Ssangyong Tivoli Tuning

"Thanks for reading this Ssangyong Tivoli tuning guide."
The Tivoli is a good car modification project to carry out. The key to Tivoli tuning is getting your choice of modification right - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

The Tivoli is a subcompact SUV and the name reads I love it, in reverse.

Actually it was named after the Italian town of the same name and interestingly is the first car to be produced by Ssanyong under the new Mahindra ownership, the Tivoli made quite an impression and a new version was unveiled in 2019.

Our aim in engine tuning should be to increase peak power and torque at 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 then apply the following mods.

Tuning modifications.

These are the sports upgrades are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get going.

There were 2 petrol engines and a diesel engine option on the Tivoli.

• 1.5 L e-XGi150T T-GDI I4 (petrol)
• 1.6 L e-XGi160 I4 (petrol)
• 1.6 L e-XDi160 I4-T (diesel)

Getting the right tuning modifications for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 22-37mm), Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Remap, Lighter flywheel.

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

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

Your aim when modding your car should be a flat and wide torque curve. You don't want all the torque to be at the top end unless you are creating a competition car.

The whole aim of our guides is to give a limited introduction of modifying performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best uprated mods and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road camshaft is generally one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

The intake and exhaust durations 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 camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

Don't forget to ramp up the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your uprated kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

If have increased your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Air induction kits only help to increase performance if the cars air intake is restricted! Adding an induction kit to most small engines will see ZERO LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but do not go too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Head work including a polish and port and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. Your clutch can seriously let you down as the power goes up if it starts to break and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 46%. Fit a power clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods that we recommend for your Tivoli are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

Remaps offer large power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remapped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twincharging applications and making some impressively high power hikes.

The most impressive power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. It is often cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. With a turbo the power curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it more challenging to map.

Superchargers will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Adding forced induction will nearly always require a lower compression ratioor water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for lots of DIY modders first priority in your Tivoli tuning project.

Good suspension tweaks that dramatically enhance handling for the Tivoli include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe out on the front wheels.

Drop the car by as much as 22 mm - 37 mm and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling via the extra air flow they allow. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tyres) for your car, a good directional tread pattern tyre can really enhance your cars handling. We should point out that although they can look cool on the Tivoli large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

With this in mind we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

There is a more updated version of this Ssangyong Tivoli Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

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

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

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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 SsangYong. 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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