ECU re-programming?

[lozcb]

Guys,

Parisien is right, handling a braking are the two areas most in need of improvement on any of these cars. They are GTs and are not designed to corner like a Caterham. Chipping your engine will give minimal gains on a normally aspirated engine, unless you do mechanical things to improve breathing such as cam profiles, bigger valves, porting and matching etc. On turbo cars is a different story as you create manifold pressure.

Brakes - seems decent pads make a huge difference. Although the car is heavy, it only has about 250bhp per tonne, which is not huge. The 330mm discs and 4 pots all round are perfectly adequate unles you are going circuit racing. If you have the money buy Pagids. If not, the Green Grippers seem good. Ferodo DS3000's are also a very good compound.

Springs - A grand a set??? What are the dimensions? They are just coil overs, so you can go to a brand name such as Eibach and pay lots of the name, or you can go to Faulkner (http://www.dfaulknersprings.com) any buy them for probably less than £50/spring.

The important thing is to know your existing spring lb/in value. Best if you take them off and get them on a spring dynometer to measure. Don't go too ******* the rear (+10%) is probably the max, as you will have serious traction problems in the wet. Oh and never cut down springs. As well as shortening them, it makes them disproportionately (due to the way they are wound and supported) harder.

Has anyone looked at the anti roll bars and how to maybe design a stiffer bar and get the body under better control? (or you may be able to move the position of the drop links)




For

Has anyone looked at the anti roll bars and how to maybe design a stiffer bar and get the body under better control? (or you may be able to move the position of the drop links

FD do do anti roll bars , not bank breaking but well over priced for what they are



regards loz

 

[halbe01]

Not disagreeing, but the thing I've always found most wanting on my 4200 is the grip. When you're in the torque band it's very very easy to lose traction, especially round corners. I've got PS3's on the rear so should be as good as any. I often wonder about adding a little more power but in the end I think it's got plenty and it's really the grip which needs fixing most - and is the reason it's not a lot faster on the 0-60 sprint. Or perhaps that's just the driver, not the car..?!

Interestingly I was talking the pub the other day to a chap who claimed he'd had his 4200 engine rebored (is that the word?) out to about 4.7 to give it more power. I didn't have long enough talking to him to work out if that was true or not, but he said it wasn't that hard to do. Slightly skeptical myself - anyone ever heard of this? Given how tight the engine bay is I can't see you'd ever get a different (bigger) engine in that gap which would have been the other option there.

Cheers,
Ben.

 

[conaero]

The 4.7 thing is an option, new pistons, con rods and of course the block boreing but could be done for a few grand.

You would then need to get the brakes upgraded and the chassis tuned to handle it.

Why stop at 4.7?

Oh, downside, its got wet liners, so you might have to buy them too, ill check...

 

[conaero]

4.7
(all plus VAT)

Cylinder liners £135 each 8 required
Con rod £130 each 8 required
Piston with rings £175 each 8 required
Head gasket £42 each 2 required
Crank bearing shells £10 each 5 required
Con rod bearing shells £4 each 8 required

Your looking at £4k in parts to do it this route. You might also need the crank, then again, you might not need the con rods or liners so the viability of that needs to be checked first.

If you can get the name and number of the guy in pub, I would not mind talking to him.

 

[Paulm]

Personally I can't see the point in "d1ckin" around with rebores/chips etc........
Don't enjoy boring people with the mpg, 0-60, standing1/4 mile sh1t.
The only mods I would play with are as Frank says "brakes and suspension".......brakes will save your life, suspension will make your life more comfortable
Mine is just fine in standard format.......had many a good time with her ......plus getting a bit old for all that boy racing stuff.
Only my opinion.

 

[jamesc69]

I didn't get this done after some rational discussion with a well know indie...who inquired...."Just what percentage do you drive this car of yours to Parisien......80%...90% perhaps?"

When I stumbled with an answer he suggested about 60%.....on occasions.......


P

HeHe, had the same chat with Marios myself.

IMHO the ony benefit i can see is bragging rights down the pub.

 

[rotorheadcase]

Given that in normal mode the TCU kicks in too often and in sport mode I can spin the wheels at will, more power is the last thing I need. A more compliant suspension system is absolutely critical to getting the power down. I am doing the KW V3 upgrade later this year as a priority to improve the cornering whilst maintaining the comfortable ride.

Neil

 

[BennyD]

I was glad of every extra horse DMS sold me over the weekend. Too many are never quite enough in my book. Front brake pads are next for me and then maybe springs. At the moment I kinda enjoy driving around/through the standard cars shortcomings.

 

[halbe01]

Matt - it was a family do i met the chap at so ill make a couple of calls and should be able to find out who it was. I'll let you know.

 

[lozcb]

4.7
(all plus VAT)

Cylinder liners £135 each 8 required
Con rod £130 each 8 required
Piston with rings £175 each 8 required
Head gasket £42 each 2 required
Crank bearing shells £10 each 5 required
Con rod bearing shells £4 each 8 required

Your looking at £4k in parts to do it this route. You might also need the crank, then again, you might not need the con rods or liners so the viability of that needs to be checked first.

If you can get the name and number of the guy in pub, I would not mind talking to him.

Just wondered whether it would be possible to install a 430 lump in its entirety that produces standard 490 bhp at 8500 revs , now that should be more than enough, i'll have a word with someone that might know if its at all possible , they can be picked up for £5K ish now, its the mid engine to front engine conversion bit im not sure about


regards loz

 

[DaveT]

Has anyone had their ECU re-programmed to optimise either performance or (dare I say it..) fuel consumption, or both?

I notice on some other car forums performance and economy seem to be enhanced. Is this feasible with 4200's? Has anyone tried it? What results have you obtained and would you recommend it?

Thanks,

David

David

I take it from this thread your are keeping the 4200.

Thought I read somewhere you were on the move.

Good luck with the mods.

 

[Fat Arnie]

Loz,

Do tell me where you can get a 430 lump for £5k.

From my own project I had to pay £15k for an F355 engine and box as nice as these.

 

[lozcb]

Loz,

Do tell me where you can get a 430 lump for £5k.

From my own project I had to pay £15k for an F355 engine and box as nice as these.

View attachment 11764

There's a 2004 430 58K miles ( so an early one ) just being broken at the moment £9k gets you the engine and gearbox straight out of the car ,


regards loz

 

[Parisien]

FA's heart beat just went pitter....patter.....


P

 

[lozcb]

Looking at the car , i bet that engine is nowhere as clean as yours tho



regards loz

 

[Fat Arnie]

No, mines only done 9k.

58k for an F430 engine is a very different proposition to a 4200 or GS of similar mileage. They share few characteristics and even less parts!

 

[djmhall]

As this thread started on the subject of fuel economy and while I agree this is hardly our main consideration - I have found found meaningful improvements on day to day driving thanks to FD.

I had an ECM unit reprogrammed with two maps - a high torque optimised one - and a fuel efficiency one. They fully admitted they had never shipped the fuel efficiency one before and insisted on testing it on their GS for a month. In the end they let me have it and I have now been running with it for about a year. I alternate the maps - but generally use the fuel efficiency one the most as in day to day driving you can't really tell the difference.

I have pro-speed sports cats on the car which help the engine breath well, so the ultimate performance effect on the performance map is dramatic flat out. But in terms of the economy map, I recon it has made a consistent 2 mpg difference. Mt worst tank has been 15.1, when before, I could easily get to 13 or below when enjoying the car. Real world average, while still enjoying the car's performance is between 16 and 17 - and I never would have got close to that before hand.

Dom

P.s. Forgot to add I am doing at least 10k mile a year in the car, so thats a saving of > £500 a year - and hence worth having in my book!

 

[mjheathcote]

As this thread started on the subject of fuel economy and while I agree this is hardly our main consideration - I have found found meaningful improvements on day to day driving thanks to FD.

I had an ECM unit reprogrammed with two maps - a high torque optimised one - and a fuel efficiency one. They fully admitted they had never shipped the fuel efficiency one before and insisted on testing it on their GS for a month. In the end they let me have it and I have now been running with it for about a year. I alternate the maps - but generally use the fuel efficiency one the most as in day to day driving you can't really tell the difference.

I have pro-speed sports cats on the car which help the engine breath well, so the ultimate performance effect on the performance map is dramatic flat out. But in terms of the economy map, I recon it has made a consistent 2 mpg difference. Mt worst tank has been 15.1, when before, I could easily get to 13 or below when enjoying the car. Real world average, while still enjoying the car's performance is between 16 and 17 - and I never would have got close to that before hand.

Dom

P.s. Forgot to add I am doing at least 10k mile a year in the car, so thats a saving of > £500 a year - and hence worth having in my book!

That's interesting.
What concerns me is with FD being in America how can they optimise maps for the UK market, isn't our fuel octane rating slightly different? Is our standard premium unleaded the same? and as a side note, does using super unleaded make any difference instead of premium? I was surprised that Maserati did not recommend super unleaded as the recommended fuel.
Cheers.

 

[djmhall]

They simply ask what rating fuel you want to map to. I said standard 95 unleaded for both maps - even though I will put in super unleaded every other fill if I can. I could have gone with a high super unleaded performance map, but maybe that is diminishing returns.

 

[halbe01]

That's very interesting - how much more torque (subjective I assume) do you get with that remap? I'd love more low end torque even though I already have the DBW module.

On a previous topic - Matt - I asked around and nobody seemed to remember the other Maz owner who'd claimed the 4.7 rebore so unfortunately can't put you in touch. He may resurface at another do so I'll watch out for him.

Cheers,
Ben