Tom_91

Active Member
Feb 9, 2015
104
1
St. Albans
Just thought I'd post my experience so far with remapping this engine. Got an offer with Black Code for the remap at £257, I gave them a shot because my friend got his diesel Audi done with them and its was amazing.

So guy came round did the remap, took it for a spin and as soon as I booted it past 4000 RPM an "EPC" light came on and it went into a limp mode with no power. A quick restart of the engine reset this. Cutting a very long story short, 10 tweaked remaps and half a tank of petrol later it was determined that too much boost was being generated high in the rev range for one of the sensors. The technician (guy who writes the maps at their head office) said to me on the phone that this 150hp ACT engine seems to be setup to run differently from the old 140hp 1.4 in that it boosts and delivers max power much lower in the rev range, behaving more like a diesel (as if designed for economy).

So I'm currently testing a new map until Thursday (havn't given them any money yet). What they've apparently done is given lots of boost and power increase under 4000 RPM and then minimal increase after that to prevent the sensor from triggering. So it only triggers the sensor and EPC light now when I boot it in 5th and 6th gear with the revs above 3500 RPM. Clearly still a boost issue somewhere.. But wow the low down torque/power is incredible. It pulls like a train from 1500-3000 RPM and really does drive like a diesel now but with a distinct lack of power after 4000 RPM (do I really want this? It feels kind of weird from a turbocharged petrol..)

Anyone had any experiences remapping this engine? I wonder if the REVO Stage 1 has similar issues. I noticed that the REVO graph for this engine has significantly reduced gain over the graph for the non-ACT 140hp engine. Perhaps the issue i'm experiencing is why..
 
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Mobile remapping is a big no no.

Your car should be mapped on a rolling road, end of.

I'd be surprised if they have a guy who writes the maps, more likely they just send off for them from other places. Either way, if it was me I'd get that map off and get a reputable company to do one on a rolling road.


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I gave them a shot because my friend got his diesel Audi done with them and its was amazing.


Anyone can "map" a diesel, but mapping a petrol engine is completely different story. It's much harder and should be done on a dyno as said above.

I'd get the pikey map off and get a proper one on before your engine goes bang.
 
I would get rid of it asap!
Clearly they do not have proper know how to tune it...
It seems that they gave you software for 140bhp engine, and have no idea about what they are doing.
Cheap price gets cheap products.
And now you are they test mule...and it might not be a good thing for your motor.

Go get some reputable company product...
APR, Revo, ABT
 
Jesus didn't realise black code were still going, they were well known back in the day (2007-2008) for being sh1t.
 
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