Fiesta ST Mk7 + learning to map
Discussion
Hey people,
I've had my molten orange Fiesta for a little while now and figured it would be worth posting some bits on here.
I bought it end of 2020 from a guy who had very little information about the car, the only things I could really see was that it had a mountune airbox and exhaust, the original wheels had been painted black, and that was about it. Having never driven one before I couldn't really say what else had been done, I suspected with those mods it probably had the mountune 215 map. On further inspection, it was also on mountune springs which are 30-35mm lower than standard - it scrapes everywhere and looked a little like this:
It had been debadged front and rear, so I had those replaced. I didn't really like the wheels as they were, I also ended up kerbing one of them pretty badly, so I decided to get some new ones. I found pumaspeed were selling copies of the Mk8 Fiesta ST wheels in 17" rather than 18", the price was right and I love how they look so I got some, so it looks a little more like this:
My brother and I have been looking into mapping, trying to understand how it works and ultimately build a tune for the Fiesta, plus other cars. So with a bit of research we pulled the ECU out of my car and stuck it on a bench, cracked it open, made contact in the right places, and read the ECU and saved a copy. Put the ECU back in the car and it still worked, so all in all a success! ECUs in the Fiesta and a few other moden Ford's are the Bosch MED17.2, loads of cool stuff you can do with them it seems.
I've been looking at programs such as WinOLS, ECM Titanium and VCM suite, trying to figure out as much as possible, so far VCM suite has been the most useful, people over at the HP tuners forum posted stock ECU tunes and their own maps and VCM suite lets you compare the 2 and as such you can figure out how to make them faster. Hopefully in the near future we'll start messing around with maps and chucking them on my car and getting it on the dyno to see what's what and if we're heading in the right direction. Why bother spending £250 on a stage 1 map when you can spend loads of hours making your own, right!?
Recently we got the car on the rollers to see what it was doing and confirm one way or the other whether it had a map on it already, or if it was stock. A couple of runs later confirmed it was running stock power - there was a hint of wheelspin which may explain why it's about 10ft/lb off the stock torque number, could probably do with dropping the tyre pressures a few pounds to help it grip, but otherwise it all looks healthy!
In other less interesting news, it would benefit a service, fresh brake fluid (ATE typ 200 is my go to), and a new driveshaft seal as one is weeping some oil. Once that's all done I'm keen to get it out on its first trackday with me at the wheel, it's a hilarious little car to drive, engine always feels keen to push on and the steering/handling is spot on, does exactly what you ask it to.
I've had my molten orange Fiesta for a little while now and figured it would be worth posting some bits on here.
I bought it end of 2020 from a guy who had very little information about the car, the only things I could really see was that it had a mountune airbox and exhaust, the original wheels had been painted black, and that was about it. Having never driven one before I couldn't really say what else had been done, I suspected with those mods it probably had the mountune 215 map. On further inspection, it was also on mountune springs which are 30-35mm lower than standard - it scrapes everywhere and looked a little like this:
It had been debadged front and rear, so I had those replaced. I didn't really like the wheels as they were, I also ended up kerbing one of them pretty badly, so I decided to get some new ones. I found pumaspeed were selling copies of the Mk8 Fiesta ST wheels in 17" rather than 18", the price was right and I love how they look so I got some, so it looks a little more like this:
My brother and I have been looking into mapping, trying to understand how it works and ultimately build a tune for the Fiesta, plus other cars. So with a bit of research we pulled the ECU out of my car and stuck it on a bench, cracked it open, made contact in the right places, and read the ECU and saved a copy. Put the ECU back in the car and it still worked, so all in all a success! ECUs in the Fiesta and a few other moden Ford's are the Bosch MED17.2, loads of cool stuff you can do with them it seems.
I've been looking at programs such as WinOLS, ECM Titanium and VCM suite, trying to figure out as much as possible, so far VCM suite has been the most useful, people over at the HP tuners forum posted stock ECU tunes and their own maps and VCM suite lets you compare the 2 and as such you can figure out how to make them faster. Hopefully in the near future we'll start messing around with maps and chucking them on my car and getting it on the dyno to see what's what and if we're heading in the right direction. Why bother spending £250 on a stage 1 map when you can spend loads of hours making your own, right!?
Recently we got the car on the rollers to see what it was doing and confirm one way or the other whether it had a map on it already, or if it was stock. A couple of runs later confirmed it was running stock power - there was a hint of wheelspin which may explain why it's about 10ft/lb off the stock torque number, could probably do with dropping the tyre pressures a few pounds to help it grip, but otherwise it all looks healthy!
In other less interesting news, it would benefit a service, fresh brake fluid (ATE typ 200 is my go to), and a new driveshaft seal as one is weeping some oil. Once that's all done I'm keen to get it out on its first trackday with me at the wheel, it's a hilarious little car to drive, engine always feels keen to push on and the steering/handling is spot on, does exactly what you ask it to.
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