Engine control on modified V50

[Boingg]

Hi all,

My '06 V50 has an unwell 1.8 Duratec HE based unit. Amongst other things it's drinking oil like it's going out of fashion. I reckon there's a case for changing the engine, but think that it'd be better to stick a 2.0 in there as a good compromise between more reliability and tuning potential and ease of swap.

I'd thought that as all the control stuff seems to be the same between the two units, I might get away with the standard 1.8 ECU, or potentially flashing a standard 2.0 map onto it. However, an independent Volvo ECU place says that the map's different and I won't be able to put a 2.0 map onto a 1.8 ECU as the ECU will reject it. I know I could theoretically change out all the control units, lock, instruments etc for those from a 2.0 but then that's becoming a lot of work for not an awful lot of gain.

So, questions:
Is it right that I won't be able to put a 2.0 map onto 1.8 ECU?
Is the stock programming on the 1.8 ECU up to handling the extra 200cc without the engine eating its own internals?
What do people do for engine control if they change cams, or stick a go forced induction or similar if the ECU won't accept non-original mapping? Is there a piggy-back unit people use? If so what's good?
Obviously, what I'd like to do is stick in a T5, but am not sure about transmission (would want to keep manual) or control units. Has anyone done this?

Thanks!

[Brimfull]

If it was me I would be more inclined to buy another V50 with a bigger engine, saving the hassle of fitting another engine that you have no idea on its condition.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by Boingg

Hi all,
...
Obviously, what I'd like to do is stick in a T5, but am not sure about transmission (would want to keep manual) or control units. Has anyone done this?

Thanks!

Hi
Apparently anything is possible its just matter of time/cash and sense. In your case 1.8 to 2.0 could possibly work but putting T5 engine is whole of different story. I heard of people swapping 2.4i to T5 but its volvo engine->volvo engine, not Ford/Mazda->Volvo. No idea how to tackle even 2.0 swap but maybe you can use ECU from donor car without changing the CEM? CEM is the brain with everything coded into it but ECU is just an "auxiliary" component that may be swappable.
As for ECU mapping - again - ford/mazda units may be different, but T5 ECUs are programmable, Hilton map for example is just flashed using Vida+Dice and it works similar to flashing Bios on PC, I would imagine 1.8 ECUs can be also interfered with.
Good luck with project anyway!

[Boingg]

Thanks guys,

I hear you re: just buying a different V50 with a bigger engine, but funds don't permit right now, plus I like this one and have put quite a lot of work into it so far. As I see it, the engine probably needs changed (excessive oil consumption being the main reason right now, once I fix the cooling issues), and I thought if doing so, it'd be good to explore the options.

Re: T5, that's more of an "in an ideal world" / fun scenario. In reality, it'll probably be a 1.8 or 2.0. I agree too re: anything being possible with enough time & determination or money to throw at it, and have a handful of reasonably challenging transplants under my belt - albeit in the non-Volvo world. It's a lot of work, and while I harbour plans for a similarly daft RWD V50 at one point, I think this one is going to be lucky enough to avoid those honours!

I'd have thought the ECU would be re-flashable too and was surprised to hear that it would reject a new map. I will look into it further and update with what I find. With the setup being Ford, I wouldn't have thought locking things down to that extent would ever have got the green light given Ford owners' propensity to modify (generalising hugely, obvs)

Thanks!