MENUHolden Monaro Tuning
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There were 2 notable engines on the Monaro, a 3.8 L V6 (supercharged; CV6) and the NASP 5.7 L V8 (CV8)
A high performance HRT 427 was released based on the Monaro bodyshell and goes some way to show what is possible on this platform.
The 7.0 V8 from a Corvette pushed out 560bhp making this one very quick Monaro.
In 2008 a HSV W427 was released to commemorate the 20 years of the HSV version.
The Monaro is popular among our members for tuning projects If you do your planning then you can create an awesome Monaro but don't be fooled there are lots of upgrades out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.
Improving the handling for people first priority in your Monaro tuning project. We suggest that you fit uprated suspension and lower the car by 30-35mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.
Top end power should be your overall aim on the Monaro with a nice fat peak torque band.
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.
Typically these modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.
Getting the right modified parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Remap, Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust.
Modifying to Stage 2:
high flow fuel injector, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Engine balancing, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Sports gearbox.
You should keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a long power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.
In this article we shall give a limited introduction to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a bolt on performance mods goes on a NASP engine.
The intake and exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a remap for the best performance gains.When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.
If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your motorsport mods you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. 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.
The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is often very little if any power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only become beneficial 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 Monaro engines you should go with a performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.
Sports exhausts can usually 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 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 A good triple plate fast road uprated clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or ask your standard OEM clutch to cope. Remaps offer phenomenal power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a chipped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. Superchargers are usually easier to add than a turbo. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.
The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Alternatively you could perhaps fit water injection to control knock.
Alloy wheel upgrades.
Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are generally lighter than the steel ones. We should point out that although they can look cool on the Monaro 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.
Because of this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.
For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Monaro options in more detail with our Monaro owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Holden 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.
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