ECU Upgrade for F430

Recently I sold an 04 Porsche Porsche GT2 and bought an 06 F430 F1 Spider. Great handling car with fantastic stylic, however, very anemic in mid range. Disappointing to say the least. As car is under warranty I can't make any changes to exhaust or intake.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience as to who provides the best ECU upgrade at the most reasonable price?

Thanks,

B.J.

 

Eurotek in the US or DMS in the UK but you need to use 98 Octane and to change the air filters to make it work

 

Just finished speaking with Eurotek. Great guys. Great pricing.

Tahnks again,

B.J.

 

According to FNA ANY modifications will void the warranty. And when it comes to something as crucial as the engine management system you can be sure they'll flex their right to deny a claim on the basis of an uncertified replacement part used in the maintenance or repair of the vehicle.

 

This is a highly tuned engine and I very much doubt you will see any noticeable difference by tweaking the maps on this beast. It's not like it has turbos or a supercharger that you could tweak boost pressure. If you were to de-cat it you could program it to run leaner and also get the advantage of less back pressure. As regards running high octane, the Motronic will gradually advance the ignition to take advantage of the fuel after a tank or two of the knock sensor being quiet.

Note the Motronic stores quite a lot of data which can be read back. Specifically, as this might come and bite you, it stores the number of times each injector has fired, and when compared with the mileage on the odometer, an accuracy of around +/- 15% is normal. If it is the plan to revert to the old software should you encounter a warranty claim on the engine, I would be wary that this or other tell-tale data might be overwritten when the ECU is flashed and so give the game away.

My personal ethos is that if you want your car to go faster, it's usually cheaper and easier to just buy a faster car. Or buy another car for those moments you feel it lacking. Just my 2p worth.

Regards
Andrew

 

I am sure ECU upgrades would do quite alot as they do in most cars but warranty will then be a huge issue even more than just an exhaust system I would think?

 

Ok guys. You win. I'll let well enough alone..................

 

Most dealers will still do warranty work if you have aftermarket exhaust. I know mine will

 

Not high performance normally aspirated cars. If you look at the big HP/torque gains claimed by the tuners I'm sure they will all be for blown engines or family saloons.

Regards
Andrew

 

ask for before and after dynos and see what u get

 

I was told by CEC that the horsepower increase is ten percent for the Novitec ECU upgrade.

 

No way! I don't believe it!

 

Any idea if replacing the factory airboxes with carbon fiber ones will void warranty in any way?

 

HP is defined by the engineers as torque times the rpm. Normally a tuner will acheive a few percentage points of more hp and get most of the quoted hp increase by raising the rpm redline limits which does acceleration performance no good.

I do not know about Ferrari but I suspect the earlier post wher the man said the engine is highly tuned is correct and you will get no real performance bost is true.

Good luck whatever you do.

Lee

 

Not unless they break up, get sucked into the induction system and bend your valves!

No, they couldn't possibly cause a warranty issue, no more than changing your tyres or radio.

 

Fabspeed -- Tuned ECU and gutted manifolds will show you an increase in power

 

If you're really serious about modifying and going to void your warranty anyway, go Novitec route

 

If you are looking to feel something similar from the gt2 into the 430, prepare to spend some real money. I had a 911 turbo with some good upgrades and change it for a 360 F1. I knew I will never feel that power but between the sound and the curves on my Ferrari I can live very happy. When I'm in need of brutal power I have a Silvia with a Skyline engine giving me 600 at the wheels ;-).

In a good way my advise is to enjoy your beatifull Ferrari in a good way. Upgrade the sound with a nice exhaust system and use the money from the EUC upgrade for some scud wheels.

 

Totally agree. I just put in a novitec exhaust, its amazing. and you can control the sound levels on it. My dealer will still warranty everything. No need for ECU upgrades.

 

Does anyone seriously think that Ferrari would just leave 10% more power lying around for an ECU tuner to claim? Ask yourselves if any of these aftermarket producers have the engineering expertise or facilities to match Ferrari and Bosch. Even if an increase could be shown on a dyno, there is always a drop off somewhere else not to mention potential problems for the motor and/or excessive emissions and troubles that result from that.

Dave

 

Your dealer is not the finial authority, FNA is and they have categorically said aftermarket exhausts will void warranties. Typically, any improvements ae all in the buyer's head. Objective testing has shown this over and over again. People like the sound, so their right foot gets heavier, rpms go higher, etc. without realizing it.

DAve

 

FNA cannot void a warrant on an exhaust without first proving it was the causes for a specific failure, except for the exhaust itself. It doesnt matter if the driver changes his/her driving style, they must prove that the part caused the failure.

 

Just have a good dealer that will take care of you. If you might be right, which I dont know if you are. The dealer doesnt always have to tell FNA that you have a aftermarket part. Depend on your relationship, and how many F Cars you have purchased from them.

 

The ECU matched with a full exhaust and our headers really wakes up the performance of the car. We use the EVOMSit tuning software which we have had nothing but great reviews on. Here is a link to a thread of a customer that just had these components installed.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262863&highlight=f430+headers

 

I tried a pair of 430GT ECUs F dealer graciously loaned to me on my 430 Challenge running on Elf 102 racing fuel at $28/gallon. Regrettably my Butt-O-meter cannot tell the difference. Lap time wise it was worth 0.5 seconds at most at Sepang F1 track.