What can I do to my Saxo on a budget?

  1. Newbie Joined: Oct 2013 EAST LONDON Posts: 22 2001 Saxo 1.1i Desire, White
    #1
    I'm buying my first car tomorrow a MK1 1.0 Spree. I know it will be a little slow car but I'm wondering what I can do to enhance the engine and general performance of the car. What sort of things should I replace with new parts that might need it? and what can I upgrade for better fuel consumption and maybe extra engine power? I have a budget of around £400

    Thanks
  2. Newbie Joined: Oct 2013 EAST LONDON Posts: 22 2001 Saxo 1.1i Desire, White
    #2
    Just as an extra note, I've never worked on a car before I do have a friend that can help me sometimes but most of the work I'll be doing on my own so please include any tools required for certain parts and how I would go about doing it. I don't know all the technical terms and names of things!
  3. Saxperience Forum Bum Joined: Mar 2012 Posts: 3593
    #3
    On a budget there is practically nothing you can do to make it any faster. 1.0's are shit slow.

    Spend £40-50 on giving it a full service and don't bother doing anything else!

    Also, a Haynes manual will tell you everything you need to know to do any job on your saxo!
  4. Newbie Joined: Oct 2013 EAST LONDON Posts: 22 2001 Saxo 1.1i Desire, White
    #4
    A new cold air filter induction kit? is that worth it?
  5. Saxperience Forum Bum Joined: Mar 2012 Posts: 3593
    #5
    If you want more noise, yes.
  6. Newbie Joined: Oct 2013 EAST LONDON Posts: 22 2001 Saxo 1.1i Desire, White
    #6
    Would you be able to suggest a brand or best price range for the parts as I wouldn't know where to start and I wouldn't want to buy the wrong parts
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  7. Saxperience Forum Bum Joined: Mar 2012 Posts: 3593
    #7
    Well not really, but I wouldn't spend any real money on it as its just a 1.0

    Just search on ebay for a universal air kit or induction kit - they should be around £15-20
  8. Banned Joined: Nov 2013 Posts: 411
    #8
    Strip everything out of it for a start, on a car with a small engine weight is a key factor to take into account, then there's weight distribution you need to have a balanced car to get the best under steer/over steer ratio...
    (These mods are FREE)

    Then lowering, I'd say lower it no more than 40mm as long as your shocks are good condition you can lower yours car up to 40mm on standard shocks, this will help having a lower centre of gravity giving you less body roll and a stiffer better handling car
    If you go to low you will reduce the travel of the suspension meaning you get less damping so to balance this wright is key 40mm is best or 60mm if your buying updated shocks (50mm vtr/vts springs lower a saxo without the body kit 60mm as they sit higher as standard) other cheap handling mods are to put in a front arb from a rallye, gti, vtr or vts you can also fit a rear arb from the same models as they are thicker than your arb, upper and lower strut braces are also a good shout !!!! (springs can easily be brought 2nd hand for as little as £15/£20 the same for strut braces, areas arb will cost about £20 2nd hand and a front arb would be about the same from a scrappy or 2nd hand)


    Now... Get the brakes sorted, a set of vtr vented discs and a good set of pads in the front and to make sure your rear drum are in full working order will make a nice difference and help you out big time!

    These are the first things you should do for many reasons...
    1 the better your car handles the less you have to slow down for corners meaning the less you need to build back up on the way out
    2 the lighter you are the easier your car will pick up and speed lost in corners ect
    3 vented discs and and a rear drum set up that works well will help on hard braking as solid discs will fade after a few hard braking sessions, and a poor reard rum set up will be in efficient...
    4 all of the above will prepare you for engine mods or a engine swap....

    Then power, to be honest I know this won't be what you want to hear but the 1.0 isn't worth tuning, by all means you can get a exhaust system/manifold and a decent cold air feed as they will slightly improve your engine but they will also fit on most other 8valve engines so means if you do an engine swap you have good parts already to go on it...

    Also engine swaps are really cheap literally as cheap as £100 if you know what your doing...

    Need any help PM me I can guide you through most is not all procedures if you get stuck anywhere
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  9. L-plater Joined: Feb 2013 LONDON Posts: 73 SAXO VTR 1.6 2001
    #9
    You wont improve performance, this question is asked everyday, save that 400 quid and put it towards a vtr/vts


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  10. Established Member Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 1802
    #10
    Why won't the 'normal' tuning mods like a free flow exhaust system, CAT removal, cold air free breathing air filter system make the same %age gains as on any other vehicle? They are just as much of a restriction on smaller engines as on larger ones?

    Doesn't mean I don't agree with the above generally - get the suspension sorted out properly, and the brakes too, then do the normal stage1 type mods decent cold air fed K&N style air filter, cat removal, exhaust manifold and free flow exhaust and that will be where the major bank-for-bucks will be had.

    Beyond that you'll need to look at porting the cylinder head, raising the compression ratio as high as you can, 11-11.5:1 would be my target, then changing the camshaft and fitting aftermarket ECU would probably bring you up to around 80-90bhp if you get it all right. Problem is that's thousands.

    You would probably be better off getting a small turbo, fabricating a manifold and downpipe and turbocharging it. Could easily make 120bhp with decent torque, but you'd want the later 1.0 which has the better intake manifold and 4 injectors. Personally I'd love to do a 1.0 turbo conversion, since you'd have VTS performance and still be able to tune it for 60mpg on a cruise!
  11. Infrequent Poster Joined: Nov 2012 Crawley Posts: 158 Saxo vts
    #11
    Don't do anything to it. save the money, get a vtr/s... modifying either of those will be more beneficial
  12. Banned Joined: Nov 2013 Posts: 411
    #12
    The problem you will have with making a small engine produce a decent amount of power is the stroke of the engine is so short and the volume of air/fuel you can get in and out is reduced largely as there is a smaller cylinder bore and or a shorter cylinder stroke, a engine is basically a big pump, a single barrel foot pump at full chat will only produce half the amount of a double barrel foot pump at the same speed, and due to a shorter stroke you end up with a more revy engine but alto less torque...

    People never recommend tuning a small engine is because you can get he same power from a stock vtr engine or even more from a stock vts engine but also with twice as much reliability and for less than what it would cost it tune a small engine to 98bhp (stock vtr mk2)

    It's worth doing the same breathing mod yes because you will be doing your engine the world of good BUT because the engine is smaller it flows less meaning the stock intake and exhaust are less restrictive than they would be in a vtr/vts as they flow more...
  13. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Apr 2011 Posts: 9100 Amazon green VTR 16v, Inferno RS clio 182
    #13
    Id actually like to see someone modify one of the smaller engines in this way, but then due to the bargain basement cost of these cars I doubt any one who had any sense would even bother
  14. Established Member Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 1802
    #14
    I don't agree that because the engine is smaller, the intake and exhaust are 'less restrictive'. The intake and exhaust on the 1.0 are *smaller* so are therefore likely to be just as restrictive
  15. Banned Joined: Nov 2013 Posts: 411
    #15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by luthor1 View Post
    I don't agree that because the engine is smaller, the intake and exhaust are 'less restrictive'. The intake and exhaust on the 1.0 are *smaller* so are therefore likely to be just as restrictive
    Weather you agree or not it's how it works, they share the same air box as a furio and vtr ect...

    http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Saxo-106-1-1-1-4-1-6-8V-Airbox-Air-Filter-Vtr-Furio-Quick-Silver-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/jYUAAOxyRNJSf~RE/$_58.JPG

    So they are less restrictive on the 1.0 engines than they are on he bigger ones, that's common sense?
    Peugeot/citroen would have spend £1000s designing the air box to work as best it can (removing induction sound, providing enough air for the car, keeping the car in the legal emissions ectectect.....)

    They don't design them to be race cars so there not direct cold air feed straight into the throttle body..

    So there are improvements to be had from a cold air feed but it's mainly noise, unless the cylinder head gets ported polished skimmed, and a Berger inlet and exhaust saw ell as cam then it will help a lot but otherwise will be more a case of noise and cold clean air, instead of warm air from the stock box
  16. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Apr 2011 Posts: 9100 Amazon green VTR 16v, Inferno RS clio 182
    #16
    Not all 8vs are equal, for instance the s2 rallye/xsi had a much larger diameter downpipe than a vtr did
  17. Banned Joined: Nov 2013 Posts: 411
    #17
    But that because they flow a totally different rate and come out the factory a supposed
    "fast hot hatch"

    There inlet manifold flows better
    There cylinder head flows better
    They have a wilder cam as standard
    So they put a larger down pipe on them as they got sold as one of there performance models...
  18. Established Member Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 1802
    #18
    I can see the tida-a-turning on this discussion

    /I'm out!!
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  19. Saxperience Post Whore Joined: Apr 2011 Posts: 9100 Amazon green VTR 16v, Inferno RS clio 182
    #19
    seconded!