Talk Morgan Forums Thread Like Summary - Monty Gets a New ECU

Following fitting my Fusion Fabrications Supper Sports exhaust system.




And my new long runner ERG/swirl flap delete inlet manifold, also from Fusion Fabrications.




Monty's engine is definitely shifting more air, with no AFR gauge this increase in air was proved the old school way.

* Audible crackles from the exhaust on the overrun
* A deep trombone like tone from the engine on tip-in
* A generally dull throttle response
* Some mild flat spots in closed loop below 3,000rpm

The concerning lean condition was further confirmed by the Visteon/Ford ECU showing a long term fuel trim of +16.4% on my OBD reader!



Monty's Visteon/Ford ECU was throwing in as much fuel it could to match all the additional air the engine was now shifting, but it had clearly reached the limits of what it could do. To solve the dangerously lean condition and release the additional power waiting to be enjoyed, I desperately needed a way of applying more fuel, this basically left me with two options:

1. Find someone who could genuinely map Monty's Visteon/Ford ECU

Firsty, I want to be clear that I have a great deal of respect for the old Visteon/Ford ECU, while it is rather outdated engine management technology from the early 2000s with narrow band lambda sensors, there's no question it is a well designed and thoroughly developed OEM ECU from Ford that proved itself on a gazillion Mondeos and Focus'. However, finding someone who could genuinely live map this ECU properly on a rolling road proved rather challenging, after lots of research the most convincing people I spoke to were Motor Sport Developments based a considerable 230 miles from me up in Blackpool.

https://www.motorsport-developments.co.uk/index.html

Motor Sport Developments estimated a live mappings session would be somewhere between £600 to £900 depending on the time needed, this on top of the time and cost of the near 500 mile round trip from home to Blackpool and back. I was also mindful that my further development plans of fitting a set of Newman Phase Two cams would demand another mapping session, perhaps just a couple of hours on the dyno this time but still more cost and another big trip to Blackpool to get it done, in the end I could see myself spending over £1000 on mapping and fuel and I still wouldn't have access to the ECU myself.

2. Take the aftermarket ECU route

On paper there are many benefits to taking this option, but I've gone down this road before and have had a mixed experiences ranging from a very positive result with a friends Lotus Elan Plus Two we converted to a Haltech system, to some enormous challenges using a Canems Dual Fuel ECU on my TVR Chimaera. In both cases these installations were what is typically referred to as a stand alone ECU conversion, that is the new aftermarket engine management system stands alone using its own sub wiring harness that does not fully integrate with the vehicles existing wiring.

In my experience most of the challenges that come with a stand alone ECU are with the sub loom that you need to build and install on the car, even if your stand alone loom is built well it still needs to be spliced into the vehicle and I just didn't fancy doing that to Monty who’s factory loom is really rather nicely made in my opinion. Furthemore, due to the adoption of Control Area Networked (CAN) wiring we see on all modern cars, a stand alone installation isn't really an option. These days so many systems, devices and typically all dash gauges are CAN, this means you're going to lose too many critical functions on the vehicle if you try to splice in a stand alone ECU.

To solve the CAN challenge all the better aftermarket ECU manufacturers now offer what are called Plug & Play systems (PnP), the brilliance of the PnP is it utilises the vehicle's existing wiring loom, so unlike the stand alone the PnP requires no potentially problematic separate loom to be built and laid into the car. However, where it gets tricky is these PnP systems need to be vehicle specific, a patch cable is created to connect the vehicle's factory ECU connector to the aftermarket ECU which is the simple bit, the vehicle's CAN system is then interrogated (sniffed) and the language it communicates in (the protocol) is identified before the aftermarket ECU is the programmed to talk to the car in that same language.

There's absolutely no doubt the PnP approach is the way forward for the aftermarket ECU industry and customers looking to gain tuning control over their more modern vehicle, the trouble for us Morganeers is nobody offers a true PnP for our cars. This pushed me back to the option of trying to work with the old Visteon/Ford ECU which was a bit disappointing to be honest.

Until that was that I discovered this on the Ecumaster Facebook page:


It sure looked like a PnP for my Morgan Plus 4 was actually available after all, so after chatting with the UK agent for Ecumaster I was convinced, I coughed up what amounted to just £250 more than I was likely to end up spending mapping the old Visteon ECU twice over and I had myself a Morgan Plus 4 PnP.

Or at least I thought I had a Morgan Plus 4 PnP!

As it turns out the German Morgan that was fitted with the one and only system shown on that Facebook post was on throttle bodies, what I discovered was that the so-called PnP was not CAN compliant at all. I suspect the car was a Super Sport, Morgan used an Omex ECU on this model so perhaps they directly wired the gauges ect and no CAN was used, or perhaps the German Morgan was a race car?

Whatever the reason the Ecumaster Morgan Plus 4 PnP was a long way off being plug and play because when I first tried it the car failed to start, and I also had no warning lights or gauges

Fortunately Ecumaster are an honest company so I was offered a full refund, or the option of them interrogating Monty's CAN system free of charge to try and get the ECU working with the car’s warning lights and gauges. Knowing a full refund would just force me back to the old Visteon I went with option two, I delivered the car to Ecumaster and their chief engineer Greg set about the task of 'sniffing' the CAN as the process is referred to in the industry. I was aware that Greg had completed this CAN sniffing process on much more modern vehicles with way more complex CAN systems than my Morgan, but while I'm experienced with aftermarket ECUs, CAN was somewhat of a mystery to me so all I could do was keep my fingers crossed.

When Greg called to say it was all sorted I have to say I was mighty impressed, he even kindly gave me an ST150 calibration to get me started as part of his free of charge service which really sweetened the deal. I now have a true PnP EMU Black ECU for my Morgan Plus 4 and I'm no longer locked out from tuning the car and tied to paying large sums of cash to a company miles from my home who can work with the venerable old Visteon/Ford ECU.





I’m pleased to confirm Monty now goes like a stabbed rat on the EMU Black, the ST150 calibration supplied FOC by the UK Ecumaster importer also turned out to work way better than expected, so in the end the whole project has proved to be a great success.

Finally, I must say I received outstanding service from Greg, he's clearly a very talented engine management engineer with good experience in sniffing CAN systems. I can't recommend his services and this PnP EMU Black istall enough to anyone else looking to tune their Duratec Plus 4, or even just those looking for an ECU update for their mid 2000's era Trad morgan

Thanks for the heads up Richard, if you go to Revivals every year I’ should be ready to join you on your 2024 visit.

Being honest, a power run just to get a number isn't my focus right now, and I prefer to view a rolling road dynamometer as a sophisticated tuning tool that allows for safe and controlled engine load based fuel and ignition timing calibration, rather than a number generator. So my first session on the rollers will be all about tuning and mostly ignition tuning at that, the way I see it the time to get my final numbers is the same day I give my calibration the last polish, and this will be after fitting the Newman Phase 2 cams as this is the last stage of Monty's engine development.

I will keep street tuning even post cams, when I'm 100% happy I've reached the limit of the EMU Black 'Autotune' and 'Virtual Dyno' features, only then will I hit the rollers. As we know, the 2.0 Duratec has a knock sensor and the PnP install ensures my EMU Black is automatically all wired up to it, admittedly I've not used it yet but once calibrated correctly the EMU Black knock control feature does look very good indeed:


However, I'll be sense checking my on street calibrated knock management with a stand alone knock kit the day I finally put Monty on the rollers, my thinking being it's good to compare the onset of detonation with a separate system while wearing a set of det cans to make sure I'm genuinely running peak advance. My friend has just upgraded his dyno from a rolling road to a far superior hub dyno, which is great unless you happen to have splined hubs, so I'll probably have to use Surrey Rolling Road.

Obviously I do have ultimate torque and horsepower targets I'm working to, so I will need confirmation I've achieved my goals.

To be honest, I really should have put Monty on the rollers before I started my tuning journey to get a good base number, but here are the figures taken directly from Ford's DHE Engine manual so while we often see 143 hp quoted for the Duratec Morgan Plus 4 I'm confident Ford's own numbers are the best starting point to work from.

Base:

* 145.48 hp @ 6,000rpm

* 140.13 lb/ft @ 4,500 rpm

Expectations for Monty following the cams upgrade (final stage):

* 205.48 hp @ 7,200rpm

* 180.13 lb/ft @ 4,800 rpm

* 150.00 lb/ft @ 2,350 rpm

In my personal opinion while peak numbers are all well and good for pub bragging rights, for me it's that last torque figure I'd be most proud of if I can indeed deliver it?

If I can achieve 150 lb/ft at just 2,350 rpm rising to a peak torque figure of 180 lb/ft at 4,800 rpm Monty will be a devastating little 877kg vintage looking club racer, and especially if his engine keeps making horsepower all the way to 7,200 rpm.



Watch this space chaps

Monty is the first car I've owned without a boot, and I enjoy my trips to Le Mans with the boys and other road trip adventures that typically involve camping. So, 'Old Maynard' as my WW1 leather trunk is now known will be ideal for my tent, our sleeping bags, and camp beds.



Back on topic, the EMU Black Plug & Play ECU really is working out better that I ever could have hoped, it's only really been a few days since it was fitted but following some very minor tweaks of my own to Greg's excellent calibration Monty has never run so well and felt strong, as I'd hoped the ECU has allowed me to access the potential power improvements from my exhaust and inlet manifold mods

I must admit I was expecting to travel to Le Mans next week on my original Visten ECU while I developed the calibration and got to trust the EMU BLack, or at best take the Visteon with me for an emergency swap, but I've now decided the EMU Black is working so well I won't be even taking the Visteon in the car.

Yesterday and after giving Monty his first oil change in my ownership, in the early evening I went out for a run and the car is running so sweet, I wanted to test my new calibration and especially now I'm running 28 degrees of timing all out.



The opportunity to test this came when I rolled up behind a Mk3 Mazda MX5 (NC) with a rollover bar, clearly a bit of a track day guy. I went by him full chat and he gave chase; I took Monty to 6,800 rpm a number of times as we let rip on a good safe road.

For those that don't know the NC variant of the MX5 runs Mazda's version of the 2.0 Duratec with a variable inlet manifold and variable valve timing too, so the better version of the Duratec that Morgan used in their limited run Super Sports Plus 4. The MX5 NC Duratec makes 166hp @ 6,500rpm and 149 lb/ft @ 4,500 rpm, the car weighs 1092 kg, Monty should be 877 kg but I am running with a spare and the rack was on too as I prepare for Le Mans. I'm also a heavy guy and after meeting the slim young lad in the Mazda I'd say he could be as much as 40 kg lighter than me, but in theory Monty and driver should still be as much as 100 kg lighter than the MX5 with the young lad in it.

So, I'd say a good match for Monty's first test and a vehicle with essentially the same engine too, if admittedly the better variant, and at the time I had no way of knowing what tuning work had been done to the Mazda. Anyway, after I went by the Mazda the first time, no matter how hard he tried (and he was really trying!) he just couldn't catch me, TBH it was one of those epic drives that will stay with me forever and the most I've pushed Monty since buying him 12 months ago and almost to the day.

When we entered a residential area and back to driving calmly the young lad pulled up next to me at a roundabout and leant out of his MX5 and excitedly said '"I absolutely love your car", he was clearly a massive petrol head so I invited him to pull over and have a chat which he duly did. What a lovely 23-year-old lad Alex turned out to be and massively passionate about his MX5, we geeked out on Duratec tuning for a good 20 minutes, he was bright and well-educated with surprising knowledge on the subject so we hit it off straight away.

It turns out his engine performance improvements were limited to an exhaust, but he then tells me what he'd fitted was well known to deliver a 20hp increase on the stock 166hp, so in theory he was making 188hp and he admitted he just couldn't catch Monty, Alex also said the sound of my exhaust was absolutely epic! It was really cool to chat with this young lad, there was 30 years between us but this was completely forgotten as we blabbed about cars, the brilliance of the Duratec engine and how easy it is to get a good power increase out of it with just a few simple exhaust and inlet mods.

The EMU Black is now officially a genuine Plug and Play standalone ECU solution for anyone with a Morgan Duratec Plus 4

Exactly, this is precisely what I'm aiming for.

Young Alex was very surprised with the pace of the old green classic car



But he absolutely loved Monty, it seems there is hope for the 'Youf of Today' after all

D.