Bluefin Remapping of the Roadster 100's ECU

I have just been asked the question below by a Register Member, of which I have no experience, so I decided to ask my Morgan Friends on 'Talk Morgan'.

"Have you heard of any Morgan owner of a Roadster remapping their ECU with Bluefin up grade because my R100 is a bit sluggish and needs a bit of ommph,"

https://www.mybluefin.co.uk/

Here are the many responses I received for you pick through. I have deliberately left the suppliers names off.

Frank.

I know Jays had his ECU remapped by Williams.

I did . Williams borrowed my car to develop the new map. I passed on everything to the new owner so I can’t recall which company did the work for them. I know that the power was increased to 225 bhp....we all met for a rolling road day in Tewkesbury courtesy of Graham, a few days later. Money well spent! 

I don’t know about using Bluefin for the Roadster but I know someone who use to be on here fitted one to his Duratec Plus 4 and was happy with the results.

Blimey Frank, a sluggish Roadster?

The 100th anniversary ones have on 205 bhp from memory due to the Ford escape engine.

When people complain about lack of "ommph" they usually mean mid range torque which equates to acceleration when overtaking etc. Very few people would actually rev the car to peak power in everyday use. 

You would really want to know if the re-map improves mid range.

 I heard of someone using a bluefin when I was asking around about my roadster ecu problems, he said it made a difference to his cars performance, more mid range and smoother pick up, I don't have any evidence to back this up as I went down other routes with my roadster.

Have a search on Pistonheads. I believe it has been discussedthere for various cars/engines. I don’t know if any would match the Roadster engine though. Just be aware of the bullshit that will be in the site! Be selective.
Another place to look would be Ford owners sites. 
From what I vaguely remember the biggest changes are on turbo cars with less on normally asperated engines. The turbo boost offers bigger improvement potential (with care!).
I am not sure what improvements the Bluefin is capable of regarding where in the power/torque range it can influence. Mid range torque boosting would give you discernable improvement and driveability.
My Plus8 comes alive at 3000rpm especially in 3rd gear. No need for top end bhp gains.

Frank, if you follow the link in your above post, you find the have 2; 4/4 and +4. No mention of Roadster.
I followed Jays example and had the remap, plus itg air intake upgrade on my 2009 Roadster. It transformed the car in a very positve way, it feels liberated, likes to rev. This work was done by Williams.

On Librands site there is a bluefin for Roadster series 1, https://www.librands.co.uk/products-view-116.html
I could not find that one on the bluefin site.

if you search Bluefin under the Ford original car it exists for the ST220 engine (S1 Roadster) but GoMog & MMCs press release said the Ford ECU was tweaked already by MMC.
https://www.mybluefin.co.uk/search?make=9&fueltype=1&model=61&variant=997

I suspect the Librands item is the same item but £50 more expensive.

An afterthought.......have a chat with your insurer too! The remap is likely to come under a performance modification that they would need to know.

Frank, here is a link to a „historical“ but detailed thread regarding bluefin among other topics. At the last page „1560“ describes the effect to his series 2 Roadster.

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/24009/1

Months later I got a remap (a different ECU unit) by MMC on warranty for free via my dealer and it was a significant change, in first place the remap should stop the rev hang which it did but as a „free additional gift“ the mid torque and rev willingness was improved more than a bit.

My assumption was that I got an ECU which was shortly after used for the Roadster Sport series, same Escape engine but claimed at 230 HP.

Regarding the old thread linked above, Cereal Surfer ten years ago mentioned that the diameter/design of the exhaust manifold gives much way of improvement. I am rather sure that the manifold tubes on my 2010 Roadster sport later on had bigger tubes in diameter and/or improved shape than my 2008 series 2 Roadster has had.

To sum up a remap AND another manifold would improve mid torque very much considering this Escape engine. I just remember this thread and its topic because it contains my very first post on TM.

Frank,
I had the Blue Fin remap for my S1 Roadster, a 2006, had it done some years ago now. Combined it with the librands exhaust upgrade at the time. It may have improved the top end but I cannot say it was worth the money as I could not detect much improvement in performance.

on the S1 I would be surprised at any noticeable improvement. The 100th anniversary cars though have a lower BHP at c 203

The Following Comments come from the other Talk Morgan Thread refereed to above.

Having been delivered in October, my Roadster came with the "power reduced" 203 HP engine. 

The certificate of conformity reads 168kW (228 HP), which gives me a good feeling, but on the other hand, I know, that in reality, there are 25 horses missing. 

The same engine delivers 238 HP in a Jaguar, so I ask myself, if there is a possibility of chip-tuning, to bring it up to the "old" figure, or even higher.

I want to point out, that am very satisfied with the actual performance, and I also use it very rarely, but still... I can imagine, that there is potential for more.

Any ideas? Experience? Although this may be very subjective, but do you think, that is it worth being done? 

Take a look at this: http://www.librands.co.uk/products/exhaust_roadster.htm 

Exhaust and Bluefin chip. I don't know of anyone who has tried these but Librands is a respected company.

Major gains on the V6 can be found by replacing the exhaust headers. On the RTCC Competition Roadster this was the way they unlocked significant power gains.

Mogsport have alot of race proven knowledge in getting more from the V6.

See http://www.mogsport.co.uk/duratec.htm

what worries me is that one of the chipped RR I drove had a more aggressive engine-character,it couldn't be driven "gently". The second one was fine.
we'll see, I have confidence in my dealer, if he says it's OK then I'll do it

I have heard good things about the bluefin chip that has been used on the Focus ST (among others).

While these chaps focus on BMW and Vauxhall, I believe they have worked on a few Focus STs as well: -

Thorney Motorsport - Bluefin guide 

It may be worth giving John Thorne a call and discussing what he can offer because I notice he makes this point, "We retain the smooth power delivery we're renowned for but power is increased to approximately +45bhp and 50lb's of torque." Obviously that is based on a VXR conversion; however, they seem to focus on retaining smooth power delivery in their remap programming.

IMHO, the chip switching should be done with an improvment of the cooling and exhaust circuits.

An engine is a link in a chain. The other links are the air admission and the exhausting system. If one link is weaker...

Actualy mogsport do this as it seems that they change the air filter, the chip (or its programing) and the exhaust:

Quote:

"Although limited by standard race regs we obtain 240 BHP using bespoke exhaust and performance air filter."

I don't know the V6 from the interior (even if I actualy have one, but stock,its power is enough for me..), but it's what it is done when you "push" a 122cv landrover engine (diesel) to 160cv.

1560's Comment referred to in the comment above.

Having done the mod to the ecu, not only is the engine-warning gone, so is the cork on top of that FordV6-champagne-bottle, the engine feels like being released from its limiters, (on zolder the rev-limiter cut in 3 times today, so that is still functioning, you need that on track!!!)

It goes up in higher RPM's like a jet fighter, you barely have time to change gears on track. It feels like a few more hp, but not many.

I drove the Roadster home after a whole day with the Aeromax (Ring), and it felt like "more than fast enough" today I went to do 2x20minutes on track (Zolder) and it felt strong enough, had more problems with blocking wheels at the front under braking.

conclusion: I will wait for the supercharger, want to test-drive it, but if I put it on my car: than someting must be done to brakes and SURELY to that front-suspension
at this moment: power is not on my priority-list. I understand that MMC did a big job on driveability so I do look forward to the test-drive, but I don't need an old AMG-style dragster, I need a car to handle the curves, not only the traffic-line-sprints up to the local brasserie.

Once more I would like to make my point on track-use: this is where the Roadster with its strong V6 really feel at home, it never overheated, the brakes never felt underpowered, my tires are after 10000km of hard driving still fine (errr, up front, didn't check at the rear). so take your roadster there!!!!!!!

For those who are confused about me wanting better brakes but not having trouble on track, on track you know when to brake, on the road you have emergency-braking due to all kinds of situations, then i would like a more agressive bite, ABS (yes ON A TRAD!!!!) and EBD