ECU Remapping

[Roger Carr]

Dehne    b4 tune power 166bhp    after 178min       b4 tune torque 206Nm after 222min

[Duk]

Duk,   correct it is not based off a dyno, we believe we can tune the car safely within the engine specs, the interview would certainly cover what additional modifications you have made to the vehicle and our programmer will adjust accordingly. We also take into account the age and typical use of the car.   We warrant your engine after our tune so will not tune as aggressively as perhaps some people would like.  So if we are tuning for the maximum we can warrant for what is the point of the dyno?   Yes you can potentially get more from the engine but at what cost?  Now if you are racing and are expecting a reduced engine life then dyno tuning makes sense.

You make some very ambitious claims to fame here  .

I think I'll be sticking with tuning my engine. Tuning it via feedback from data logging with my wide band air/fuel ratio meter and my ears. A dyno will be used to get the best, safe ignition tuning once road tuning is near enough complete.

[Roger Carr]

Thank sounds more than fair to me.  We offer a service but it would be arrogant to think we had the best solution and only solution.

Happy tuning!

[festy]

I will investigate what we can do for your vehicle but first pass it might be too old at the very least it would be a chip change, happy to be  corrected but i think computer chips from that era can be read but not written to. 

EPROMs have been around for a very long time, and are far more common in older ECUs than OTP ROMs.
The ML4.1 does use a socketed EPROM (27c256) for storing both the program and calibration, which can be re-written after UV erasing.
Replacing with an EEPROM or flash chip saves some time if you're developing a tune and trying different things.

[Roger Carr]

Agree - given the computer chips are fairly cheap and it's a relatively easy to replace that would be my default.   However this is only because I am not up with this UV erasing.  Festy is it just a UV light or some pulse thing?    Is there any potential impact on other components?   Finally is there somewhere i could read up on it?

Cheers

[festy]

It's just exposure to a specific wavelength of UV light - see Wikipedia's page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM for some background, it usually takes about 15 minutes to erase one with the correct light source.
I don't own a UV eraser (I usually replace EPROMs with flash chips which can be electronically erased) but when I do need to UV erase an old chip, I sit them on my bench and fire up my TIG welder next to them for 30 seconds

There shouldn't be anything else in an ECU that could be damaged by UV exposure, but the EPROM will be socketed so you might as well pull it out to erase. You'll have to peel the sticker off the chip's window too, as that's there to prevent accidental erasure.
But with flash ICs costing under $5, your best bet would be to keep the original EPROM as a backup and copy it's data onto flash for tuning.