Ford Granada Tuning

"I'd catch a Granada for you..."

Square and very in your face the Granada was the bad boy of the Ford range most popular in the 1980's. It's getting hard to track one down now and is already regarded by enthusiasts as a classic.

The dreamy 2.3 litre engine positively purred when tuned properly. Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the Granada. The car is quite heavy so it benefits from coil overs or at the least get adjustable shocks.

Drop the car by as much as 35mm and fit stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the Granadas engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

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 to the 2.3 or the 2.8 then apply the following mods.

EngineTuning options.

The following mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

Stage 1 mods: Exhaust, Panel air filter, Remap, lighter flywheel

Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, ported and polished head, fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades, 

Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), competition cam

A fast road cam will be one of the best power mod you can do mechanically to your engine. You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to uprate the fuelling. You can get a more snappy acceleration by fitting a fuel pressure boost valve. Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine. When increasing your fuelling you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Granada Intake and Exhaust.

Breathing mods are usually next up. For small Granada engine sizes go with a washable panel air filter. On larger engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help increase power. Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find - the best for power gains are usually between 1.7 to 2.5 inches.

When you start tuning your Granada you will find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. Turbo engines are just begging to be custom remapped. You will see big power gains on most turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective modifications.The largest power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with engine speed. It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Ford Granada Wheel modifications.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Granada is that you alter your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance. For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the Granada options in more detail with our Granada owners. It would also be worth reading our Ford tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.

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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 Ford. 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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