Cup racer ECU remable?

[mikekean]

Can anyone tell me if the Cup racer ECU (1*2 shape) is remappable. Ive hear they are not but ive looked at the manual for the ECU on the Magneti Marelli site and it say the MF4M ECU that my car has is mappable.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

 

[James207]

Yes it is!

 

[mikekean]

Next question, Can the ECU run throttle bodies?

 

[Icarus]

Yes it is if its the MM external customer spec unit. However the Cup racers don't run the external customer spec unit they run the Renault spec unit - which is mappable but not practicaly by anyone but Renault/MM as you need the Renault profile and dongle for Vision!

 

[mikekean]

Thanks Icarus, Well its in a Cup racer so i asume its just the renault spec unit.. Do you know if anywhere in the UK would have the renault profile and dongle to be able work on the car? Id rather not have to buy a new ECU if i dont have to.

Maybe it could be sent back to MM to be converted to external customer spec. Although i dont know what they actually did to the ECU to change it. Was it just different software? or is the hardware actually different. Could be costly.

 

[Icarus]

There is no where to my knowledge as the dongle prevents this pretty effectively!

MM will sell you a replacement customer spec ECU (or at least they would when it was current) but it will need calibrating from scratch incl all sensor setups etc.

 

[mikekean]

Ok thanks for that. Well i can imagine that a replacement from MM would probably cost alot more than one of your EC1 units. So i think ill have to stick with standard power for a bit longer untill i can afford both the ITB's and the EC1 engine control.

 

[Icarus]

They're not too bad actualy. If you can turn up a copy of an original cal you can export most of the tables to the a blank one. Problem is turning up an original cal! Real advantage of doing this is not having to mod the original wiring loom/make up an adaptor harness which keeps the car mostly original.

 

[Timmyevo6]

Ok thanks for that. Well i can imagine that a replacement from MM would probably cost alot more than one of your EC1 units. So i think ill have to stick with standard power for a bit longer untill i can afford both the ITB's and the EC1 engine control.

out of interest, what are you doing with the car? are you racing it or sprinting it?

the mark fish sponsored class E of the eurosaloons is a good place to race it, thats where i'll be running my racer but mine it standard.

 

[Cooksport]

Icarus, Pm'd about a completely different subject

 

[mikekean]

They're not too bad actualy. If you can turn up a copy of an original cal you can export most of the tables to the a blank one. Problem is turning up an original cal! Real advantage of doing this is not having to mod the original wiring loom/make up an adaptor harness which keeps the car mostly original.

I wonder if R.Sport would have an origional. Will have to look into it. Would it not be possible to swap the eprom from one ECU to another? Im not overly clued up on ECU's so excuse my lack of knowledge.

Thinking about it though as i want to run ITB's will the origional calibration be of any use as i wont be able to run a map sensor anymore..

Im not to worried about orginality as its been convereted to RHD and setup as a rally car, but for simpicity of a plug and play solution another MM unit would an advantage as you say.

 

[mikekean]

out of interest, what are you doing with the car? are you racing it or sprinting it?

the mark fish sponsored class E of the eurosaloons is a good place to race it, thats where i'll be running my racer but mine it standard.

I use it for hill climbs atm, but once ive got it registered where i live in Jersey it will be used for rallying again.

 

[Icarus]

PNP is easy to do with an adaptor loom and a couple of Autosports.

In order to access the ECU you need a copy of Vision (MM Calibration software) and a dongle (which is essentialy a hardware lock). Both of these need to match the ECU firmware version for comms to be established. The dongle/hardware lock is designed to prevent cheating within a single make series and the ECU's don't have EPROMS, they have surface mounted flash - there are also no BDM or similar interfaces on the Renault Spec boards again to avoid cheating.

Basicaly it's more work than its worth to 'hack' an original MM ECU.

 

[mikekean]

Right ok thanks for clearing that up. going to keep an eye out for a used MF4M, would i be right in saying one from a Super 1600 would be usless to me as the engines power output is limited?

Appreciate the help Icarus.