[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

Quick question about the tyres though

Thanks!

Tyres are stock BridgeStone Ecopias 205/50 R17, for now I haven’t upgraded or shifted to better rubbers.

Tyre replacement (due to age) will be coming this year, and in dilemma whether to get 225/45 R17 or 215/55 R17 (the latter will need coding due to >2% change in tyre diameter).

As far as current setup goes, tyres are plain horrible. In second gear, irrespective of how good the roads are, the traction light just keeps on blinking.

[Mickey1986]

Originally Posted by GautamJ

Thanks!

Tyres are stock BridgeStone Ecopias 205/50 R17, for now I haven’t upgraded or shifted to better rubbers.

Tyre replacement (due to age) will be coming this year, and in dilemma whether to get 225/45 R17 or 215/55 R17 (the latter will need coding due to >2% change in tyre diameter).

As far as current setup goes, tyres are plain horrible. In second gear, irrespective of how good the roads are, the traction light just keeps on blinking.

215/55/r17 makes more sense as that will give some more profile. I am wondering if Ford can retune the Ecu as per r16 as well. I mean what if someone wants to go for 205/60/16? That will be the stock config for 2020 cars. How can the MID deviations be avoided ?

[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

215/55/r17 makes more sense as that will give some more profile.

I share the same thoughts. Already suffered alloy bend with stock size, plus road conditions in my area are B-A-D.
Tyre circumference can be tweaked with help of FORScan (IIRC for 205/50 R17 it’s 1995 mm instead of 1999 mm).

[Mickey1986]

Originally Posted by GautamJ

I share the same thoughts. Already suffered alloy bend with stock size, plus road conditions in my area are B-A-D.
Tyre circumference can be tweaked with help of FORScan (IIRC for 205/50 R17 it’s 1995 mm instead of 1999 mm).

Any point of raising it to Ford and getting 16inchers ? They may help here

Let me know if this is done. I may do for mine as well. I am planning to buy a sports model one with 17inches (used one ). May need to figure out something for this.

[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

Any point of raising it to Ford and getting 16inchers ? They may help here

I don’t really have good contacts with Ford, and with the modded car I doubt they’ll be interested in even listening.
Also, while buying I had the option of 16”, but chose 17” just for the way it looks. Most probably, will just upsize and code it. I think it should be fine for now.

[Mickey1986]

Originally Posted by GautamJ

I don’t really have good contacts with Ford, and with the modded car I doubt they’ll be interested in even listening.
Also, while buying I had the option of 16”, but chose 17” just for the way it looks. Most probably, will just upsize and code it. I think it should be fine for now.

Thanks Gautam. I like to take my car to mountains and wherever possible. Wondering will that be much of an issue with 17 inchers. I have 2013 Ecosport with 15inchers. Never felt any issues with that.

[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

Thanks Gautam. I like to take my car to mountains and wherever possible.

For your usage, beefier sidewalls will be appreciated. I guess, for you downsizing to R16 will be the safest bet. Though, as said earlier for my usage, I believe 215/55 R17 will give a perfect blend of performance (grip and handling) and ruggedness (17 mm more than stock).

[GautamJ]

A raw 0-100 kmph run

The map though having great improvements in drivability hasn’t really given equivalent improvements in numbers . For comparison, a Stage 2 Code’6 remapped EcoSport with Intercooler upgrade did 0-100 kmph in 8.99 seconds. Stock timings IMHO is ~13.5 seconds.

Pic Credits - the_b0ss_man

Do note, I neither have the proper equipments (such as Vbox or Draggy) nor have access to proper roads (Mumbai roads are busy even at 3:30 am) for conducting tests. Also, we were 3 pax with a full tank of fuel (more weight).

Our EcoSport TDCi Stage 2 Timings :-

0-60 kmph - 4.78 seconds
0-80 kmph - 7.70 seconds
0-100 kmph - 10.89 seconds
0-110 kmph - 13.73 second

We’ll be testing it on better roads sometime later, and hopefully driver inputs will be better too.

[GautamJ]

Updates :-

1. PUC
Feared of straight pipes sounding great, but having no OEM part for controlling emission, meant the chances of failing PUC test was high. Fortunately, it passed the PUC test and has a valid PUC till the last day of July, 2023.

Oops, no muffler

2. Insurance Renewal
Though nothing to do it this thread, just for fellow EcoSport Owners got comprehensive insurance with third party insurance (car had 3 years third party insurance at time of purchase) for ~₹27K including zero depreciation, consumables, RTI, RSA and Engine Protect.

3. Annual Service
Visited Rudraa Ford (Mira Road), and I was amazed with them delivering car within 3 hours, that too after warranty claims.
As we had bought Ford Flexi Plan, the overall bill came to just ₹2,400 (approx). Paid for diesel filter, cabin air filter, rear wiper blade, rear boot door lock (rubber part was worn out) and door bush. The battery was reported good, and warranty remains intact.

Annual Service @ Rudraa Ford

4. Tyre Upgradation
Stock tyres are quite famous for all negatives, planned to upgrade to 215/55 R17 (Stock were 205/50 R17). I plan to code the new size as the difference in diameter is 4.8% IIRC.
Chose 215 for added power and 55 for peace of mind, already two alloys are slightly bent (will be replacing those alloys).

The meatier rubber, doesn’t look as sick as before though

[GautamJ]

Updates :-

Stage 2 Aggressive Map by Wolf Moto:
After the recent tyre upgrade, the Hippo felt sluggish. To overcome this, plus the running being reduced, we planned to go ahead with aggressive map. This map is C-R-A-Z-Y! Has good amount of power in all bands and a lot smoother too. NVH has been more controlled, but on downside FE has taken a hit marginally.

UltraMile R5 Tyres (215/55 R17):

These are amazing tyres at a steal price.

• Even though sidewall is increased considerably, neither the cornering has been affected, nor the high speed stability. Cornering might be like before due to the wider section (215 from 205).
  
• FE has taken a hit, as expected by a kmpl or two.
  
• Ride Quality and crashing through potholes doesn’t scare me like before. On a recent trip, I did crash into potholes, might update after getting tyres checked (for now no bubbling or burst reported).
  
• Super silent tyres. No tyres squeal and braking has a good improvement (on stock ABS use to kick in quite soon).
  
• Wet grip is excellent and aquaplaning feels a better handled now.
  
• Drove through slushy area, for a second thought, it’ll get stuck but was out with just few wheel spins. It isn’t Thar but good enough for only potholed roads (or no-roads).

Getting featured by Mr. Faisal Khan:

The shoot in process

A long chat with my ex-boss, he was so humble to review/vlog our Hippo.

A short summary on Mr. Faisal’s opinion on our Hippo

[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by GautamJ

A short summary on Mr. Faisal’s opinion on our Hippo
Attachment 2366287

Well, made it quick. He seem to really like the built.

https://youtu.be/EdeSq7hCSXI

[GautamJ]

Update
Well, after a L-O-N-G time!

Brake Upgrades :

For me, good brakes are never bad. Finding options was difficult hence, settled with what was available. Got Brembo stock replacement brake pads for our EcoSport. It is nothing better than stock OEM brakes, and will suggest to stick to OEM brake pads. After this wears off, we will go ahead with EBC Yellow Brake Pads. The most expensive option is to get Dixcel Slotted Brake Rotors with Dixcel Extra Speed Brake Pads.

Brembo Brake Pads, which did not meet our expectations.

Intercooler Upgrade :

This modification took the most time, Ford has next to Z-E-R-O aftermarket support here in India at least. Our EcoSport is probably the second EcoSport in India to get an intercooler upgrade and probably the last. The first EcoSport has really complex plumbing
After exhaustive R&D, got in contact with Karan from KS Motorsports. They too were not well versed with the modification on Ford EcoSport but, they were ready to take it as a project.
Initially, it was discussed that crash bar will NOT be chopped but, as the modifications progressed it had to be chopped. This is the only downside of the whole intercooler upgradation.

Ford have totally messed up with stock intercooler, it is tiny and covered for the most part, reasons best known to Ford.

Stock OEM Intercooler, only area boxed in red is the useable area.

Technicalities best known to Karan, without discussion with us, he took the decision of chopping the crash bar for fitting in the bigger intercooler. As explained by him, it was done so that the custom plumbing is as neat as possible (neater the setup, lesser the lag is) and the other reason being, there is some minimum space required between the radiator and the intercooler. Though, data logging was surprisingly failing hence, no details on it.

The view of the upgraded intercooler with custom plumbing, with bumper fitment.

As most of the BHPians might have guessed. Yes, after the bumper fitment there will be hardly any open area of the intercooler. Just 3 lines were visible, yet it translates to almost double the area of stock OEM intercooler open surface.

The open surface of the upgraded intercooler. Pardon for the bad picture angle, the car was on a dynamometer.

Hardly any visible upgrades, no change in Dyno Graphs or figures, plus no crash bar, is this upgrade anything better?
Yes, the AC improved a lot. We are on the opposite spectrum, didn’t like the AC of our EcoSport. But, after the upgrade the AC performance has improved a lot. Chills the cabin absolutely immediately.
As far as performance goes, it improved in stop-and-go traffic (sole reason of going for this upgrade). The performance did not deteriorate during the traffic rush. On the ghat section, upgraded intercooler really helped.
Also, the fuel efficiency at higher rpms improved (basically, higher rpms did not impact fuel efficiency much). Small notice, the difference between the ‘tankful to a tankful’ and ‘FE as per instrument cluster’ reduced from 2 kmpl to 1-1.5 kmpl.
The dyno figures after the intercooler upgradation at crank are as below :-
Power - 134.90 HP
Torque - 311.83 NM

Featured by The Drivers Hub (TDH) :

The team is absolutely professional and bunch of enthusiasts. They don’t believe is abusing the cars. Even though they have reviewed machines which can be termed as ‘beasts’, they happily agreed to shoot a video of our Hippo. Also, they shared stunning pictures of our EcoSport.

https://youtu.be/Yh63BamO_84?feature=shared

Wolf Moto Remap :

After the intercooler upgrade, which didn’t fetch us any upward increment of power and torque figures, we contacted Wolf Moto for a more powerful map. We were simultaneously in talks with HPi for turbo upgrades, for compatibility they needed the stock ECU flash, for which we contacted Wolf Moto. After being left on seen, and receiving no updates on patch for ‘Speed Limiter’ working, we were sure to not get our other car remapped from them. We, have never heard anything bad about their customer service or after sales hence, this was a shocking experience. For now, we have lost all hopes with Wolf Moto helping us take this project further .

Necessary Upgrades :

The new look!

P.S. the HSRP was added back after clicking the picture. Yes, that makes it look ugly.

After trying everywhere, we went back to the experts where we had an amazing experience, i.e. Mates and Mods.
We got tiny upgrades which made good difference. The upgrades were :-

• Front Reinforcement Bars - There are two black powder coated bars (quality comparable to SS bars used for roll cages), these are mounted on stock crash bar points. One can hardly see it, and hence makes no hassle with either cops or RTO. This was done to make the front end safe, and now the missing of crash bar is NOT felt.
• Bumper trimmed - With just 3 bars of upgraded intercooler did not satisfy our greed. If it has been upgraded, why not fully utilise it? We got the bumper trimmed, need to pat the backs of Mates and Mods Team Members, the execution doesn’t look bad in my eyes. Now, the opening being huge, we added a steel mesh grille which was painted black. The intercooler is fairly exposed and have seen improvements in performance. Seems the GB is failing to handle the torque as there is a delay in clutch plate actually releasing during upshifts at ~2500 rpm.
• Cold Air Intake - Seriously, don’t know why Ford has blocked the opening. It cannot be due to rains or 550mm water wading capacity of EcoSport (assuming it is same for this facelifted EcoSport). We, got it done and not sure how vastly it has improved the performance as the bumper trimming mod was done simultaneously.

After the above mods, we are yet to dyno the car and time 0-100 kmph.

[GautamJ]

Forgotten Post
Not much informative though.

High Speed Runs :

By high speed, I mean really high speed i.e. ~200 kmph .
This was done when the car was strapped on a Dyno hence, nothing illegal (IMO) or any risk to any humans or vehicles.

The car did 200 kmph @ ~4200 rpm. Guessing on the dyno, the car can easily cross its speedometer which is rated at 220 kmph.
In the practical world, if we are able to get access to a private road or a race track, I guess the car will max out at ~190 kmph. This top speed is purely an assumption, and I don’t wish to test it out.

https://youtu.be/HEJ4gAmi8nU?feature=shared

Exhaust Note :

With no skills and proper gear, we haven’t recorded exhaust note while driving. We wanted to dyno the car at N1 Racing after the intercooler upgrade. Took this benefit and shot a jugaadu 3rd gear pull video .

Note: Every dyno gives different figures (power and torque) for the same car. Both dyno in Mumbai is close by (within 5 km).

https://youtu.be/0hDXdlyYQis?feature=shared

[nn1687]

Hello folks. I am planning to go for stage 1 + Ecu remap for my ecosport diesel BS6. I have approached a tuner in Mangalore and he had said that Bs6 diesel ecosport cannot be tuned as it ll block the DPF. Is this true? Had anyone tuned the bs6 diesel ecosport?

[GautamJ]

Originally Posted by nn1687

I have approached a tuner in Mangalore and he had said that Bs6 diesel ecosport cannot be tuned as it ll block the DPF. Is this true?

I don’t think the tuner has correctly stated, there are many BS6 EcoSport being tuned. Code6 and Wolf Moto (I don’t recommend Wolf Moto) have also a Stage 2 tune with DPF delete.