The updated Kalina of the Cross model received improved off-road characteristics in the form of increased ground clearance and large-diameter tires. But it is not suitable for real off-road use. On dry dirt roads, the Kalina is capable of moving at a fairly decent speed (without much discomfort for the driver and his passengers). But it cannot overcome complex off-road obstacles due to its lack of all-wheel drive and low-range gears. “Kalin” with all-wheel drive is not currently produced, and it is not advisable to install it yourself, since when you add up the cost of the car and the amount of money spent on introducing all-wheel drive, you get the amount for which it is possible to purchase a factory SUV that has all-wheel drive right off the assembly line. But you can make a number of changes that will have a positive impact on the performance of the car.
Engine
The Lada Kalina Cross is equipped with an engine that does not have excellent power and dynamics. To improve its power characteristics it is necessary to make a number of modifications.
- Improve the filling of the cylinders with the combustible mixture:
- boring the inlet channel in the cylinder head;
- reducing the diameter of the valve stem in the area of its widest part;
- replacing the standard intake manifold with a tuned one, with a reduced intake tract.
- Replacing standard nozzles with higher performance nozzles.
- Replacing the standard exhaust manifold with a “spider” one with improved aerodynamic properties.
- After the mechanical changes have been made, it is necessary to perform software tuning of the electronic control unit of the power plant, chip tuning.
Low-growing berry: tuning Lada Kalina 2
Concept
The main parameters when choosing a base for the project were a pleasant appearance, large wheel arches, a hatchback body and the ability to install a 100-liter subwoofer in the trunk. In the winter of 2014, Andrey bought a Lada Kalina 2 – new, from a car dealership. Of what was included in the package2, we can only note front power windows, power steering, ABS and a driver's airbag. However, this is how it was intended: the construction of a stans project does not depend on the configuration. And nothing was required from the engine other than reliability, so the 8-valve 1.6-liter unit with a capacity of 87 horsepower was quite suitable.
Outside
Good stans starts with lowering and wheels. Andrey was lucky enough to purchase original 16-inch BBS RS wheels of different widths. True, with a bolt pattern of 5x114.3 (Kalina has 4x98) - so they lay there for a while and waited in the wings. To install the disks, hub adapters (40 and 45 mm thick) were ordered in Rostov-on-Don. After installing the air suspension, BBS RS wheels and the corresponding wheel alignment, Lada Kalina acquired a completely different appearance, which was conceived from the moment of purchase at the car dealership.
Andrey often travels around Russia and is fond of snowboarding, so he installed an aerodynamic Thule WingBar rack on the roof with fasteners for two snowboards, and when traveling it is replaced by a top-end “basket” Thule Xpedition 821 (99x158 cm). Later, a Thule Fairling fairing was added to this set for better aerodynamics.
Inside
The process of interior improvements began with the purchase of a Starline alarm system with additional channels so that additional equipment could be controlled remotely. Andrey picked up a 2-DIN Pioneer radio with the Mirrorlink function, rare at that time. Its main feature is the ability to control all the functionality of the phone, from calls and SMS to launching any applications, from the touch screen of the radio. Navigation, music from the Internet, movies, YouTube, radar detector - all this is always at hand.
When winter came, Andrey added a few little things to the salon to his liking. He added additional buttons to the heater control unit (responsible for turning on/off the radio, adjusting the brightness of the backlight and an additional on-board computer “State”, which displays a lot of useful system information via the CAN bus), redesigned the heater design and the backlight. Then I installed chrome air duct regulators from Ford, an armrest, a handbrake handle from Lada Kalina Sport, chrome deflectors from Renault, chrome door lock buttons and door sills.
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The next step was to install the music. There was no goal to prepare a car for competitions or auto shows; I just wanted to install personalized acoustics, achieve pleasant sound and deep, soft bass that could not only be heard, but also felt, without disturbing others. Having selected Morel Tempo Ultra speakers in the front doors, an Alpine amplifier for them, having successfully stumbled upon an amplifier for a Sundown Audio 3.5 kilowatt subwoofer and adding an AGM Narada 170A gel battery, we set to work. First, the doors were assembled, and then the trunk was assembled step by step - in a homemade box. Next, all additional buttons in the interior were engraved in the factory style, but with individual designs.
Technique
Andrey ordered an air suspension kit from Pnevmo Lider, and his friends helped with its installation. The kit includes: collapsible racks with a lowering of -70 mm on PL 6022 sleeve-type air springs, a 12-liter KAMAZ receiver, a Berkut R20 compressor, a Camozzi moisture separator and a block of 8 electric valves.
The whale was made with high quality. The only thing we encountered during installation was the issue of laying highways to all four wheels, the most compact arrangement of equipment and organizing its control. The guys also installed four body position sensors from Land Rover, an MFtech air suspension controller, and thanks to the presence of additional channels for the alarm, they made the air suspension remote control (up and down).
For those who are interested in how the air suspension works, we will tell you about its structure here. The air suspension consists of ordinary struts, only instead of springs there is a cylinder into which air is pumped under pressure, thereby raising/lowering the car. All four racks are connected by lines to a valve block, which, when one valve is activated, lowers or raises one or another rack (each can be controlled separately), there are 8 valves in total (4 up and 4 down). Based on body position sensors, the controller understands what position the car is currently in, corrects it and transmits this information to the owner. Air is supplied to the valve block from the receiver, in which a pressure of 12 atmospheres is automatically maintained using a Berkut R20 compressor. The MFtech controller has three customizable programmed heights in memory and an “auto horizon” function (the car levels out on unevenness, rolls, and diagonals).
Exploitation
Pneumatic control looks something like this: you park, move away from the car a couple of meters - and the car goes down to the very bottom and is armed. Then, at any time, you can remotely pick it up, get into the car and drive straight away. Convenient and effective.
Lada Kalina 2
Brief technical specifications
Engine: custom engine protection made of 5-mm sheet steel Electronics: MFtech air suspension controller Suspension: Pnevmo Lider air suspension kit Exterior: Thule WingBar trunk Wheels: mixed-wide 16-inch BBS RS wheels Audio system: Pioneer AVH-X8500BT head unit
However, since the car comes from Arkhangelsk, where the roads for the most part leave much to be desired, I had to find a solid sheet of five-millimeter steel and weld the engine protection from it. Already a week after the suspension installation was completed, Andrei got used to driving low and began to evaluate the situation on the road in a new way.
Plans
So gradually the Lada Kalina, first inside and then outside, changed and transformed, eventually turning into a neat and stylish stance project with equipment that was maximally tailored to the owner’s wishes. However, this is far from the final version; further life will introduce many more minor improvements and nuances to the car - after all, Kalina is used every day.
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List of improvements:
ENGINE
- Custom engine protection made of 5 mm steel sheet
ELECTRONICS
- On-board computer "State"
- Four body position sensors from Land Rover
- Air suspension controller MFtech
- Pneumatic signal
SUSPENSION Air suspension kit from Pnevmo Lider:
- collapsible racks with lowering -70 mm
- Sleeve type air bags
- KAMAZ receiver 12 liters
- compressor Berkut R20
- Camozzi dehumidifier
- solenoid valves for each rack
INTERIOR
- Chromed air duct twisters from Ford
- Armrest installed
- Handbrake handle from Lada Kalina Sport
- Chrome door lock buttons
- Door sills
EXTERIOR
- Deflectors with chrome from Renault
- Top-of-the-line Thule WingBar
- Thule Xpedition 821 basket for trunk
- Thule Fairling trunk fairing
- Fog lights installed
WHEELS AND TIRES
- Mixed-width 16-inch BBS RS wheels
- Hub adapters (40 and 45 mm thick)
AUDIO SYSTEM
- Pioneer AVH-X8500BT head unit
- Morel Tempo Ultra 602 speakers
- Subwoofer Sundown Audio X-12
- Alpine MRV-F300 amplifier for speakers
- Sundown Audio SAZ-3500D amplifier for subwoofer
- Gel battery AGM Narada 170A
- Installation of Slav Audio
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Salon
The updated interior of the Kalina has fewer shortcomings than in previous versions, but there is still something to work on.
- The missing armrest greatly hinders the ability to travel long distances. You can solve the problem by installing an armrest that can fit into the space between the chairs.
- You can remove the sound of a clattering rear shelf by gluing foam rubber in the places where the shelf adheres to the car body.
- By installing a trim on the rear bumper in the trunk area, you can reduce the number of scratches on its surface.
- If your configuration does not include rear power windows, you can install them yourself.
- The lack of sound insulation can be compensated for by installing additional or replacing the existing sound insulation with a better one.
