, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades.

Stage 3 Firefly T3 modifications: Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam.

The Firefly T3 power trains are great to work on and we're pleased to see that there are plenty of modifications and performance parts about.

ECU mapping helps unlock the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your Firefly T3.

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

It is the whole point to any engine upgrade job to pull more air into each cylinder

Intake headers take the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The shape and flow characteristics of the Intake manifold can make a substantial improvement to fuel engine efficiency on the Firefly T3.

It's not uncommon that intake are begging for performance upgrades, although a few car makers provide reasonably good intake.

Fitting big valve kits, doing some port work and head flowing will also lift performance, and as an added benefit will raise potential for raising the performance increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades for the Firefly T3

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 Firefly T3

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

When your car has a turbo already fitted mods are going to make more power and you will discover turbocharged engines are made with better components.

There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only just able to handle stock power

It is important to find these restrictions and install better pistons and crank to utilize the power.

There are many car owners spending a lots of money on turbocharger upgrades on the Firefly T3 only to see the motor literally blow up soon after it's used in anger.

Larger turbos often suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbos spool up quickly but do not have the peak rpm power band gains.

We are pleased that the world of turbochargers is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbochargers, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and direct these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the Firefly T3 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped power at a much lower level.

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

Uprating Firefly T3 fuel injectors

When you improve the performance you will need to look at to the fuel delivery.

More performance needs more fuel. Don't forget to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% when specifying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and allows you some spare capacity should the engine need 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 Firefly T3 performance exhausts

You should look to replace your exhaust if your current exhaust is creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the flow rate is good 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 generally help improve air flow through 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 as a rule of thumb.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the emissions filters installed, so adding a freer flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the Firefly T3

The Firefly T3 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the Firefly T3, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your Firefly T3 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our Firefly T3 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 tuning 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 Firefly T3 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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