Practical Reflash Tuning: Introduction
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Introduction
08.00
| 00:00 | - In this worked example we're going to be using the HP Tuners platform to tune this 2014 Ford F150 Raptor. |
| 00:07 | Now this Raptor is fitted with a 6.2 litre two valve single overhead cam Boss V8. |
| 00:13 | It's also equipped with a Roush Supercharger kit. |
| 00:16 | This also involves some other modifications such as the intake system to the vehicle, as well as a larger set of injectors. |
| 00:24 | The engine is also previously been tuned using a Roush reflash. |
| 00:30 | However we're going to be looking at the entire process here and we're going to be optimising the tune already in the ECU. |
| 00:36 | When it comes to tuning Ford ECUs, there is a lot to learn, there is a lot to understand. |
| 00:41 | Particularly if you have come from a GM tuning background. |
| 00:44 | The Ford architecture is quite different to the GM architecture. |
| 00:49 | The Ford ECU works on what's referred to as a torque based model. |
| 00:55 | So that's really important to understand, as we go through the worked example, you're going to learn more about this and we'll see how all of the tables inside the ECU are configured. |
| 01:05 | But inside of this introduction module, we are going to have a brief introduction to the Ford ECU in the HP Tuners software so we can get a feel for the basis of how the ECU operates. |
| 01:18 | Before we get into that though, it's also important to understand that this particular ECU is fitted with both a mass air flow sensor as well as a speed density sub system and we need to correctly calibrate both sides of those. |
| 01:32 | Again we're going to see exactly how that's done as we get deeper into our worked example. |
| 01:37 | The premise of the torque based model is that we have a driver demand table inside the ECU which is essentially a torque request. |
| 01:47 | So we have a torque request relative to our throttle position, and relative to our engine RPM. |
| 01:53 | Let's have a quick look at this inside the software so that we can see how that works. |
| 01:58 | What we'll go to is our torque management and we are on our driver demand tab here and we can see we've got a desired torque table. |
| 02:06 | So if we click on this, we can see we've got a three dimensional table here, we've got the driver's foot pedal position on the vertical axis, and we've got our engine speed on the horizontal axis, and of course the numbers inside of this table are desired torque. |
| 02:21 | So this is a key table that we are going to need to tune. |
| 02:26 | Particularly if we are modifying a factory engine because if we don't change this table to represent the increase in torque that we'd expect from a modified engine, then we are likely to find the electronic throttle control is going to simply close the throttle partially and we're not actually going to see the power improvement that we are expecting. |
| 02:45 | So this is just one of the areas that the Ford ECU can trip us up, and where a lot of tuners new to the Ford ECU do go wrong. |
| 02:54 | Now this table also works with a range of other tables. |
| 02:58 | We'll have a quick look at that as well. |
| 03:00 | Let's head across to our torque model tab which we can see here. |
| 03:04 | If we click on that and we click on general, we can see that we've got a range of tables here and this can be quite daunting. |
| 03:12 | Don't worry, we're going to find out exactly why we've got all of these tables shortly. |
| 03:17 | We can see that we have engine torque and inverse tables for a number of what's referred to in the Ford ECU as a mapped point. |
| 03:25 | Again, we'll find out exactly what those map points mean, so don't worry too much right now. |
| 03:29 | The main premise here is that if we click on our engine torque table, we can see that we've got another three dimensional table, we've got engine speed again on our horizontal axis. |
| 03:39 | This time we've got engine load, so this is a calculated engine load on the vertical axis. |
| 03:45 | And the numbers inside of this table are of course our engine torque. |
| 03:49 | Now these tables work alongside our inverse torque table, let's bring these both up here. |
| 03:55 | And this is for the same map point, so we're looking at engine torque, or map point zero as well as inverse of our engine torque map point zero side by side here. |
| 04:04 | We can see that the inverse table now we've got engine torque on the vertical axis and inside of this table, we've got engine load points. |
| 04:13 | So it's really important that all of these tables are correctly manipulated and adjusted. |
| 04:20 | In particular here our engine torque table which we've got on the left, we need to modify this for a modified engine based on the data that we're actually seeing from our dyno. |
| 04:31 | Now if we don't do this correctly, what we're going to end up with is some errors inside of the Ford ECU, basically the calculated torque values are not going to match what are inside of these tables. |
| 04:43 | This creates an IPC wheel torque error and if this becomes excessive, what it can end up doing is either reducing our throttle opening, or forcing the engine into a limp home mode. |
| 04:54 | So again, this is an area that's really easy to overlook. |
| 04:58 | It's really easy to get wrong, and if we don't do all of our job correctly here, we don't spend the time and calibrate all of these tables correctly, we're definitely going to end up with an engine that's going to give us problems. |
| 05:10 | Those IPC wheel torque errors and the engine going into limp home mode. |
| 05:14 | But another more common or just as common problem that we do see with these ECUs when incorrectly calibrated is an oscillation where the throttle is opening and closing and basically causing really poor drivability. |
| 05:27 | So it's really going to be important to get a handle on how these tables are tuned what they mean to our calibration, and the correct approach to tuning them all which we're going to see shortly. |
| 05:40 | Before we move on with our worked example I just want to delve a little bit deeper into what exactly these mapped points mean. |
| 05:48 | Because again if you're new to the Ford ECU, this can be quite confusing, and as we've seen, we've got a number of these tables. |
| 05:55 | Now the mapped points basically refer to the current engine operating mode as well as the variable camshaft position. |
| 06:03 | So depending on the ECU's current operating mode which may be optimal power, it may be fuel economy, or it may be emissions reduction, as well as the variable cam timing positon. |
| 06:15 | This will dictate which of the current mapped points we are operating in. |
| 06:21 | And often the ECU will be interpolating between a variety of these mapped points, so this adds another layer of complexity to our tuning. |
| 06:29 | Don't worry, again, we're gonna be seeing exactly how these tables work, and we're going to be able to see exactly how we can tell which tables are being accessed and where we need to make our tuning changes. |
| 06:41 | Let's again just jump into our laptop software here. |
| 06:45 | What we'll do is we'll come across to our spark tab. |
| 06:48 | And here in our spark tab we can see we've got a number of borderline spark tables. |
| 06:55 | So this is where we are doing a lot of our spark tuning. |
| 06:57 | So we can see that we've got these tables for mapped point zero through to mapped point 14 and then we've got another table there for optimal power. |
| 07:07 | So in this particular ECU, we aren't using all of those tables, which is gonna greatly simplify our tuning and depending on the particular model of Ford vehicle you are tuning, we may be using a limited number of these tables. |
| 07:22 | In this case we are only gonna be using between mapped point zero and mapped point four, so essentially five of these tables. |
| 07:28 | Or alternatively, in later model Ford ECUs we may have many more of these tables and they may all be active. |
| 07:35 | So this does add another layer of complexity to Ford tuning, and obviously if all of these tables are active and being used, it's also going to mean that our tune is going to take a lot longer to complete. |
| 07:48 | Alright with a brief introduction there to the Ford ECU and our tuning project, we can move on and get started with our six step process. |
