Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Plus 4 GDI rough running after Clubsport upgrade

Snap, what you have started was exactly the same as my car which is a 2014 GDI.

Last Friday I spoke with a well known and knowledgeable Morgan mechanic who informed me that in the past he had to return a few ecu’s to MMC with similar issues. Armed with that piece of information I called the factory on Monday and was asked to bring the car in for them to have another look and to leave the car with them for a few days. Bearing in mind this is the 3rd time they had the car I was not overly confident in their mapping.

One thing I did this time round was to take a video of the car hunting upon cold starting which they took a copy of to come up with a remedy.

Anyway, I am very pleased to confirm that the car is now running so much better including a cold start this morning, it only took 6 months of perseverance! When picking up the car at MMC yesterday I was informed that they had found a compatibility issue with the base mapping coupled with the Clubsport mapping. Surprised this was not found at my previous visit but hey Ho it’s a Morgan.

To resolve the mapping issue they installed the latest base map to my early GDI map then installed the latest version of the Clubsport as an overlay. If you have an early GDI ? then this is what could resolve the problem. Best of luck and let me know how you get on.

Cheers Ken

Ken,
That's interesting, although so far this summer it's not been cold enough for it to be a real problem.
Cheers
John.

Kenny ,so glad you have got it sorted,its very difficult untill you know someone else has had the same problem. Any chance you could PM me with your full name,and tell me who you spoke to at MMC,and who did the sorting out, as I plan to phone them on Monday to ask them to sort mine out. How long did they have the car for ,although im not that far away from Malvern, very many thanks Duncan

If any body has had problems with the car after the clubsport remap,speak to Mark in service,as I have just taken my car back in .they took the original early GDi mapping off the ECU and put on the later GDi map and then reinstalled the clubsport flash,and now everthing is ok, no more problems,good result

Finally other people with the same problem! Knew this was a mapping issue from the start - we had the remap in January and it's been an issue ever since. Even got as far as looking into aftermarket ECUs and custom mapping to cure the issue but cost prohibitive! Will get onto Morgan Service today and see what can be done! Thank you guys!

Duncan: Do you have a source for the 2020 GDI (Plus 4) re map? (Clubsport) I’m in the U.S. and the dealer is 85 miles away. L.suglia@verizon.net. Thanks, Larry

Monty,
My understanding is that the GDI ECU is a version of the MBE9A6 which already has DBW and DI. However people that know a lot more than me about these things have said it is not a straight swap. I have tried to purchase the mapping kit from SBD and they refused to sell me one. I also know that when my car was on the local RR dyno, the operator who has the correct kit connected his laptop to the car but only some of the data was visible and other data was “strange” as if the addressing was not correct. The map is locked so he could not take a copy of the file.
So yes I would like to have an open ECU on my GDI but I don’t think there is an easy way to achieve it. Obviously if one rips all the wiring out and starts again anything is possible but as my car only has a major problem when cold starting so it's just easier to live with it.
Cheers
John.

Agreed John, I'd leave it well alone.

I went with an earlier cable throttle port injection Duratec Plus 4 as it's an altogether simpler animal that has the potential to make just as much power as the GDI, of course the real benefits of direct injection are a reduction in emissions which isn't on my priority list.

Caterham seems to have taken the same view, they also stay away from ITBs on the 360 prefering to use their own plenum on a single cable throttle body, this is my approach with Monty, I'm shooting for 185hp with my Fusion Fabrications inlet manifold and Exhaust system, increasing to a nice street friendly 210hp with Newman phase two cams.

If you're shifting a lot more air, you need to be able match it with fuel, so that's why I've gone with the EMU Black

Monty,
I've read with interest about the mods you are doing and I would agree with you that the single TB will be better for a road car, that is torque over pure BHP. You are correct in that the GDI gives good emissions but the variable valve timing also give the engine very good torque from low RPM and the BHP if you want to rev the motor. But the CS upgrade is required.
What we both probably need is a cheaper way to lower the diff gearing a tad?
Cheers
John.