Hyundai i10 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Hyundai i10 tuning tips."

Released in 2007 a replacement for the Atos was announced and the i10 was launched. It  met with very positive reviews and won many awards including car of the year in 2014.

It has proven popular with millenials and we get asked about mods and upgrades for this fun car all the time so i've put together this guide to tuning the i10 and the mods you find work best on the engines offered.

The i10 is a good car modification project to do. Plan ahead and research i10 tuning to spare yourself making the usual tuning mistakes we frequently get told about.

Tuning tips and articles

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

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

Enjoy your i10 to the max with our dependable modification tips - do the right mods in the right order.

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.

These are the upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

The Mk1 i10 engine lineup included the following engines

  • 1.0 L Kappa II I3 (petrol)
  • 1.1 L Epsilon I4 (petrol)
  • 1.2 L Kappa I4 (petrol)
  • 1.1 L U-Line I3 (diesel)

From 2013 the lineup was revised

  • 1.0 L Kappa II I3 (petrol)
  • 1.0 L Kappa II I3 (petrol/LPG)
  • 1.2 L Kappa II I4 (petrol)
  • 1.1 L U-Line I3 (diesel)

Getting the right motorsport 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 and will make the car undrivable.

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

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

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

Your goal when modding your car should be a wide torque range. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.

The aim of our guides is to give a little insight into the world of modding 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 sport parts and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a bolt on motorsport modifications goes on a NASP engine.

The intake and exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

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

Frequently power losses, and erratic idling after sports kits are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned i10s uprated injectors.

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 often very little power gain achieved by fitting an induction kit, they only become beneficial and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

For most i10 engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of supplying cold air.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow through the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head work including a polish and port and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. A good fast road uprated clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or ask a standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods in our opinion for your i10 are a remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Remaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remap on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is directly proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many i10 owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension upgrades as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you i10 greatly improving your drive.

We suggest that you fit modified suspension and lower the car by 25mm - 36 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with performance suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloys are less heavy 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 track legal slick tyre. The downside to large rims on your i10 is that you're changing your final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance.

For this reason aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases not going bigger than 16 inches.

There is a more updated version of this Hyundai i10 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss i10 options in more detail with our i10 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Hyundai tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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