MENU406 Tuning
"Thanks for reading my Peugeot 306 tuning guide."
The 406 could be considered to be the French answer to BMW and Mercedes.
It became a very popular fleet car with as much as 87% of all new sales going to fleets.
It is certainly a comfortable car to drive with plenty of gadgets.
The later turbo models are a positive gift to the car tuner.
There are certainly some bargains around to be had.
Our members (one in particular) really rate the 2.2HDi, once remapped you have around 200bhp of mid range power. Perfect for overtaking and with the same 30-70 acceleration as a Porsche!
We would go for the 2.0 Turbo or the 3.0 V6 which are both excellent engines with much to offer the 406 Tuner. The Coupe version is in a class of its own, looking nothing like the car it was based on, featuring a stunning Ferrari-esque design from Pininifarina!
Power mods.
Typically these performance modifications are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.
Getting the right modified mods for your planned usage of the car is vital. 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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: Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Alloy wheels, Remap, Sports exhaust.
Stage 2 mods: fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch.
Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).
Peak power is all well and good but for a daily driven car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.
In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance mod.A fast road camshaft will be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.
The exhaust & intake 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 impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a remap to fully release the power gain.
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 upgrades are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.
If have increased your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.
Handling/Suspension upgrades
Many 306 owners uprate the handling of their cars with coilover suspension parts as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.
Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you 306 dramatically improving your drive.
Drop the car by as much as 26mm - 39 mm and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.
Intake and Exhaust Tuning.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. For small 406 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 1.5 to 2.5 inches.
A good fast road power clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or expect a standard clutch to cope. Remaps offer significant power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful, but will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.
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