Someone will be along soon with a definitive answer, but I think the MEMS unit in the older F's cannot be remapped - or at least not easily. Uprated induction and exhaust seem to be the popular upgrades on our older cars, along with improved brakes.

 

How much do you have to spend?

 

If I am correct the VVC uses Mems version 2 and it's not re-mappable.

If I am wrong then I am sure and I hope that some one can correct me

It was some thing that I asked some time back and the basic respones received then was buy another aftermarket ECU like an Emerald. There was another make mentioned but I don't recall the make now.

 

A new emerald ecu will cost more than perhaps the car,also if your fitting an emerald it would be pointless without a full r/r session again more expense to gain small bhp/torque.
Research what upgrades are best for bucks, my opinion is an emerald is better suited for throttle body conversion.

 

Will the Superchips ICON Race box work on the MGF as I have one for sale ?

 

According to the super chips web site they do. I know little about this re-maps and chipping so will leave it to other more knowledgable to further comment.

 

Assuming you haven't a MEMS 3 a remap wouldn't give you anything on that 143hp VVC engine anyway, unless you tune your engine North of 175bhp or with non appropriate cams.

What you can efficiently do to increase power or torque is:

1- Go for a TF 160 air filter, as that's a closed one and a much bigger one, the original air filter is a clear bottle neck and you can expect 8+ real hp from that alone (with a nice panel filter). Alternative: closed aftermarket air cone filters.

2- Replace the silencer with a free flowing one, MS seems to be a popular choice, probably worth 5+ real hp on your car. You can also replace the exhaust manifold with a longer 4-2-1 but that is quite expensive - it will mainly give you some torque low down though, enjoyable.

3- You can swap the existing exhaust cam for a Piper one and get 5hp. 1+2+3 will bring you into VVC 160 territory. In fact, IF your head is a good one (and that's a variable), 1+2 can already bring you to 160PS and these are bolt on mods. The ECU will adapt with all that anyway.

4- If you have some more money, forget 3 and go for DVA's K06a kit (includes the exhaust cam mod), that is rework of the head etc.
In conjunction with 1 and 2, you will get close to 180hp. Worh reading also Blackoctagon's threads re thermal gaskets.

That's about as far as you can go easily (same capacity etc.) with a VVC as I found out. At 180hp the ECU still copes well but starts to hit its limit, ES Motorsport offers a small ECU retune in that they manage to increase the full throttle fueling somewhat (nice mod IMHO). Some fit also an adjustable FPR at that stage. In the past some (Kumschick) seem to have been able to alter the ECU fueling and rev limiter but revs are best kept where they are or so.

Oh, not a lot to do with power (a few hp if already over 160?), but swap also that horrible plastic TB with a metal one to avoid problems. TB 48 or TB 52. And think about a oil cooling device if doing trackwork (Laminova...). As you can see the ECU is not really the bottleneck on your engine. Having said that, 160hp are plenty in that car and money is then best spent upgrading suspensions, brakes and driver.

I hope this helps

Claude

 

thanks guys im currently looking at throttle body and air filter upgrades.
does anybody know if its easy to fit a mems 3 ecu and is that mappable?
thanks again

 

It is possible but requires the inlet and wiring loom from a MEMS 3 car and then a coding session from Z&F to switch out the other MEMS 3 bits.

A mk2 exhaust may also be fitted to allow for the post cat lambda probe.

 

ITBs don't work well (eg really better than the VVC plenum) with the VVC inlet cam, you won't see any real benefits of these. Some went that route (I know 3 Elise like that) and got if ever just a few extra hp at the expense of torque and drivability - and that was despite using an Emerald (which also probably counted for some of the 4 or so hp won as set on 97 fuel).

Of course ITBs work very well (eg when the plenum is a limiting factor) with wilder cams fitted to the VVC head, such as 285s or 1444, but these require quite a bit of global engine work and involve costs, they aren't simple cam swaps.

As of the Super Chips, no clue if they can go as far as altering the ECU inputs to have it running ITBs in a satisfactory manner. As a general rule, Super Chips & Co are reknown for not having any benefits on our K engines, but that's for engines running on std plenums. Indeed the ECU reacts very well anyway to mild tuning.

Good luck

Claude

 

this is from one of my local 'mappers'..

http://www.angeltuning.co.uk/engine-remap/mg/petrol-mg/

i guessed there would have been very little gains from mapping the F, my last car (Ford Focus ST) was known to have gains of 25% from a simple remap.

 

remap

They dont have mgf on their list ... N/A