After a BSI swap , as part of a tacho removal process, Howard used this correction box to get the speedo accurate again. With coding being so tricky on these , this was a quick & cheap solution. The yellow plug he’s refering to would is what previously was plugged into the tacho

“Hi Martin,

                      Recently bought a Chinese black box to sort out the mismatch of gearing on my van, from eBay. It was excellent!

       Apologies if this is old hat, but it was a case of pull the yellow connector apart, and the part with 3 wires, green 12v, brown -ve,

Orange signal, cut and join orange wire attached to plug, to box blue wire, and flying orange wire to box yellow wire, and reconnect yellow plugs.

          Drive down the road with gps speedo App giving true speed, then adjust the box with 2 buttons, to give a match with vans speedo, and that’s it.  The box displays the mismatch, and I ended up with a 1.27 multiplier displayed in box. 

           The only thing I haven’t fixed is why the speedo refuses to display anything until i am doing 15mph . I think it could be low voltage supplying the speed sensor.

 Sorry, I had to tell somebody, as my wife could not grasp the significance of the tumultuous event!!

Top geyser & founding member of the fordtransit.org forum Guy Robottom, sent a friend down from Oxford for some tuning on this 2013 MK7 Tourneo 140ps. On its 3rd engine & topping over 400 thousand miles so far , it drove really nice & sounded good ( quiet ) as well, so a good candidate for an economy tune. I resolved some DPF issues then gave it a mild tune, advancing the injection opening time a little. Works a treat for power delivery at low throttle openings , & throttle response & that for me is the key to getting some economy gain’s on these. Nox gas output is probably up now, ( sorry Greta ) but boy this one responded well & by the time Dave had got to Cornwall, his MPG was climbing into the 40’s, up from late 30’s. Now eco tuning is hit & miss to be honest but here was a lovely van that responded well & derserved a post.

0 – Trying a few of the below steps is recommended. As with all tuning , mapping / ECU work , the more prep you do , the higher likelihood it will turn out OK. Generally if it’s ECU can be read/wrote, then it can be tuned or whatever emissions crap can be deleted etc.

1 – Celtic Tuning’s database is sometimes accurate , you put in the reg, or vehicle details & via it’s own database or the DVLA’s it’ll show you what ECU & also an estimate of what gains etc.

2 – Autotuner’s Compatibility list, if you want to search via your desktop, use this https://www.autotuner.com/pages/compatibility?srsltid=AfmBOornu69wB6-ug36OkltwLWmVgmqhJPt9KVjWYBLW9OQRSUxcxryz

3 – Kess V2 – Open the program on your laptop, ideally with the interface connected & browse through

4 – Via a diag tool, read ECU information, sometime’s that will tell you if maker is Bosch or Delphi etc & sometimes, in case of opel/renualt/nissan for example will give a hardware code you can google.

5 – Google the parts number(s) found on the actual ECU, if it’s easily accessible.

6 – Connecting AT or KESS, finding possible ECU & pressing ID , this is safe in 95% of cases & will usually ID the ECU type if you’ve selected the wrong one. Never do this before confirming your diag tool works OK on it though as recovery , at best relies on a good diagnostic connection.

If you’ve done some of these steps & are none the wiser or still unsure, 1st verify reg# is correct on one of your own databases , then send it to me, via typing it in what’s-app.

Check your fuel temperature sensor on the high pressure pump, either look in live data for a “reasonable” reading, or unplug it & test, if faulty the power comes back straight away, ( along with a MIL on dash )

Fucked sensors like this often read -40′ , or some similar default , clearly wrong figure. Can this affect other vans other than Euro 5 diesel engined Transits ? I’m not sure but when diagnosing a fault with no codes, look in live data on your scan tool & go through every temp reading boot reading, pressure etc. This being 2025 , you could probably ask ChatGPT what a reasonable reading is for any given sensor, on any given engine. & Thats actual ChatGPT, not a weak ass A.I answer from a standard google query.

Piston Failure Notes

Dear Martyn,

As I told you on WhatsApp, I had a discussion with 2 engine R&D engineers with the failed piston in front of us to try find a cause for my engine failure.

Feel free to share this with the Transit community. I will post it also on fordtransit.org

First some data about the car.

It’s a 2013 MK7 with the UHFB Engine.

140 HP

80000 km on the clock.

I bought the car with the damaged engine and overhaul it myself.

The car belonged to a company doing maintenance on powerplants in Hamburg (4 Mil inhabitants city). Why it’s important I will detail later.

Now a bit about my and my colleagues background. We work for a factory that produces 4 stroke diesel engines from 1 to 15MW. I am an application engineer for the Power Plant side. My 2 colleagues are engineers from the R&D department. Before I start, let me tell you that we are always in search of the “Holy Engine Graal”, as much power as we can get without the engine to have a problem before the scheduled maintenance. So we are not far from what you do. :-).

In my case we looked at the following parameters in trying to find the root cause of the damage:

A The damaged piston and engine block.

B The mileage

C The probable application in which the engine was used. 

D A document in German that is detailing the types of piston damage.

E Comparison with the 130 HP 2.2 engine

F And tried to use our experience with damaged pistons (even though they are much bigger :-))

A) The damaged piston has a crack that propagates from the piston bowl and continues to the piston pin (see picture)

At a careful look, the burning pattern left by 2 of the injection holes that are close to the position of the crack inside the piston bowl are bigger than the rest. This shows that in that area the injection pattern was bigger. It is a contributing factor.

The crack is located in the area of maximum force / weaker resistance due to geometry.

B) The van had 80000 km when it happen so the mileage was relatively low.

C) The van was used as a mobile workshop in a big city. Is a 2.8 ton version. The application is critical in how the engine was used. A mobile workshop is likely to carry full load most of the time as the workers pile tools and emergency spares in the back. And the van most likely responded to scheduled plant maintenance and emergency repairs on daily basis.

Why it is important. That means that the driver(s) was almost always under time pressure, in a city with lots of start and stop and full power on short interval followed by idle.

D) The German document from page 34 to 35 details the same failure and possible causes. I attach the document for the German language aficionados out there. 🙂

Piston damage because of high thermal loading (and stress).

Possible causes that could apply to my case:

– Problems in the injection. What we established earlier based on the injection pattern marks on the piston (see pics)

– Cooling of the piston for pistons with oil cooling nozzle

– For engines with frequent changes in load profile all the detailed causes have an even more important influence

E) The 130 HP engines do not suffer from the systemic failures the 140 HP engines show

F) We talked about what could the possible cause be, and what is the mitigation strategy.

For the litigation happy persons out there, here is a small disclaimer. This analysis was done by us on a private “engine enthusiasts” basis. It does not reflect any company view, and by no means I imply I am 100% right. It was done by me, for my personal use. Feel free to use it on your own risk.

Conclusions:

There is no single reason for this type of failure. The cause is most likely a thermal overload of the piston because of uneven injection, plus operating mode (full car, rapid changes from full load to idle) aided by probable improper (or lack of) engine warming up. This creates hot spots on the piston where the material locally expands more than it’s vicinity and then contracts, at full power, then idle on cold engine for example (starting to drive in the city with fully loaded car, cold engine) creating micro cracks in that area. In time this leads to catastrophic failure.

All of this is helped by the fact that 140 HP seems to be the limit for this engine in some of the most demanding applications like mine or the Mobile Homes (I’ll come to RVs later)

These types of stresses in the piston occur on every engine every time we load it for short periods of time especially when cold. You have the uneven injection that cannot be 100% cured causing “uneven” burning on one side of the piston and the cold oil on the other side of the piston from the cooling nozzle.

On most engines and power settings you will never reach catastrophic failure as the components are still inside their safety limits.

On some engines, and it appears the 140 HP 2.2 l is one of them, this kind of operation creates problems. There is probably a limit between 130 and 140 HP below which the engine would still work without damage even in these demanding conditions.

What to do to mitigate the risk.

First and the most important is to warm the engine up before applying full power. At least, leave the car running couple of minutes especially during cold season and avoid using full throttle before the operating temperatures are reached 

Then check the injection system pressure and make sure it stays inside parameters.

The injector spaying pattern cannot be checked accurately so we have to leave with it as it is.

Nice to have: buy an OBD Bluetooth and Torque and monitor your engine parameters.

Or alternatively for people with short temper and heavy foot :-), consider limiting the power to 130 HP as we know these power settings do not lead to engine failure in the same applications.

I mentioned RVs above. Some of you might ask why the RVs are failing.

My 2 cents worth of opinion are that it is also the application that causes the failure.

The RVs are almost always driven at the maximum of their weight plus a bad aerodynamic coefficient. During long cruise on the highway a RV driving 120 km/h uses lot more continuous power than a SWB low roof Transit at the same speed.

That in it’s self is no big problem, as engines running constant load are in their element.

But now think about driving in the mountains, with frequent load changes and a heavy vehicle. Plus a driver that knows he has 140 HP at his disposal. He doesn’t know and must not know that 140 HP is at the limit of what the engine can do in some cases. So he uses the engine at maximum and some engines give up. Only mu 2 cents worth as I know not much about RVs and their engine load profile.

Hope this will help people avoid some damages.

With best regards,

Andrei

290S ECO models / Econetic.

Vantuner can remove the acceleration control that blights these special eco models made from about 2013 -2015. If you had a remap & found zero gains, you might have this factory feature.

Send me your calibration ID from drivers A post (black) label & from that i can tell if it has it. Thats not foolproof but either way vantuner can help at the Ruislip Or Scottish branch , or by post to the Ruislip HQ.

Call or whatapp – Martyn – Ruislip – 07956555666

Glasgow – Dan – 07872 320173

Low Power on a 90ps Transit MK6

Low boost & P0404 & P0149 DTC’s

Hi Richard, you are on the right track, manifold absolute pressure sensor being the right so called PID to query.

Verify your base reading on idle, which should be current atmospheric pressure. It varies between maybe 980 & 1038 millibar, so rounds up to 1 bar.  This should peak by 60-70 % under load , or 50% statioanry when revving up. Yours is lower than it should be by a fair amount . As long as base ( idle ) reading is correct, 1 bar ish , then you can take your peak reading as true. This can be due to a sticking turbo wastegate mechanism, intake leak, or faulty  / clogged boost ( MAP)  sensor. Either there is a leak of ( pressurised) air , or the turbo isnt making high enough pressure to start with. It can also be because the ECU is not requesting the fuel needed to create full power & therefore full boost ,or it’s requesting it from the fuel pump, but the pump or injectors are not able to deliver it, you usually get fault codes with these ECU/fuel pump related issues though & you have only the P0149, so if that code clears & does not return, it’s best to make the tests below.  

Wastegate – you can move the actuating rod ( away from the “Pot” with swan neckpliers, the spring is stiff & access tricky but it should move maybe 1/2 inch ( a guess ) & spring back into place

Intake leaks  – 1st check rear lower area of intake manifold, you can often find oily deposits, if you put your paw there. They split on the seams, which arent obvious with manifold in place.  

MAP sensor – 2.4l engines -2 distinct type –  its either mounted on the exit side of the intercooler or on the bulkhead ,the bulkhead mounted one takes its reading from the EGR valve body usually via a spigot & black silicon pipe leading to it . Testing requires a Mityvac or similar to apply pressure directly to the sensor & verify that the applied pressure corresponds with what the diagnostic tool is seeing , in the meantime inspect /clean & make sure spigot is clear , & pipe is in good order,  if you have the bulkhead mounted type. 

The P0149 in the absense of knocking & super low power is  only an issue is its permanant, so clear it & see if it returns after some driving. 

P0404 (  EGR) is a failing EGR or one that has a blanking plate & ( on TDDI MK6 Transits) , normally does not cause any issue or power loss unless it’s stuck open , if it was you usually get obvious running & starting issues like smoke or poor starting so in cases of low boost can usually be ignored. Fit an EGR blanking plate to be sure.