Tuning the Vauxhall F16D4

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Vauxhall F16D4 engine!"

We often are getting posts inquiring about getting more power from the F16D4 and wanting to know what are the optimum F16D4 mods that work. So let us look into Vauxhall F16D4 tuning mods and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

In this article we examine F16D4 tuning and summarise the greatest modifications. Vauxhall F16D4 are good project engines and with carefully picked performance tuning mods like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will certainly improve your driving pleasure.

Just because particular parts are appear in lots of F16D4 projects it doesn't mean it is good, we will concentrate) on the top parts that will give your F16D4 the best value for money to power increase.

The camshaft profile plays a big part in the engines power output so camshaft upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake and exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large engines power gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

NB: Fast road cams usually bump the bhp through the rpm band, you could drop a little low down power but the top end will be better.

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

A Motorsport camshaft won't do well if driving in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your torque band to your driving style so for a typical daily driver stick with a fast road F16D4 camshaft

Some F16D4 engines respond better to extreme cam durations than others.

The ecu map and fuelling also will make differences on the power gains you'll achieve.

Longer valve durations can alter the power 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.

F16D4 Tuning Stages

Stage 1 F16D4 modifications: Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Intake headers, Fast road camshaft, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 F16D4 modifications: Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit.

Stage 3 F16D4 modifications: Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Competition cam, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Mapping allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the mods you've done to your F16D4.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the outcome usually rely on the mods you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

It is the whole point to any performance tuning task to feed air and fuel into the F16D4 engine

Headers flow the air from the filter and allow it to be fed into the engine cylinders.

Structure and rate of flow of the Intake headers can make a large improvement to fuel engine efficiency on the F16D4.

Most intake are needing performance upgrades, although a few OEM provide decently flowing intake.

Fitting big valve kits, doing a bit of F16D4 port enlargement and head flowing will also raise performance, and importantly will permit raising the performance increase on other tuning parts.

Turbo upgrades for the F16D4

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 F16D4

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.

If a car is turbocharged, upgrades are relatively easy and we find turbo charged engines will have uprated components.

However most engines will need better parts at higher power limits

It is important to find these limits and upgrade to better quality components to handle the power.

It's not unheard of mechanics spending a fortune on turbocharger upgrades on the F16D4 only to experience the whole thing throw a rod on it's first outing after it's used in anger.

Bigger turbo chargers commonly experience low end lag, and smaller turbo chargers spool up quickly but don't have the peak end torque gains.

In the last 10 years the selection of turbos is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbos, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and direct these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is not unusual that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the F16D4 when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

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

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

Uprating F16D4 fuel injectors

When you boost the bhp and torque you will need to pay attention to to the fuelling.

More bhp and torque needs more fuel. We would recommend you to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add another 20% when buying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and affords some spare capacity should the engine require 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 F16D4 performance exhausts

You should look to uprate your exhaust if the existing exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is ok 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 generally help improve air flow from the engine but do not go too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Usual exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst installed, so adding a faster flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the F16D4

The F16D4 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the F16D4, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your F16D4 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our F16D4 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 tuning mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our F16D4 guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

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.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.