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Rover V8 tuning advice (old) - compare Lucas and MS


rutthenut

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Whilst trawling the web for other info about Rover v8 ecu mapping/tuning, I came across this PH thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=8&h=&t=15275

In it, Mark Adams provides some explanations as to the sort of issues his (Tornado) chip tuning can improve on Lucas setups.


The Tornado software upgrade covers the following items as a minimum. With the exception of full load fuelling over 3100RPM on catalyst cars, or general fuelling on non-catalyst cars, these cannot easily be achieved from outside the ECU:

- Cranking fuel decreased to reduce the risk of flooding, with small starting delay to allow oil pressure to build before starting.

- Decreased cold and warm up fuelling to reduce the risk of flooding.

- Quicker more progressive throttle response, and better mid range torque. Full-load enrichment throttle map revised.

- Re-profiled fuel map, which provides good fuel economy on part throttle and allows engine to rev more freely. Fuel map extended to 6,500RPM (typically) for more accurate top-end fuelling.

- Idle speed stabilised to give smoother idle, and increased engine braking.

- Airflow meter re-scaling - Vital for good driveability and fuel economy, especially on large capacity engines. Allows correct control of part throttle fuelling.

- Note that airflow meter Scaling determines when the top of the fuel map is reached. When using an engine of larger capacity than the software was designed for, the top of the map will be reached too soon. This leads to over-fuelling at part throttle, and under-fuelling at full throttle.

Many of the cars I see are brought to me for bad manners (especially shunting around 2,000RPM on catalyst cars). The cure for this is subtle and cannot generally be achieved from outside the ECU.

For catalyst cars, altering any of the ECU inputs or outputs from outside the ECU will not alter the fuelling below 3,100RPM where the car is on Lambda control. This technique is much like putting shelves up on a ship at sea, using a spirit level.

Poor driveability is often caused by the Oxygen sensors having to apply too much correction to the fuelling map to get the mixture right.

Because I can trace the Lambda correction from inside the ECU, I can alter the map to minimise the correction and this is what makes all the difference. I couldn t do it without the unique development equipment.

If you want to know more then please call me personally! Thanks for reading through, and I hope it has been interesting. wink.gif

I think it's interesting to see how many of those issues are just what the MegaSquirt advice on this forum also aim to resolve.

* startup delay is a neat aspect, to allow oil pressure to build, not something I've seen described or suggested here
* startup fuelling reduced to prevent flooding - lots of startup/enrichment maps in MS, plus the 'flood clear' option (don't think the Lucas setup does that, does it?)
* mapping on mid/full throttle certainly covered with MS fuel maps
* fuel map extended to 6500 - advice on setting maps with values at each end of the range
* airflow scaling - MS using different sensors avoids this
* lambda feedback over-correction and poor running - lots of control in MS for feedback authority, etc
And of course, MS gives ignition control too, which Lucas CU/CUX ecu has no knowledge of...
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I wonder if the startup delay is really a feature or a convenient way of explaining something the ECU just does because of the way it works?

For example, I believe EDIS will give you a full turn of the crank before firing because it has to see the missing tooth on the trigger wheel go past before it knows where TDC is.

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