MK4 Focus ST280
Fords latest generation of the Focus ST has a 4 cylinder 2.3 litre engine producing an impressive 280PS!
Its direct injection Ecoboost engine is a strong performer and it really is a pleasure to drive.
However, as with most production cars, it feels a little "soft" out of the box.
We can tailor the calibration in your ECU to ensure all existing modifications are accommodated for and you can rest assured the vehicle will retain all the safety features programmed in by the manufacturer such as EGT control, Knock control, closed loop fuel control and other such important features. We wont remove these to facilitate a power increase as some tuners do. The vehicle will retain these important safety features and will run just as well as it did standard, in fact probably even better.
We currently have a well tried and tested tune for the standard Focus ST280 and that is our MSD310. We are of course happy to push further for those customers with bespoke hardware but as I am sure you can appreciate these are conversions that need some discussion as to what best suits you as a driver so those conversions are not detailed on the website.
MSD 310 (480Nm and 310PS)
This calibration is designed to opimise the calibration in the standard vehicle and enhances the power output to 480Nm and 310PS.
This isn’t just headline power either, flexibility and reliability are our speciality so the ECU's incredible torque model is fully retained ensuring factory driveability with no hesitations, surges or hiccups in the power delivery. Naturally, as with all MSD power upgrades, all necessary safety limits and protection strategies are re-profiled and enhanced in order to allow the extra performance whilst retaining a strong, O.E Level of engine protection.
Please be aware that power figures don’t tell the whole story with these management systems, making extra power is easy, but many companies completely disable the torque control and most of the protection strategies in order to do so and this can cause driveability and longevity concerns with often massive boost levels required to make the power. Read our comprehensive "Safety" tab for more details.
Additional hardware needed:
- None
Standard Calibration Features
- Improved idle stability
- Factory driveability under all conditions.
- All engine protections remain in place (See safety tab)
Personalisations Available:
- Overrun burbles activated (In just sport mode if preferred)
- Upgraded power can be set to just sport modes if required.
- Eco shift light permanent disable option.
- Decat MIL Solution (For vehicle with a sports cat fitted)
- GPF MIL Solution (For vehicle with a GPF removed)
Additional fuel programming available. (Ask for further details)
- WMI (water methanol injection) optimisations available on request.
- Ethanol (E10-E40) optimisations available on request..
- High octane fuel optimisations available on request. (100+ RON)
Total cost of this calibration installed: £299.00 inc vat.
(Includes diagnostics and test drive to asses vehicle pre and post tune condition)
MSD 320 (500Nm and 320PS)
This calibration is designed around a vehicle with a free flowing intake system and un restricted performance exhaust on an otherwise standard vehicle. These modifications will enhance the power output to 500Nm and 320PS.
This isn’t just headline power either, flexibility and reliability are our speciality so the ECU's incredible torque model is fully retained ensuring factory driveability with no hesitations, surges or hiccups in the power delivery. Naturally, as with all MSD power upgrades, all necessary safety limits and protection strategies are re-profiled and enhanced in order to allow the extra performance whilst retaining a strong, O.E Level of engine protection.
Please be aware that power figures don’t tell the whole story with these management systems, making extra power is easy, but many companies completely disable the torque control and most of the protection strategies in order to do so and this can cause driveability and longevity concerns with often massive boost levels required to make the power. Read our comprehensive "Safety" tab for more details.
Additional hardware needed:
- Free flowing induction kit.
- Free flowing performance exhaust.
Standard Calibration Features
- Improved idle stability
- Factory driveability under all conditions.
- All engine protections remain in place (See safety tab)
Personalisations Available:
- Overrun burbles activated (In just sport mode if preferred)
- Upgraded power can be set to just sport modes if required.
- Eco shift light permanent disable option.
- Decat MIL Solution (For vehicle with a sports cat fitted)
- GPF MIL Solution (For vehicle with a GPF removed)
Additional fuel programming available. (Ask for further details)
- WMI (water methanol injection) optimisations available on request.
- Ethanol (E10-E40) optimisations available on request..
- High octane fuel optimisations available on request. (100+ RON)
Total cost of this calibration installed: £299.00 inc vat.
(Includes diagnostics and test drive to asses vehicle pre and post tune condition)
Beware:
All ECU "calibrations" are not created equally...
There are many ways to calibrate a modern vehicles ECU but the sad fact remains that a huge percentage of the tunes we see have had all the safety strategies and drive logic features removed from them. These Bosch MG1 PCM's have exceptional engine control strategies built into them and these systems are a key reason that as standard, these vehicles drive so amazingly well. Smooth, linear and powerful to the rev limiter. And safe too... the protection strategies are incredibly complex and work alongside a very comprehensive torque model in order to deliver what the driver asks, but keep the engine in one piece should things go wrong.
To recalibrate a Bosch MG1 PCM properly, from scratch as we do, takes many hundreds of hours of development on our in house dyno. But the results are worthwhile.
Rest assured that when we calibrate a vehicles PCM we retain:
- Full torque model remains intact. (This is what makes the vehicle drive so well)
- Knock control system is left intact and working (Guards against detonation)
- Over-boost limits. (Protects against over-boost due to fault)
- Under-boost limits. (Protects turbo against air leaks)
- Full Engine speed limits. (Raised if the tune would benefit)
- Exhaust temp load profiling. (Takes over if EGT exceeds limits)
- Fuel flow limit air control. (Takes over if you run too lean)
- Coolant temperature limits. (Never raised)
- All the ECU Limp home strategies. (These are what get you home!)
- All of the 300+ fault codes are retained so your ECU can report faults.
The above may look and read like common sense?
You are right... retaining everything above is desirable, but to do so requires an understanding of how these torque modelled systems work so that we can actually "recalibrate" the various sub-systems to work the way we want them to, whilst targeting higher airflow and power levels.
Sadly, because all of the above strategies will, by their very nature, fight our efforts to create extra airflow, many amateurs find ways to just disable the limits, often by "de-calibrating" the system so it will allow extra airflow.
We regularly see calibrations with various anticipation and prediction systems switched off, load limits flat-lined, air load limits totally disabled, fuel flow limits deleted, knock systems de-sensitised, the list goes on, its quite disappointing to see.
How would you know?
That’s a good question, and it depends just how bad they have de-calibrated the system.
Lets face a simple fact here... if you have a vehicle with a virtually standard engine and turbo that drove perfectly well before a re-calibration, extending its headroom wont make it drive or perform worse during normal driving. Why would it? No reason at all. Same engine, same air path, same hardware. So it should drive the same, but be faster at big throttle openings.
Now, if they have "only" removed all the safety limits (running more boost than a 3bar map sensor can see for example) then the vehicle will still drive perfectly well if the rest of the system has been recalibrated to properly request the torque the conversion makes. That kind of calibration will just have no safety limits in place should anything go wrong. hopefully it wont, so all is well.
However, if you start to disable the torque targeting system, or make a mess of recalibrating it then you end up with all manner of horrible drive-ability problems. Aggressive throttle, unpredictable or surging power delivery, doesn’t want to just cruise along at a set speed, these are all very common when a confused ECU tries to deliver closed loop airflow control with a broken model.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, some of these de-calibrated strategies are of course firing out fault codes so we see some with all 350+ codes just deleted so the ECU cant report them. This in turn disables all the limp home strategies designed to take control and get you home in the event of component failure.
Sadly, this is the reality of modern tuning... Take care out there!
Further reading:
If this has wet your appetite to know more about how your Ford Ecoboost management strategy in the PCM works, you may well enjoy my series of 3 blogs about a very similar system.
Blog 1 of 4. Understanding Ford Ecoboost Torque Control
(There are more located in our main technical info section with Stus other 70+ magazine articles)
Dyno Graphs Coming Soon...
Video Coming Soon...
Purchasing Options:
This OBD calibration can be purchased via any one of our professional Installers:
Owners looking to have their vehicle tuned can have it done by us here in Blackpool, or via any of our approved calibration installers across our Evolution Chips network.
With over two decades of Ford RS & ST tuning experience we are more than happy to advise and discuss tuning options with your vehicle. We can tailor our remaps to your requirements either through custom or live remapping.
