Tuning the Renault K4M

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Renault K4M engine!"

We often are seeing threads requesting info on the optimum K4M mods that work. So let us look into Renault K4M parts and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

Here we review and look at K4M tuning and provide tips on the greatest upgrades. Renault K4M really good project engines and with carefully chosen performance upgrades like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will really maximize your driving enjoyment.

The best K4M parts on an engine are in our opinion the ones that give the best value for money.

We won't be swayed by popular K4M parts, they need to be cost effective.

Significant gains on the K4M 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 push up the bhp over the rpm band, you might lose a little low down power but the higher rpm power will improve.

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

A Race cam makes it harder when in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your power band to your preferences so for a road car stick with a mild fast road K4M cam

Different K4M engines respond better to less aggressive cam durations than others.

The ECU mapping and fuelling also will make differences on the bhp gains you'll achieve.

Altering valve durations can alter the bhp 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.

K4M Tuning Stages

Stage 1 K4M modifications: Intake headers, Sports exhaust manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox.

Stage 2 K4M modifications: Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injectors, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust.

Stage 3 K4M modifications: Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

ECU flashing will help fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your K4M.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the end result may depend much on the parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

It is vital to any engine tuning project to feed more fuel and air into the K4M engine

Intake manifold transmit the air during the suck phase from the air cleaner and allow it to be sucked into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The size of bore and shape and flow rate of the Intake manifold can make a noticeable improvement to fuel delivery on the K4M.

We often see plenum chambers are begging for performance upgrades, although some OEM provide decently flowing plenum chambers.

Adding a K4M larger valve kit, carrying out K4M port enlargement and head flowing will also lift performance, and more importantly will give you raising the performance increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades for the K4M

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 K4M

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

If an engine is fitted with a turbocharger upgrades are going to net you a larger power gain and we find turbo engines are made with strengthened components.

There are practical limits for every engine, with some being over specified and some just sufficiently able to handle stock power

We recommend you find these limits and upgrade to higher quality crank and pistons to utilize the power.

There are many tuners spending a lot of money on turbo upgrades on the K4M only to suffer the indignity of watching the engine block throw a rod just after it's used in anger.

Larger turbo units commonly suffer a bottom end lag, and small turbo units spool up really quickly but do not have the peak rpm engines power gains.

Thanks to progress the market of turbo chargers is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbo chargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and push these at differently profiled vanes in the turbo charger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the K4M when considerably more air is being sucked into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited power at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp and torque gains, although harder to setup. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating K4M fuel injectors

When you improve the bhp and torque you will need to ramp up to the fuel system.

More bhp and torque needs more fuel. Most tuners we speak with say to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when buying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and allows a little 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 K4M performance exhausts

You may need to uprate your exhaust if your current exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the flow rate is still 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 can help equal out the flow of gases through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too large, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be traced to the filters installed, so adding a better flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the K4M

The K4M engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the K4M, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your K4M engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our K4M 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 upgrades were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our K4M guides and tips are kept up to date.

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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 Renault. 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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