mapping 2.pdf

fast tech

/ TECH / MAPPING /

fast tech

Words: Stewart Sanderson

Photos: Michael Whitestone, Stewart Sanderson

WHAT IS

MAPPING?

We’ve shown you the basics, now we look at what’s

needed to perform a live map on your Ford.

I HOPE you all

absorbed

and enjoyed last month’s feature

on mapping: why you may need it

and the various different ways it

can be performed. This month we

will concentrate on the ultimate

form of mapping, and reading last

month’s feature you will hopefully

already be fully aware that it is

called live mapping.

The ﬁrst requirement for live

mapping that some people don’t

in fact realise, is that we must

actually have the car in our

possession to live map it. Just

the ECU is no good at all, as we

need to actually have your ECU

connected to your wiring harness

and have it running your engine

as normal, albeit with all our

emulation equipment hooked into

it as well. This allows us to literally

drive your car and alter your

management’s calibration maps at

the exact same time.

So, with this in mind, let’s ﬁrst of

all look at how we would interface

our specialist hardware with your

car to enable us to go out and make

a good job of the live mapping...

Having worked as a tuner for 17

years, Stewart ‘Stu’ Sanderson

is one of the most-respected

names in the business.

A Level 5-trained fuel-

injection technician, in the

past Stu has worked for a Ford

Rallye Sport dealer, a well-

known fuel-injection specialist

and various tuning companies.

Then seven years ago he

joined forces with Kenny

Walker and opened up

Motorsport Developments near

Blackpool (01253 508400,

www.remapping.co.uk ),

specialising in engine

management live remapping,

as well as developing a range of

Evolution chips which are now

sold all over the world.

He’s also jointly responsible

with Webmaster, Petrucci for

www.passionford.com. Started

in 2003, it’s grown rapidly from

a few friends contributing, to

one of the biggest Ford

communities on the web.

Stu’s enviable knowledge of

the workings of modern-day

Ford performance engines

means that every month he’s

just the man to explain how and

why things work, and most

importantly how they can

be improved.

Wideband AFR monitor:

essential for live-

mapping on the road

WIDEBAND AFR MONITOR

This is the ﬁrst and foremost part of

any tuner’s tuning arsenal. You simply

cannot tune cars live on the road

without one. This gauge allows us to

monitor — via a sensor ﬁtted into your

car’s exhaust system — exactly what

air/fuel ratio your engine is running

under any condition or load we like.

Be it a light throttle fuelling error or

a deadly wide-open throttle lean

condition, this system can analyse,

display and record the information on

screen with a response time of under

150 milliseconds.

There are various different types

of these monitors available, and

quite recently the tuning market has

been ﬂooded with affordable units,

some good and some not so good.

The one that we use is the

industry-standard ECM unit and

costs over £6000! It is however,

accurate to within 0.06 per cent and

can read from as rich as 6:1 AFR to

as lean as 150:1 AFR a speciﬁcation

level which virtually no other

equipment currently on the market

can claim. It’s the best, and that’s

why we use it.

DETONATION CANS

These allow us to monitor an engine

for a condition known as detonation.

Detonation, as many of you will

know, is the biggest and most

common killer of modiﬁed engines...

Period. There are many conditions

common in a tuned engine that

can lead to detonation, the most

common three reasons being:

1 . Too much air and not enough fuel

(known as running lean).

2 . Poor fuel quality.

3 . Too much spark advance.

Detonation makes itself known

as a pronounced crackling sound.

It is almost impossible to describe,

but sufﬁce to say that it normally

requires some specialist monitoring

equipment to hear it properly

once the engine is under load. This

equipment comes in two main

forms: manual and electronic.

BEFORE

STARTING…

CHECK UP

First of all, we have to check your

car is actually roadworthy, and yes,

this means it must have current tax

and MoT, brakes and suspension

that appear to actually work

and ﬂuid levels that are at least

somewhere near the full line. It may

well sound like I am joking here but

I have had to turn cars away on

each and every one of those simple

points... Sad, but very true.

Presuming your car is actually

ﬁt to be driven on the Queen’s

highway, we must then proceed

to load your car up with various

forms of monitoring and adjusting

equipment, so let’s look at this

equipment ﬁrst of all so you can

understand the role of each item of

equipment and why it is required for

the job in hand.

The ﬁrst rule of working on

cars and using tools of any

kind is don’t ever skimp on

decent protection. Goggles,

gloves, ear defenders,

masks and a set of overalls

should be in your garage.

Use them.

When using power tools,

protective gear is essential

— grinders and welders can

make a real mess of your

soft skin and bone if you get

it wrong.

Never work under a car

without supporting it using

axle stands. A car falling on

you is not something you’ll

be laughing about down

the pub.

MANUAL: This system works just

like a mechanic’s stethoscope. A

sounding tube is bolted to the engine

and the ear defenders, connected

to the sounding tube by a hollow

pipe, are monitored in the passenger

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Det cans are basic in

operation, but still

do the job well

Air temperature in both degrees C

and volts from the sensor

Water temperature in both degrees

C and volts from the sensor

Fuel temperature in both degrees

and volts from the sensor

Throttle position in both degrees

and volts from the sensor

Mass Air Flow in KGPH and volts

from the sensor

Manifold pressure or depression in

real values

Lambda voltage output

Injector opening time

in milliseconds

Spark advance in degrees of

crank rotation

Open/closed loop operation

Fuel pump drive electronics

Idle valve duty cycle

Boost valve duty cycle

Knock sensor activity

Vehicle speed

Adaptive management deviation

(more about this later)

And much, much more

We can also view and graph all

this data on the laptop if required,

so of course we can datalog and

read the info retrieved back at base.

Multimeter

is used to get

to the parts

other monitors

cannot reach

For Ford Cosworth/Marelli

systems we have our IAW monitor.

This system allows us to log many

parameters and monitor for fault

codes. It doesn’t do as many

channels as the Sun system does

for the Ford EEC system listed

above simply because the Weber

system is far cruder and doesn’t

physically have as many sensors

and features, but it does have as

many sensors as the management

actually has, and you can’t ask for

more than that, can you? It also

does datalogging so we can record

all the data and play it back with a

brew in the workshop. Bliss...

impedance, things like that, and the

more you pay the more features

and accuracy you get. We use one

to hook permanently into parts of

the car our scanners don’t give us

information about.

On many old turbocharged Fords

we hook the system into the fuel

pump feed so we can monitor the

power supply at the pump itself.

This has saved many an engine and

we ﬁnd it very common indeed that

some fast Fords at full chat have got

sub-10 volts supplying the pump

due to old wiring problems!

So, as you can see, we have a

real good picture of what’s going

on in a modern Ford management

system once all our equipment

is connected up to its heart...

but there is more to come. This

equipment has only allowed us to

monitor what’s going on with the

engine and its fuel system, and we

Laptop runs the

vital mapping

software

ﬁt this lot just even when a car’s in

for a simple set-up in most cases.

The actual live-mapping equipment

is the real star of the show and that

comes next...

DC/AC CONVERTOR

This is becoming a common item

nowadays, but it wasn’t back when

we started mapping and I remember

paying silly money for our ﬁrst

one. It simply allows us to plug

equipment into the car that runs

off mains voltage normally, such

as laptops. It converts a 12 volt

DC supply from your car’s battery

into a 240v AC output to suit

household equipment.

LAPTOP

You all know what a laptop is I’m

reasonably sure? If not, it’s basically

a personal computer, in a small

enough package it can sit on the

top of your lap. This is loaded with

software that interfaces all our

equipment and allows us to do the

mapping. It’s our electronic version

of a screwdriver and spanner set

once the tuning begins.

compartment. This system is

surprisingly efﬁcient and is still used

by most professional mappers.

the sound of knock/detonation) on

the engine, coupled to an electronic

receiver with lights on that is placed

in the passenger compartment.

These systems are tuned to

operate only in the frequency most

commonly out-putted by detonation

and if it senses an abundance of

this frequency, to activate whatever

system it uses to warn you. The

problem with these is each engine

needs the sensor in a unique place

to work properly, and sometimes

a given sensor will never work

properly on a given engine type. But

still, we use this system where we

know it’s of use.

a vacuum gauge simply allows us

to monitor the vacuum or pressure

within an engine’s inlet tract. A

30 psi boost gauge is normally

sufﬁcient for most turbocharged

cars but we do have one that goes

to 40 and one that goes to 50, just

in case...

MULTIMETER

Most of you will be familiar with

the common-or-garden multimeter

I’m sure? If not, it is essentially a

device used for monitoring things

such as voltage, resistance, current,

ELECTRON I C: VERS I ON 1 —

DET CANS

These systems work the same way,

but instead of using a sounding tube

and pipes they use microphones

and wires. A beneﬁt of this system

is that you have more than one

pick-up so can mount the receptors

more easily and often in a few good

places, and then choose between

the pick-ups in the passenger

compartment at leisure.

G-METER

This is a unit that can, amongst

other things, display a constant

G reading. Why would we need

this you may ask, well, simply

because sometimes it’s hard to

tell if something you’re doing is

having the effect on power you

think it is, so we can take a look

at the G we are pulling in say,

fourth gear from 30-70, and then

do tests with various things to

look for improvements in physical

pulling power. More G pulled on the

same piece of tarmac in the same

direction equals more power at the

wheels. A very handy tool indeed.

Various ECU monitors are

used including Sun Scanner...

ECU DATA MONITORS

Again, there are quite a few

different types of data monitor and

datalogger used depending on the

car’s management, but since this is

a Ford magazine I only need to really

describe the two main ones we use

for your fast Fords.

For 95 per cent of Ford cars we

have the Sun Scanner. This system

allows us to monitor in real time

various parameters such as:

RPM (normally measured via crank

position sensor)

Battery voltage

ELECTRON I C: VERS I ON 2

— KNOCK SENSORS

This system works by placing a

knock sensor (a sensor tuned to

VACUUM AND BOOST GAUGES

Self explanatory to most, but if you

haven’t come across one before,

...plus the IAW monitor, which

works with Cosworth ECUs

EPROM EMULATOR

The star of the live-mapping show.

The emulator is the one part that

you simply cannot access OEM ECU

data live without. What it actually

does is quite complex to explain,

but bear with me and I will try.

In 95 per cent of your OEM

ECUs there will be an EPROM. This

EPROM contains all the calibration

data that your ECU uses to run the

engine. All the information about

spark advance, fuel duration, idle

valve programming, cam timing

and boost pressures etc is stored

within this EPROM and the ECU can,

and does, access it at any time it

likes to withdraw the information

it requires to do its job. Now the

EPROM emulator does pretty much

A reliable boost gauge

is needed — usually one

that goes up to 30 psi

Left to right: DC/AC

convertor, power back-up,

all-important emulator

Both monitors can datalog vital info. This is from the Sun Scanner

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what it says on the tin — it emulates

an EPROM.

It basically takes the place of

the EPROM and by plugging the

emulator into the EPROM socket

in the ECU via a special cable and

plug we can then load the contents

of the EPROM into the emulator

hardware from our laptop which

allows it to then feed the EPROM

contents back into the ECU via the

socket the ECU thinks has still got

an EPROM in, allowing the ECU

access to it as normal. As far as

the ECU is concerned the emulator

is just the same old EPROM it has

always had so it runs as normal.

The reason for using an emulator

and the beneﬁts that it brings us as

mappers are simple. The EPROM

data is now stored within an ultra-

fast holding area instead of on an

EPROM, this means we can now

access that calibration data with

our laptop and mapping software at

the same time as the ECU accesses

it. Not only that, but we can also

change it without any form of

delay. If we want to change the idle

spark value from 16 degrees to 20

degrees, we simply highlight the ‘16’

in the spark table and type ‘20’. The

engine is now idling at 20 degrees; it

is as simple and as fast as that.

The next strong beneﬁt of an

emulator is the fact it not only

emulates an EPROM, but it also

shows us what part of the data

is being accessed at any time.

This is what gives us the ability to

change data at the exact same

time it is being accessed. Not

only that though, being able to

see exactly when and what data

is being accessed gives us a real

strength when trying to ﬁnd a table

in an EPROM that isn’t already

documented. I will cover that more

later, but sufﬁce to say it’s virtually

impossible to do without reverse

engineering the software unless you

have an emulator to hand.

Finally, the emulator we use has

another two clever tricks up its

sleeve. Firstly, it’s a twin system

Emulator connects to the J 3

port on Ford EEC-IV/V ECUs

that allows us to store two sets

of EPROM data within it, and as a

result we can swap between these

two calibrations at the ﬂick of a key.

Why would we want to do this? Well,

various scenarios would make this

system worth its weight in gold.

The ﬁrst of these is this: imagine

that you wanted to test an engine

with two different types of map,

say one aggressive and one soft

timing map. We can do one run with

calibration one, ﬂick a key and then

do an identical run with the second

calibration. No dismantling, and no

messing, just press a button and

you have a whole new map in

the ECU.

Another reason the twin

calibration emulator is better than

a single is that we are able to store

a known good map in the emulator

in bank one, while we map a new

one in bank two. If we were to

make a mistake and for argument’s

sake deleted half of a fuel map by

accident, leaving us with a no-run

situation on the motorway we can

simply press a key and we have

a perfectly good map running the

engine again while the mapper gets

to work ﬁxing his error.

It’s also common you would

load the old map into the ﬁrst bank

which allows us to keep swapping

back to ensure our new map is an

improvement on the old in terms

of power, progression, driveability,

fuel economy etc, and in many

cases we would use it to ensure

a customer’s speciﬁcally-named

mapping problem is ironed out,

such as hesitation as a car comes

onto load or things like that. We can

go back to how the car was before

we started mapping, just to remind

ourselves where the problem was

and what it felt like.

Remember I said the emulator

has two more clever tricks up its

sleeve? Well the second trick is that

it has its own power storage unit

that basically works as a battery

back up unit.

If for any reason the laptop was to

die, or a cable become unplugged,

the emulator’s power storage unit

would power the emulator for long

enough that it could continue to

feed the calibration data to the

ECU for a few hours, allowing us

to drive back to the workshop in

safety pretty much no matter where

we were in the country. That is a

godsend in terms of safety and

reliability, especially as me and

laptops never seem to get on for

any long periods of time...

So, that’s about it, all the

monitoring and adjusting hardware

is actually in the car now so all

we have to do is connect the

emulator to your ECU so it can do

its emulating bit and we are ready

to access all the information within

it. The Emulator connects in various

ways, depending on what Ford you

actually have...

FORD EEC-IV/EEC-V ECUs

This system is connected up via the

J3 port on the rear of the unit. It just

plugs in once we have cleaned up

the port to remove some moisture-

proof grease that Ford added to it.

Some later ECUs require a small link

soldering within the ECU’s case to

enable the port, but other than that

it pretty much just plugs in.

WEBER-MARELLI ECUs

The Weber ECUs are even simpler.

They all contain one form or another

of 28-pin EPROM, and the emulator

has a 28-pin adaptor that takes the

place of the chip. Unplug the chip,

plug in the converter lead from the

emulator, start up and go.

There are a few other ECUs used in

Fords, especially the newer diesels,

but the above two are the most

common ones as far as 98 per cent

of you are concerned, so we won’t

go into any detail about the others.

In fact, this month we wont go into

any more detail about anything at all

as we have run out of space...

Different adaptors

are required to link

the emulator to all

the Ford ECUs

NEXT MONTH

The art of mapping: what we do

and why we do it. Plus how we

ﬁnd maps in new ECUs we have

never seen before and the

difference between different

mapping programs for OEM

systems such as Ford’s EEC and

Weber’s IAW series of ECUs.

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