Tuning the Vauxhall C22LE

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Vauxhall C22LE engine!"

We often are seeing threads asking about the best tips on C22LE modifications. So let us look into Vauxhall C22LE modifications and outline the best upgrades on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The Vauxhall C22LE are awesome to work on and with carefully picked uprated upgrades like remaps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will certainly improve your driving fun.

Our aim here is to consider C22LE tuning and show the greatest upgrades.

Just because particular modifications are are common on C22LE it doesn't mean it is good, instead we will optimum modifications that will give your C22LE the best value for money to power increase.

Significant gains on the C22LE can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road cams usually raise the torque throughout the rev band, you may lose a little low down torque but the top end will improve.

Competition cams, raise the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

On a car used daily one should, ideally, try to optimize your bhp range to your typical driving style.

You will never find a C22LE Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Some C22LE engines respond better to mild cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ECU mapping and fuel pump and injectors also will say much on the bhp gains you'll hit.

Longer 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.

C22LE Tuning Stages

Stage 1 C22LE modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust manifold, Intake headers, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Drilled & smoothed airbox.

Stage 2 C22LE modifications: Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit, high flow fuel injectors.

Stage 3 C22LE modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Engine balancing & blueprinting.

ECU mapping allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the parts you've done to your C22LE.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results usually differs on the parts you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

It is the whole point to any engine tuning task to force air into your C22LE

The intake plenum transmit the air from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The shape and rate of flow of the Intake headers can make a large difference to to fuel engine efficiency on the C22LE.

On popular production engines headers are ripe for aftermarket tuning parts, although a few makers provide well optimised headers.

Larger C22LE valves, getting 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also lift torque, and importantly will allow you to get a better torque increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades for the C22LE

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 C22LE

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

When an engine has a turbocharger tuning parts are going to net you a larger power gain and you will discover turbocharged engines already contain strengthened components.

There are common areas of failure for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only just able to handle stock power

It is important to find these limitations and upgrade to higher quality crank and pistons to utilize the power.

We see many tuners spending a loads on turbo charger upgrades on the C22LE only to see the engine go up in smoke just after it's completed.

Large turbo chargers commonly experience low end lag, and little turbo chargers spool up quickly but won't have the high rpm engines power gains.

Thanks to progress the selection of turbo units is always evolving and we commonly find variable vane turbo units, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into a couple of channels and feed these at differently profiled vanes in the turbo. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the C22LE when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more difficult to configure. We have this article covering twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating C22LE fuel injectors

Don't miss you'll need to improve the fuel delivery when you are increasing the performance - it makes the car more thirsty. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

As a rule of thumb add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and affords some 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 C22LE performance exhausts

You only need to to upgrade your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is still fine even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Please dont run with the biggest exhaust you can find you'll slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a faster flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the C22LE

The C22LE engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the C22LE, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your C22LE engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our C22LE owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which tuning parts were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our C22LE 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 Vauxhall. 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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