ILX Tuning

"Thanks for reading my ILX tuning guide."

The ILX was a luxury compact car released in 2012, and proving to be very popular. It had a wide choice of engines:-

• 1.5 L LDA/LEA15 I4
• 2.0 L R20A I4
• 2.4 L K24Z7 I4
• 2.4 L K24V7 I4 (2016-)

The ILX was facelifted in 2016 with the 2.4 liter earth dreams engine, and in 2019 got a makeover with the new Acura grill design and you can choose red leather!

The ILX is popular among our members for tuning projects We see car owners wasting money on their ILX doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our articles to avoid making the common mistakes

Many ILX owners uprate the handling of their cars with suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car. We suggest that you fit sports suspension and lower the car by 30-35mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Turning our attention to the ILXs engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Engine tuning mods.

This list of the stages and tuning kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get going.

• 2.0 L (DE1) 5-speed Auto: 150 hp  at 6,500 rpm and 140 lb⋅ft (190 N⋅m) of torque at 4,300 rpm
• 2.4 L (DE2) 6-speed Manual: 201 hp  at 7,000 rpm and 170 lb⋅ft (230 N⋅m) of torque at 4,300 rpm
• 1.5 L (DE3) CVT Auto: 111 hp at 5,500 rpm and 127 lb⋅ft (172 N⋅m) of torque between 1,000 and 3,000 rpm
• 2.4 L (DE2) 8-speed DCT: 201 hp  at 6,800 rpm and 180 lb⋅ft (244 N⋅m) of torque at 6,800 rpm

Getting the best sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Lighter flywheel, Remap, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

Modifying to Stage 2:

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

Modifying to Stage 3:

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

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

The aim of our pointers is to give a brief overview of customizing upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your car tuning project, the best motorsport modifications and all aspects of modding cars.One of the most cost effective mechanical uprated modifications you can do to your NASP engine is to fit a fast road camshaft .

It improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.Don't forget to pay attention to the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after tuning kits are done can usually be traced to fuelling or timing issues.Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Contrary to popular belief there is usually very little power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope! Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for ILX engines you should just fit a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you could will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

flowed (porting and polishing) the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools In nearly all cases of ILX tuning your clutch will start to slip and this should be improved - read our article on clutches for more information. Turbo engines are just pleading to be flashed. You will see large power gains on most modern turbochaged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and large modifications for your money.

We've also seen some tuners playing with twincharging applications and making some very high power figures.

The most significant power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. Turbos provide boost in exponential proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Alternatively you could perhaps fit water injection to minimise knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Due to the fact that alloys are lighter they improve performance and they can help to cool the brake disks. Large ILX alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Although some people have installed larger rims we would restrict ourselves to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum but the OEM 17's work really well.

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

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.

This article was written by Waynne Smith on TorqueCars, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Acura. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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