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Deleted member 486
So nothing too exciting but recently made a few modifications to my daily Focus. About a year ago I had it remapped by Quantam tuning and, to cut a long story short, they started with the base map from a Fiesta ST which has a much nicer air intake system and so can take more spark and boost. That ended up with broken piston rings and a new engine (thankfully under warranty).
I then decided that I would go the more expensive, but proper, route of using a Mountune kit. Same performance but in a more reliable manner. Mountune get to use the Ford development vehicles with proper mappable (development) ECUs (about £5k a piece from Bosch) and their work is warrantied by Ford so I felt a bit more comfortable with it.
The Mountune kit is £1,200 inc. VAT from them (mTune 200 Power Upgrade Kit ) which was a bit outside the budget. But I had an eBay search running and towards the end of last year someone put the whole kit on eBay and I managed to get it for £300. The remap box on it's own should be £450 but in the run up to Christmas Mountune had some offers so I managed to get it £370. At the same time I bought a new rear gearbox mount (Roll Restrictor ) and some new hot-side ducting from Pumaspeed.
Mountune said that the hardware upgrades are a straight swap but you have to remove the active shutters that close over the radiator to help warm up. A few nights ago I fitted the hardware - not quite so straightforward as they made out! I knew the undertrays would have to come off but I also the front bumper has to come off! Since I didn't have a 2 or 4 post lift I put the car up on drive-on ramps. 2 of the torx bits holding the front bumper in place are so close to the wheel that I had to use a short torx driver and a 1/4" drive ratchet to loosen it then take it out with my fingers as there wasn't enough space to leave the ratchet in place!
Once all that was off the old intercooler and active shutters came off easily. Lining up the new intercooler I realised that the mounting tabs are about 6" further outboard and 4" higher on the new intercooler. Obviously not a "direct" swap. In the end I worked out that the new intercooler must mount to the radiator support bracket which is bolted to the front subframe. So out came two bolts and then a juggling act to get it fitted!
An optional extra for the Mountune kit, if fitted by them, was a new sound symposer fitted to the intake pipe just before the throttle with a pipe going to the bulkhead to pipe induction noise in to the car (has one as standard, the Mountune one is tuned differently). The guy I bought the kit from had this done so I thought it would be rude not to swap it over. Whilst this was a straight swap it couldn't be done in-situ so the intake pipe had to be "manoeuvred" past the radiator fan and oil cooler/filter. Then a wrestling match to get it off and then the struggle of forcing it all back in to the engine bay again!
The Pumaspeed hot side ducting was a straight swap and easy to do.
The air cleaner housing is basically one from a Focus ST / RS. Whilst the EcoBoost one has a single pipe feeding air in to one part of the airbox, the ST one has a second pipe feeding more air in to a second part of the air box. That is fine on the ST but on the EcoBoost there is a vacuum/purge line that goes right through the area where the second duct wants to sit. So more pipes disconnected before fitting the airbox and then massaging all the pipes back in to place!
The gearbox roll restrictor was a straight swap but not as easy as the Mountune fitting video shows. That has 3 mounting bolts holding the gearbox mount to the gearbox (which it does on the ST). On the EcoBoost there is an additional exhaust support bracket and heatshield that has to come off! But not the end of the world.
When I came to the put the bumper back on I noticed that two of the blanked off grill areas were clip-in pieces so I just unclipped them to get more airflow to the (much wider) intercooler.
So got everything fitted and decided to run the car for a couple of days on the standard cal but with the hardware upgrades just to see if I noticed any differences. It was certainly louder but a bit unhappy at idle. However nothing to worry about.
I then reflashed the ECU with the Mountune box during lunch at work and then set off home. Sliproad on to the M42, full beans, this feels goo (POP - WHOOOOSH), no power, MIL on, engine malfunction warning. Phone the AA, get an escort back to work, car in the air and one of the crappy Pumaspeed jubilee clips holding the hot side duct in place has come off. AA guy fits a much stronger jubilee clip and we're all good. Head home and love the new power... Now to take it to a damp track day and piss off some low power Caterhams/Elises when a cooking spec Focus estate overtakes them like I did when I had the car remapped the first time round!
Original Torque = 240Nm
Power = 150PS
Mountune Torque = 320Nm
Power = 200PS (conservative from what I have read)
I then decided that I would go the more expensive, but proper, route of using a Mountune kit. Same performance but in a more reliable manner. Mountune get to use the Ford development vehicles with proper mappable (development) ECUs (about £5k a piece from Bosch) and their work is warrantied by Ford so I felt a bit more comfortable with it.
The Mountune kit is £1,200 inc. VAT from them (mTune 200 Power Upgrade Kit ) which was a bit outside the budget. But I had an eBay search running and towards the end of last year someone put the whole kit on eBay and I managed to get it for £300. The remap box on it's own should be £450 but in the run up to Christmas Mountune had some offers so I managed to get it £370. At the same time I bought a new rear gearbox mount (Roll Restrictor ) and some new hot-side ducting from Pumaspeed.
Mountune said that the hardware upgrades are a straight swap but you have to remove the active shutters that close over the radiator to help warm up. A few nights ago I fitted the hardware - not quite so straightforward as they made out! I knew the undertrays would have to come off but I also the front bumper has to come off! Since I didn't have a 2 or 4 post lift I put the car up on drive-on ramps. 2 of the torx bits holding the front bumper in place are so close to the wheel that I had to use a short torx driver and a 1/4" drive ratchet to loosen it then take it out with my fingers as there wasn't enough space to leave the ratchet in place!
Once all that was off the old intercooler and active shutters came off easily. Lining up the new intercooler I realised that the mounting tabs are about 6" further outboard and 4" higher on the new intercooler. Obviously not a "direct" swap. In the end I worked out that the new intercooler must mount to the radiator support bracket which is bolted to the front subframe. So out came two bolts and then a juggling act to get it fitted!
An optional extra for the Mountune kit, if fitted by them, was a new sound symposer fitted to the intake pipe just before the throttle with a pipe going to the bulkhead to pipe induction noise in to the car (has one as standard, the Mountune one is tuned differently). The guy I bought the kit from had this done so I thought it would be rude not to swap it over. Whilst this was a straight swap it couldn't be done in-situ so the intake pipe had to be "manoeuvred" past the radiator fan and oil cooler/filter. Then a wrestling match to get it off and then the struggle of forcing it all back in to the engine bay again!
The Pumaspeed hot side ducting was a straight swap and easy to do.
The air cleaner housing is basically one from a Focus ST / RS. Whilst the EcoBoost one has a single pipe feeding air in to one part of the airbox, the ST one has a second pipe feeding more air in to a second part of the air box. That is fine on the ST but on the EcoBoost there is a vacuum/purge line that goes right through the area where the second duct wants to sit. So more pipes disconnected before fitting the airbox and then massaging all the pipes back in to place!
The gearbox roll restrictor was a straight swap but not as easy as the Mountune fitting video shows. That has 3 mounting bolts holding the gearbox mount to the gearbox (which it does on the ST). On the EcoBoost there is an additional exhaust support bracket and heatshield that has to come off! But not the end of the world.
When I came to the put the bumper back on I noticed that two of the blanked off grill areas were clip-in pieces so I just unclipped them to get more airflow to the (much wider) intercooler.
So got everything fitted and decided to run the car for a couple of days on the standard cal but with the hardware upgrades just to see if I noticed any differences. It was certainly louder but a bit unhappy at idle. However nothing to worry about.
I then reflashed the ECU with the Mountune box during lunch at work and then set off home. Sliproad on to the M42, full beans, this feels goo (POP - WHOOOOSH), no power, MIL on, engine malfunction warning. Phone the AA, get an escort back to work, car in the air and one of the crappy Pumaspeed jubilee clips holding the hot side duct in place has come off. AA guy fits a much stronger jubilee clip and we're all good. Head home and love the new power... Now to take it to a damp track day and piss off some low power Caterhams/Elises when a cooking spec Focus estate overtakes them like I did when I had the car remapped the first time round!
Original Torque = 240Nm
Power = 150PS
Mountune Torque = 320Nm
Power = 200PS (conservative from what I have read)
