As I said, it all really depends on how far you want to go?
Fascinating posts. Thank you.
gmg
The challenge for anyone looking to tune a Plus 4 is not the Duratec engine, it's the Visteon ECU, this is frustrating because reaching 185hp should be as cheap and simple as following these three steps:
1. Have a good fabricator create a Supersport replica exhaust manifold that incorporates your factory cat - Estimated at £1,200 fitted
2. Fitting a Fusion Fabrications ST150 (Mountune MR200 replica) inlet manifold - £1,000 fitted
3. Reflashing the Visteon ECU with a suitable richer well developed calibration - Estimated at £300
I'm quite sure there would be a good market for such a package offered to Duratec Plus 4 owners at £2,500, for this sum you'll be taking the car from 145hp to 185hp which is a 28% increase in power so you'll definitely feel it, such a package would work out at a very reasonable £62.50 for every horsepower added.
Ford Mondeo ECUs are also cheap so a reflashed version could be offered on an exchange basis to create a self fit kit, in the post you would get the exhaust manifold, the inlet manifold and the reflashed exchange ECU ready to plug in, and all for just £2,000. This self fit kit would bring the cost down to £50 for every horsepower added, which is about as cheap as naturally aspirated tuning gets.
There must be someone out there with the software to hack the Visten ECU who also has a rolling road, all that's needed is a slightly richer calibration! Once the file has been created it can be replicated over and over for zero cost, so there’s actually quite a good profit margin in selling a 185hp self fit kit for around £2k and it’s cheap enough to stimulate quite a bit of demand too.
