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Originally Posted by newbee
Does anyone have a friend or has heard of someone who has got it done?
Do they work? What are the benefits?
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Plenty of people have had this done - particularly on FPV and XR vehicles - particularly on turbo models where boost is able to be wound up, as opposed to NA cars that are restricted by whatever air is able to naturally be drawn into the engine.
Go here to see the power improvements -
http://www.inetcentral.com.au/stealth/index.html although a dyno sheet for a NA I6 engine is not shown. 30kW+ is easily achievable on V8s, NA I6s will obviously be less.
This is not new technology, only new to the BA range of ECUs - all it is doing is unlocking whatever potential is already sitting there, but has not been exploited by Ford, for numerous reasons such as: an individual map for each car would be too costly and unmanagable to do; Ford need to allow a richer than normal tune to allow for all sorts of operating conditions (and emission standards etc) - including a car that is never serviced/maintained; and, if the engine map is perfect first time out, then no "upgrade" to engine power etc is ever possible without a modification of some sort.
On this last point, this is how a Gen3 Holden V8 magically has improved its power output from around 225kW to the 240kW that the non-HSV cars now have. Interesting to note that this engine is imported from the US with 257kW in stock trim, but is detuned to allow for power upgrades each year.
The Edit works in several ways:
On stock engines, it works by producing a better fuel/air mapping program than the generic one loaded in the ECU at the factory.Typically a factory tune runs rich, which uses more fuel, and produces less power than a more optimised tune (leaner) which is what is generally achieved with an "Edit".
On engines with modification, a custom tune will allow the better breathing attributes of mods to be exploited - in basic terms, if more air is able to be drawn in to the engine via modifications to intake and exhaust, then more fuel is able to be added to this air = more power is able to be produced.
The Herrod (and other) tuning products are available in two types of tune:
1. You buy the flash tuner (the electronics that upload/download tunes into and out of the ECU), and you get a generic tune that is better than the stock factory tune - around the $1200 mark I believe; or
2. You buy the flash tuner, and get Herrods (or someone else) to put your car on their dyno, and they optimise the basic tune for your particular vehicle - including any mods it may have. Obviously this later option is more expensive due to the dyno/tuner's time. This later option also allows you to specify the type of tune you want - extreme or conservative or somewhere in between.
My only caution to anyone contemplating this mod, is get an experienced tuner to do the tuning - I personally would never get a "generic" tune (other than the factory's) and just load it up - you have no idea what this tune is doing, even though nine times out of ten it would be perfectly safe. A fuel map that runs lean could be catastrophic, as a mate of mine found out when a "generic STi" tune was loaded into his WRX STi's ECU - this tune may have been OK on someone else's car, but not his!
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