[batterylow]

Life without EMI's or why I remapped my Ford Figo 1.4 Titanium

After 3.5 years and 70,000 kms the old girl was finally showing her age, the linear shove of the 8V Ford power-plant was getting glacial and made every overtaking manoeuvre a game of chicken with oncoming traffic. The itch to upgrade was well and truly in action and I set out to draw up a list of potential candidates:

Accused no 1:
Ford Ecosport

Being a satisfied Ford customer the first choice was logically another Ford, the Ecosport 1.5 TDCi,

The logic was further reinforced when I went for a TD of the Diesel Titanium and sat in the well contoured driver seat, it was snug, and to use a cliche, fit like a glove.

First impression - Wow

The engine was tractable, had sufficient grunt to make the Figo feel anemic and make me let out a whieeee every time I gave it the stick. The ride was firm and it took corners flat and did not make me defenestrate my lunch.

The salesperson was all agog about the fancy push to start thingy and chimed,saar you don't have to take the key out of your pocket saar.
Initial impression, heart happy but brain wants to double check.

The logical choice started getting chips in its armour once I moved to the back seat, space at the back was miserly and I was feeling distinctively short changed.I know that the car has to duck under the sub 4m rule and hence this squeeze at the rear, but somehow the benefits of the front seat could not redeem the miserly rear seat.

So that sent the Ecosport out of contention.

Accused no 2:
Figo Aspire

A friend has a new Aspire diesel Titanium so took it for a TD. The engine was good, interiors were good, the EPS however left me wanting (spoilt by the HPS you see) and the biggest turn off, the beige interiors!

I am not exactly a fan of light interiors and the mental imagery of mud streaked interiors after a deluge put paid to the Aspire.


Accused no 3:
Rapid 1.5 DSG

Oh boy oh boy, this was my most anticipated car and the discounts further sweetened the deal, however my doubts about the longivity of the DQ 200 remained and since the car would be doing duty
in stop go traffic daily and this being my daily driver, I had to sadly let it go.

Why a remap:

In between all this thamasha, I inquired on the buy back value of the Figo and the value quoted gave me angina, and well and truly sealed the fate of buying a new car.

That left me with no choice but to dress up the old girl.
The options left before me were either a Remap or a tuning box.
After reading pages and pages of debates about tuning boxes vs remaps, I took the plunge for a remap.

Much water has flown under the remap vs tuning box debate and I felt a remap would suit me better.

The search began for a tuner who would suit my purpose and I choose Code 6 for the good reviews here and elsewhere and also for the fact that they would perform the remap at my convenience.

Calls were made and the day was fixed. The mandate was for driveability and in gear acceleration. Sajan turned up with his Laptop and interfaces, the connection was made and the map uploaded. After a few minutes tweaking the settings he asked me to go for a ride.

Initial impressions:

The car felt the same in the first gear, but the moment it hit 2k rpm in 2nd gear it felt eager, it was raring to gain speed and the speedo happily kept pace with the tacho.(Unlike previously wherein the speedo would be a distant second)

The thrust was so unlike the Figo and it was relentless into the 3rd, 4th and even in the fifth gear up to 4k rpm, by which time I ran out of road. He mentioned that the ECU was in the learning phase and would be
getting attuned to my driving style. It felt transformed and for the first time in its life, I could point-squirt to overtake.

I could now replicate the whieee I had in the Ecosport in the Figo. Overtaking was no longer a 5 year plan but a one day offer (OK I am exaggerating but you get the point)

Driveability was also much better and I had to consciously avoid going down a gear as I could afford to use the same gear when I slow down and I would still retain enough grunt to accelerate without getting bogged down.

I was told engine life would not suffer as the parameters are still within tolerance.

The map was not very aggressive and smoke levels were well controlled unless I went WOT. All in all, made for a happy customer!

Kitna deti hai!
This section is included purely for science.
My DTE usually shows 520 kms for a full tank of fuel.
Right now it is showing 550 kms on a full tank, despite all the high rpm testing.
I am not complaining.
I will update the DTE value once I drain this tank in a week.

Now comes the not so good bits:
I find the upsized tires wanting when I brake so looking into the possibility of getting stickier rubber.
It is recommended to change the engine oil at 5K in the interest of engine longevity.

What next:
I am happy with the car right now and nothing is planned.
A de-cat or squeezing in an intercooler in the next year maybe, wistful thinking.

Contact info:
You can contact code6 over their website.

Kitna hua:
The remap comes to 24K.

Is is worth is?
I am happy with it and feel that it has cured the itch to upgrade, at least for the moment.
The engine is a far cry from the agricultural one it used to be, I agree its no MJD yet, but it is surely a better Figo.
Would I recommend it, yes.

I have added all points I could think of, any more, please ask away.

Cheers!

[batterylow]

It is always better to have numbers to verify any claims. Numbers lend objectivity and tell the truth in black and white.

With this in mind I gave the car a dyno run, the figures are as follows.

It was dyno-ed at Spitfire performance using a rolling road.

The printer was kaput and ergo the photos of the numbers.

Picture 1 and 3:
The Power at the crank is around 100 bhp considering the standard correction and 85 at the wheels .

The lower curve of picture 3 is the actual at wheel values of power and the one above gives the power at crank considering the standard correction.

Picture 2:
Torque stands at 216 Nm.

Stock figures for the Figo as per Ford are 68 bhp and 160 Nm twist.

Fair enough I would say.

Maybe it would have been better to get a run with the stock car to get a better idea of the improvement, but that will have to wait another day.

[batterylow]

To sum up:

Is it worth it:
Yes

Benefits:

Drivability across the range
I no longer have to shift up and down if I slow down, the torque is sufficient to use the same gear.

In Gear Acceleration:
Hands down the best thing to have. There is no longer that hesitation if the car will make the distance in the gap in the traffic.

Engine noise:
Engine noise seems to have noticeably come down, especially during cold starts.

FE:
FE has improved by about 40 kms in the DTE, equates to about 1 kmpl increase in FE.

Now the trade offs:

The initial expenditure, 24 K (Its equal to 3 months of diesel for me)

The emissions:
I need to check the emission levels as the car seems to be smoking at full throttle runs.

The car is still running on stock filters so maybe it is getting over-fuelled. I need to look the possibility of getting a drop-in replacement filter the next oil change to see if it helps matters.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications Section. Thanks for sharing!

[akshay380]

Surprised this thread does not have any replies. How is the car doing. And post remap life?

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by akshay380

Surprised this thread does not have any replies. How is the car doing. And post remap life?

Hi Akshay, the car is doing great, its run more than 7K on the remap. No complaints other than smoke on WOT which I still don't have the time to go get it tuned again. Mileage figures are still holding steady and no complaints on that front. Like with all things, the excitement lasts only upto a point, post which it becomes dreary again.

As they say, modifications is a direction not a destination, so planning for a de-cat and EGR delete in the coming months. Have also sourced a manual boost controller, awaiting a boost pressure guage to complete installation.

Any more queries, please fire away.

[anb]

Congratulations. My figo also runs on code6 remap, egr block,decatand downpipe.The car had done 65k km on code6 remap itself before the decat.

[null]

Originally Posted by batterylow

.. No complaints other than smoke on WOT which I still don't have the time to go get it tuned again. Mileage figures are still holding steady and no complaints on that front. ...

As they say, modifications is a direction not a destination, so planning for a de-cat and EGR delete in the coming months....

Have you got an emission test done? They generally rev the engine to 3-4K RPM during the process. Wondering if it would catch higher values.

Also, impact of EGR delete & catcon removal - impact on emissions from a certificate point of view? Will the emission testing guy get higher than normal readings on the emissions?

BTW I would like a test ride in your Figo some time, if you permit. Basically to experience the remap (before you go for EGR delete & decat) to see if it suits my driving concerns.

[speedmunster]

Originally Posted by batterylow

To sum up:

Is it worth it:
Yes

Benefits:

Drivability across the range
I no longer have to shift up and down if I slow down, the torque is sufficient to use the same gear....

...look the possibility of getting a drop-in replacement filter the next oil change to see if it helps matters.

Thanks for the detailed writeup 'batterylow'. I too have a Figo and a Fiesta diesel. I had a tuning box on my Fiesta and it ran well for 75000 kms till Jan this year when I finally got rid of it due to extreme amounts of black smoke.

I too was planning for the typical 'upgrade to ecosport' route but unfortunately my pockets aren't allowing me to.

The code 6 remap seems the way forward now. Would love to drive a remapped TDCI before taking the final plunge. Any volunteers here in Hyderabad?

[jkdas]

Thanks for sharing the details and the proofs!
Code6 remaps are awesome. Checkout Sankar's thread for more interesting mods.

And next time try a remapped EcoSport

[blackstallion76]

Code 6 remaps are beautifully tuned to pull out the best maximum of cars engine.
I have Punto 75 MJD remapped by Code 6. Enjoying to the fullest.
The tuners customize to the great extent till the customer is satisfied.

Good that the remapped is evaluated in the dyno. Pretty costly seems like. Can u publish what was the cost to dyno?

Even i have the similar setup of Stage 1 - Remap+EGR Delete+Grimmspeed MBC.
Absolutely no smoke on WOT and the pull of in-gear acceleration is very peppy.

Punto MJD definitely needs a remap of this kind to improve the drive-ability overall.
Have run close to 10000kms with the remap. So far very satisfied.

Need an increase Boost to 23/24 but dont want to burn the turbo. Hence contemplating.

What adv does decat & downpipe provide for Diesel Engines?

[vankito]

Originally Posted by anb

Congratulations. My figo also runs on code6 remap, egr block,decatand downpipe.The car had done 65k km on code6 remap itself before the decat.

My car has a Kiirus remap, have run it for more than 10,000 kms. Very happy but eventually one gets used to it.

Curious - i think have a EGr delete, but Im not a 100% sure . Im trying to ascertain whether I need to do the cat delete - does that actually add any value? theoretically i probably should.

[batterylow]

A new place had opened in town so it was decided to check the numbers once again.



94.7 bhp and 224.3 Nm

Mission accomplished

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by batterylow

A new place had opened in town so it was decided to check the numbers once again.

Can you share the dyno graph of stock map? It is always better to compare stock vs remap graph on same dyno.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Can you share the dyno graph of stock map? It is always better to compare stock vs remap graph on same dyno.

My car has been running a remap since 2015, so I don't have a stock run. Maybe if I can access another car of equivalent vintage I can make an attempt.