All you need to know about performance tuning the Suzuki K6A K10B K10C K12A K12B K12C K12D K12N K14B K14C K14D K15B engines (2025)

"All you need to know about tuning and performance parts on the Suzuki K series engine!"

The Suzuki K series provide a fun base for your project and with the optimum uprated mods like remaps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will definitely improve your driving fun.

Let us outline options for your K series tuning and point out the optimum modifications.

History, Power & Specs of the K series Engine

K6A

1994–1998 Suzuki Alto Works HA21/HB21
1998–2005 Suzuki Alto HA22/23 / Mazda Carol
2001–2002 Suzuki Kei HN11S/HN12S/HN21S/HN22S / Type E
2004–2009. Suzuki Alto HA24
1995–1998Suzuki JimnyJA22
1998–2018Suzuki JimnyJB23
1997–2001Suzuki Wagon R
2004–2009Arctic Cat660 Turbo (K6A-B 115 hp)
2009–present Suzuki Alto HA25
Suzuki CappuccinoEA21R
2013–2017Caterham 7 160/165

K10B

2009–2014 Suzuki Alto/A-Star/Nissan Pixo
2008–2014Suzuki Splash
2009–2014Maruti Suzuki Estilo/Karimun Estilo(India & Indonesia)
2010–presentMaruti Suzuki/Pak Suzuki Wagon R(India, Pakistan & Indonesia)
2014–present Suzuki Celerio/Cultus
2014–presentMaruti Suzuki Alto K10
2019–presentMaruti Suzuki S-Presso

K10C - Turbocharged

2017–present Suzuki Swift
2015–presentSuzuki Baleno
2015–presentSuzuki Vitara
2015–presentSuzuki SX4 S-Cross

K12A - 1.2 L

69 PS (68 hp)

1998–2000Suzuki Wagon R+/Solio

K12B - 1.2 L

90–91 PS (66–67 kW; 89–90 hp) at 6000 rpm & torque 118 Nm at 4400 rpm.2009–2016 Suzuki Splash

2010–2017 Suzuki Swift
2010–2015 Suzuki Solio
Mitsubishi Delica D
2014–Suzuki Ciaz

K12C - 1.2 L

90 PS (66 kW; 89 hp) at 6000 rpm & torque 120 Nm at 4400 rpm.

2015–present Suzuki Solio/Mitsubishi Delica
2017–present Suzuki Swift
2015–present Suzuki Ignis
2015–present Suzuki Baleno

K12D - 1.2 L

83 PS (61 kW; 82 hp) at 6000 rpm & torque 107 Nm at 2000 rpm

2020–present Suzuki Swift Hybrid
2020–present Suzuki Ignis Hybrid

K12M - 1.2 L

83 PS (61 kW; 82 hp) at 6000 rpm & torque 113 Nm at 4200 rpm

2009–2016 Suzuki Splash/Maruti Ritz
2015–presentSuzuki Baleno
2017–presentSuzuki Ignis
2019–presentSuzuki Wagon R
2012–presentSuzuki Swift
2012–2017Suzuki Swift Dzire
2017–2020Suzuki Dzire

K12N - 1.2 L

90 PS (66 kW; 89 hp) at 6000 rpm & torque 113 Nm at 4200 rpm

2019–Suzuki BalenoSHVS/Toyota Glanza
2020– Suzuki Dzire

K14B - 1.4 L

70 kW (95 PS; 94 hp).

Changhe Ideal
Changhe Freedom Landy(Suzuki Carry based minivan)
Suzuki Lianaa+ (Changhe built, Chinese market only)
Changhe Big Dipper
2012–2019Suzuki/Proton Ertiga/Mazda VX-1
2010–2017Suzuki Swift
2014–Suzuki Ciaz
2017–Suzuki Baleno
2020–Toyota Starlet

K14C - 1.4 L

140 PS (103 kW; 138 hp) at 5500 rpm & torque 230 Nm at 2500 rpm.

2015– Suzuki Vitara/Escudo
2016–Suzuki SX4 S-Cross(facelift)
2018– Suzuki Swift Sport

K14D - 1.4 L

129 PS (95 kW; 127 hp) at 5500 rpm & torque 235 Nm at 2000 rpm

2020– Suzuki S-Cross Hybrid
2020– Suzuki Swift Sport Hybrid
2020– Suzuki Vitara Hybrid

K15B - 1.5 L

102–105 PS (75–77 kW; 101–104 hp) @6000 rpm & 130–138 Nm @4400

2018- Suzuki Ciaz (facelift)
2018- Suzuki Ertiga
2018- Suzuki Jimny Sierra (4th gen)
2019- Suzuki XL6/XL7
2020- Suzuki S-Cross
2020- Suzuki Vitara Brezza
2020- Toyota Urban Cruiser

K15B-C - 1.5 L

97 PS (71 kW; 96 hp) @5600 rpm & 135 Nm (14 kg⋅m) @4400 rpm

Suzuki Carry

Tuning the Suzuki K series and best K series performance parts.

Best K series modifications

When talking about the best modifications for your K series engine, we are going to focus on the tuning parts that give the best power gain for you spend.

Altering your K series camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine bhp. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the bhp accordingly.

Best Engine Mods for your car

Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings, aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include:
Intake manifolds, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust header/manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, .

Typical stage 2 mods often include:
Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injectors, Ported and polished head, induction kit.

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

The K series units respond well to mods and we're pleased to see that there are quite a few choices of parts and tuning parts out there.

Mapping should help to fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your K series.

(In some cases, as the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it setup properly.)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but your mileage will rely on the parts you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Feeding more air into each cylinder is the aim to any engine upgrade project.

The intake plenum carry the air from the filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The size of bore and shape and flow characteristics of the Intake manifolds can make a big difference to fuel atomisation on the K series.

On popular production engines air intake manifolds are improved through performance upgrades, although a few OEM provide decently flowing air intake manifolds.

Larger K series valves, doing a bit of K series port enlargement and head flowing will also improve bhp and torque, and significantly will permit raising the bhp and torque increase on other upgrades.

K series Turbo upgrades

NA (naturally aspirated) 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 K series

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes impressive power gains.

If your motor is fitted with a turbo parts are simpler to install and you will discover turbo engines are made using harder and stronger components.

There are practical limits for every engine, with some being very over engineered and some only just able to handle stock powerSee where you'll find these limitations and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to handle the power.

It's not unheard of tuners spending a loads of money on turbo charger upgrades on the K series only to suffer the indignity of watching the engine block explode when it's been enthusiastically driven.

Big upgraded turbo units commonly experience low end lag, and little turbo units spool up quickly but don't have the top end torque gains.

Thankfully the world of turbo units is always increasing and we now see variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and direct these at differently angled vanes in the turbo charger. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a limit in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the K series when a lot more air is being fed into the engine.

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

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although more difficult to configure. We have this guide to twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling

Don't miss you'll need to uprate the fuel system when you are increasing the bhp - it makes the car more thirsty. Don't forget to be generous with your injector capacity.

As a rule of thumb add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and provides you some spare capacity should the engine need 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.

K series Performance Exhausts

You may need to increase your exhaust if the current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the flow rate is still good 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 out of the engine but do not go too large or you could very well end up with a reduced flow rate. So generally speaking, keep to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Common exhaust restrictions can be traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a better flowing performance catalyst removes the restriction. We note that performance cats perform similarly to decats and have the added benefit of keeping your car street legal, as decats or catalyst removal is illegal in most territories for road going cars.

Weak spots, Issues & problem areas on the K series

The K series engines are generally reliable and solid units, as long as you follow the manufacturers service schedules, and use a good quality oil to ensure longevity. Few problems should happen as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Carbon build up in the head, particularly around the valves which will sap power or create flat spots, this is a larger issue on direct injection engines but should be looked out for on all engines. We have tips on removing carbon build up.

Some of our members have had issues with flat spots or glitches after applying mods and upgrades or tuning, this is not usually related to this engines design, so instead see our article on diagnosing flat spots and problems after tuning which should help you get the bottom of this issue.

Regular oil changes are vital on the K series, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

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

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