Alfa Romeo 166 Tuning

"Thank you for reading my Alfa 166 tuning guide."

You can do a lot to improve the performance of your Alfa Romeo 166 with our step by step tuning tips. The key to Alfa Romeo 166 tuning is getting the right mods - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

• 2.0 L Twin Spark
• 2.0 L Turbo V6
• 2.5 L V6
• 3.0 L V6
• 3.2 L V6

Some regions got a 2.4 JTD diesel engine as well, the 3.0V6 is our preferred engine but all the others are really good units and do very well with the right performance parts added.

Our aim in Alfa Romeo 166 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at 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.

166 Power mods.

These mods motorsport upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the correct grade of uprated parts for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your 166

1. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most dramatic method to increase your intakes air supply, ensuring you are able to burn more fuel and make power gains. It is one of the most complex modifications it does provide the largest gains.
2. Internal engine mods - crank, pistons, conrods & compression ratio including balancing and blueprinting
3. Brake Upgrades - Stopping your 166 should be high on your agenda.
4. 166 Suspension - Fitting a more sporty Suspension kit dramatically improves 166 handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
5. Intake and high flowing exhausts - Please note that on their own these mods won't ADD HP for most setups, but they enable you to enhance power after other upgrades by freeing up a restriction.
6. Remaps - A tune/remap provides the most advantage in terms of your investment, aftermarket ECU upgrades, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
7. Lightened Flywheels - a lower weight flywheel will significantly improve the engines rev changes. Not always not a great upgrade for all 166 engines.
8. Fast road Camshafts are are often the best upgrade for an engine, but they must be setup by someone qualified to set them up properly and some cams are hard to find but there might be a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft for you.

166 Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Lighter flywheel.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).

Your aim when tuning should be a wide torque range. You don't want all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best modifications 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 single motorsport upgrades goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) 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 reflashed ECU to fully release the power gain.Don't forget to look at the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you have flat spots and 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. If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

166 Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are the thing most do first for the 166. We would go to a maximum drop of 27 - 41 on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Adjusting the handling is often the first step in using the 166. Adjusting the 166's handling is often the first step in tuning it.

When it comes to modding your 166, one of the most often aims and objectives is to improve its handling. However, we continue to come across the same mistakes.

Look out for adjustable coilovers which enable you to adjust the suspension height and this allows you to fine tune your handling.

Is there anything I should keep in mind while deciding on suspension settings for my 166?

Uprated Bushes

Enhancements to the bushings: Things you need to know

The suspension components of the 166 may be mounted to the car's chassis through bushings, which are rotatable rubber mounts. These rubber ones will lose their shape as they wear out.

By replacing new OEM rubber bushings, you may greatly improve your vehicle's performance.

It's probable that the ride may be a touch rougher because of the stronger polyurethane bushes but they'll last longer and maintain tighter handling.

Increased vibration and play may also quicken the decay in other suspension parts.

A new set of poly bushes may be able to lessen the excessive play that comes with rubber bushes.

Some poly bushings are hard to locate, but most will find the primary mounts readily available in their regions Often, custom 166 poly bushes may be manufactured to your requirements.

Many people believe that a 50mm lower 166 suspension kit from a franchised component shop would be perfrect. However, this is not the case - suspension design and setup is quite complex.

Claims are often made that all 166 models and years may be able to utilise the same suspension kits sold by vendors.

The 'generic one set for all models' approach is obviously a flawed assumption when it comes to adequately supporting a diverse variety of cars. Engine weights and trim levels, and even alloy rims will affect the handling and require different suspension setups.

How low should you go on the 166?

According to TorqueCars research and testing, the maximum amount of suspension drop for most road vehicles is 27 - 41 millimetres, whereas hot hatchbacks with lower OEM sport suspension have a maximum suspension drop of 19 millimetres.

These tolerances may be drastically reduced if the wheel size is changed. Even with 16 or 17-inch wheels and conventional suspension, lowering the vehicle may create a lots of new complications.

While the fact that the 166 being lower allows for less air to travel underneath it may aid in stability, the ultimate goal should always be to enhance handling. When lowering the springs, it is critical to use the proper shocks that match all round.

If you set the toe out to 1 to 2 degrees on the front, and add a tiny bit of negative camber then cornering will substantially improve.

For radically enhanced braking you should get better brake pads and match this with meatier brake discs.

Please note that motorsport brake pads will be noisy and will need to be hot before they start to work.

On a road car the brakes are occasionally used and will not be effective so specify pads which have a low working temperature.

166 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up.  Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow through the engine but do not go too large or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional gas flowing. These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. In nearly all cases of Alfa Romeo 166 tuning your clutch will start to slip and this needs to be uprated - read our guide on clutches for more information.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications.

Adding forced induction will see large power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

166 Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are generally less heavy than steel ones. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Alfa Romeo 166 is that you alter your effective final drive ratio so this will have a negative effect on performance.

Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 or 18 inches, although we know some of our members have with bigger wheels with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Alfa Romeo 166 options in more detail with our Alfa Romeo 166 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Alfa Romeo tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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