Our stage 1 is installed directly to the vehicle via OBD and is the most cost effective route to extra power where as our other stages all utilise the extra features of the COBB Accessport platform.

MSD 330 (480NM / 330PS)
This calibration works perfectly on a totally standard car and lifts the power restrictions from within the ECU, further enhancing the power output to 480NM and 330PS.

The factory rev limit and all the temperature protection features of the management system are retained, whilst the relevant fuel, spark and load tables are further optimised to achieve this new power output.

Rest assured that if your coolant, oil, exhaust or charge temperatures get too high, the ECU will actively lower your available throttle opening and boost pressures as well as add fuel to cool things down until such time as the temperatures are back within safety parameters. Full LSPI / Knock control is retained at factory safety levels. Some tuners remove all this capability in order to achieve their power - Take care out there.

Additional hardware needed:

• None.
  
  

Personalisations Available: (At time of programming)

• Decat MIL Eliminated (For vehicle with a De-Cat fitted)
• Launch Control RPM set-point options of 4000 / 4500 / 5000 rpm.
• Stop / Start disable.
• Eco shift light disable.

Total cost installed to the car via OBD including an initial diagnostic session, labour and vat = £349.00

MSD 340+ (520NM / 345PS+)
(Note: Stage 1+ is only available for installation via COBB Accessport)

This calibration requires an uprated intercooler, intake kit and full exhaust system with a sports catalyst. This hardware allows us to reach the max airflow of the current turbocharger, bringing power output to 520NM and 345PS.

The factory rev limit and all the temperature protection features of the management system are retained, whilst the relevant fuel, spark and load tables are further optimised to achieve this new power output.

Rest assured that if your coolant, oil, exhaust or charge temperatures get too high, the ECU will actively lower your available throttle opening and boost pressures as well as add fuel to cool things down until such time as the temperatures are back within safety parameters. Full LSPI / Knock control is retained at factory safety levels. Some tuners remove all this capability in order to achieve their power - Take care out there.

Additional hardware needed:

• COBB Accessport.
• Uprated Intercooler
• Uprated Intake kit
• Full turbo back exhaust system with sports catalyst
  

Standard Calibration Features

• Improved idle stability
• Factory drive-ability under all conditions.
• Launch control RPM set-point optimised
• All engine protections remain in place (See safety tab)

Personalisations Available: (At time of programming)

• Decat MIL Eliminated (For vehicle with a De-Cat fitted)
• Launch Control RPM set-point options of 4000 / 4500 / 5000 rpm.
• Stop / Start disable.
• Eco shift light disable.

 

Total cost installed to the car via your own COBB Accessport and including an initial diagnostic session, labour and vat = £249.00*

£783.85 inc vat and labour if we also supply you with a new COBB Accessport.
(The calibration is discounted £50 when purchased with new hardware)

MSD 350 - 700 (up to 800Nm and 700PS)
We can tune your Mustang for many different hardware configurations not shown here.
Prices start with MSD380 which caters for hybrid turbos at £249 and we go onwards from there.

Typically you can look to our Focus RS MK3 pages here for ideas of how we would tune your Mustang for further power.

Click here to visit out Focus RS MK3 tuning page

MSD E-Tuning (All Power levels)
This is the service you need if you want to get the best out of existing hardware and don’t wish to bring it here to our dyno. The awesome COBB Accessport allows us to data-log and tune your vehicle remotely... Our calibrations can be supplied to you same day, via E-mail, so you can be out enjoying the tune immediately without the hassle of time off work, driving across the country and spending the day here with us. Indeed we are tuning a 580Ps vehicle on race fuel and WMI near Africa right now!

If buying a typical MSD power level such as MSD 340 then the tunes can simply be installed and driven as they arrive and they will make the quoted power and torque right out of the box.  Most people are absolutely happy with this level of tune and go no further.

However, some of our customers want to take it a little further and get "Custom Tuned" and that is why all of our E-Tunes come with 2x Custom tune revisions as standard.

 

Custom E-Tuning with MSD is a simple three step process.

1. Install the base calibration to your car.
2. Perform a data-logging run in 3rd gear
3. Send us the data-logs.

We will then analyse the data and return you a customised tune to repeat the process.*

OK, so how can you do a custom tune remotely?

This is a common question. Normally you would bring your vehicle to us for dyno time so that we can specifically look at things such as Air-Fuel ratio, Spark advance, knock levels, exhaust gas temp, charge temps and other such parameters. Well one of the greatest things about modern management systems is they have these sensors and logging capability built right into the vehicle! They almost always come with wideband lambda sensors, multiple manufacturer tuned knock sensors, high resolution MAP and TIP sensors and exceptionally detailed and fast logging of all the vehicles parameters.

This technology allows us to obtain data from the vehicle no matter where it is driven. It no longer has to be connected to our laptops and dyno. This means we can analyse the data remotely and make changes to the calibration to see how the vehicle responds when operated in the real world. To initialise this process we simply need you to follow a sequence of driving events and data-log a number of data channels on your Accessport, then send the resulting logs to us by E-Mail.

We supply our E-Tunes with full printed instructions detailing how to set up the data-logger and which channels to log as well as what conditions to perform the data-logging in on your local dyno, drag strip, race track etc.

Once you have got used to your tune you can then send us data-logs and we will adjust the tune to suit your vehicle exactly as we would if it were here on our dyno. The results we achieve are very much the same as if we had the car ourselves and in some cases it can be better, especially if your vehicle has issues being run hard on a dyno. ( A great example of this is a vehicle with traction issues or a vehicle with a top mount intercooler... these coolers work well on the road but are tricky to get right with a fan and some pipes.)

 

Pricing:

E-Tunes are priced according to vehicle.

E.g. Ford Focus RS MK3 MSD 380 costs just £199 inc vat

* We do not guarantee that we will offer any more power in the revised tune. Of course we normally do, but the outcome of any tuning absolutely depends on how your vehicle responds and it is very dependant on the quality of the fuel used in your vehicle. We absolutely will only increased power output where we feel there is acceptable headroom based on the data collected during the logging sessions.

If we feel the engine is under duress due to charge temps or knock for example we may well lower your power levels.

 

2015 - 2017 Mustang owners can add a COBB Accessport and MSD Multimaps
(Huge array of extra features plus 2 different power levels, Valet and Anti Theft on the fly!)

The COBB Accessport is a firm favourite here. The handset transforms the vehicle by adding the option of up to six gauges on screen at any time out of a list of literally hundreds. It gives you data-logging and remote E-tuning capability, diagnostic facilities for reading codes and resetting KAM etc and allows us as tuners to harness the additional power of the COBB Ecoboost firmware to deliver even more awesome features!

These features also include the ability to swap between MSD power stages in seconds (with the engine still running) The swap is done by pressing the cruise control cancel button and then using the + / - buttons to swap slots. The slot is shown by the rev counter as you press the buttons. (IE: It points to 1000rpm for slot 1, 2000rpm for slot 2, etc)

Yes, its as simple as that.
Pressing a button on your steering wheel can change your engines power output. The car also defaults to the last used slot on power up, so you can turn the car off in standard power if you are loaning the car to a friend for example... Imagine having STD Power, MSD 320, A Valet mode (wont rev past 3000rpm or make more than 5psi boost and also an anti-theft device, all accessible from your steering wheel controls! With MSD Multimaps, this is your new reality!

 

All of our Accessport calibrations come with the following awesome feature's enabled:

Flat foot shifting:
Enabled on all our calibrations, this features allows the accelerator pedal to stay fully depressed while shifting gears. The use of the clutch pedal will still be necessary, but keeping the accelerator pedal fully depressed between shifts allows for the turbo to stay spooled between gears, so you can concentrate on the fastest gearshift and let MSD take care of the engine speed.

No hassle launch control:
No more entering menus in a hurry! With our calibrations the process of getting into launch mode is simply having the clutch pedal and accelerator pedal depressed fully. The engine speed will quickly raise to the determined RPM set in the calibration file. (Adjustable on request)

5-way launch control set-points:
This feature enables users to switch between 5 different launch control set points on the fly. You can use the factory cruise control system to switch between different set points.
Our calibrations usually have 5 set points enabled from 4500rpm in slot 1 to 5500rpm in slot 5. 
(Slot choice varies due to other features)

 

Burnout Mode:
This feature enables users to perform a nice controlled burnout with a simple button press on the steering wheel. Just hit the button and mash your foot to the floor for an ECU controlled flat foot burnout.

 

Transbrake: (AT vehicles only)
Launch control for the auto transmission cars! Engage transbrake and mash the pedal. Just release teh brake to launch!!

MSD Multimaps: (Optional, at extra cost)
A firm favourite... This feature gives you 3 different power levels available at any one time. Imagine having MSD 250 (STD Power with enhanced MSD driveability and all our features), MSD 280 and MSD 300, all switchable from the cruise control buttons, even with the engine running. Imagine also being able to dictate which of those power levels the vehicle loaded up with when you turn it on… Well you can. Ask us about MSD Multimaps.

 

MSD Custom tuning, remotely!
Using the awesome data logging capabilities of the Accessport, we invite you to send us datalogs via E-mail so that we can custom tune your purchased calibration to better suit your own, individual vehicle. After log analysis, we will send you a further optimised tune that is based of feedback from your own vehicle. This feature comes standard with all our tunes for those owners who wish to get involved in some customisation but don't worry, you can enjoy the product forever without getting involved in custom tuning should you wish to.

All our calibrations come with full printed instructions further detailing the above features and how to do the datalogging for your custom tuning and the first couple of revisions are included in your purchase price. (We normally only need the two...)

(Anti-Theft and Valet modes are now also available on request in slots 4 and 5.)

Cost: (Mail order)

• A COBB Accessport with COBB's Off the shelf tunes = £583.85 inc vat
• A COBB Accessport as above but plus an MSD 320+ calibration = £733.85 inc vat
• A COBB Accessport as above but with an MSD Multimaps calibration= £783.85 inc vat

(These calibrations can all be supplied via E-Mail for existing COBB Accessport users. You can purchase them directly from our webshop here)

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 MEDG17 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 an MEDG17 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)
• Low speed pre ignition (LSPI) control. (Read the blog for info)
• 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)
• Transmission temperature limits. (Never raised)
• Gearbox fluid 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.

Some are actually so bad that if you cool the air properly with an uprated intercooler they actually drive worse... We see that on the dyno where some tunes make more power with the cooling fans turned off in our cell, the poor ECU has no clue what to do with the extra air density any more so it closes the throttle if you cool the air!

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 300+ 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 it.

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)

 

Videos coming soon...