F430 Performance Upgrades?

Just exhaust !Not much you can put and not much power you can gain. I think Sport Cats + exhaust make your 430 sound more exotic; little HP gained. That is what I did on mine.

Search for the threads discussing F430 exhaust, there should be a lot.

 

I think the best performance upgrades are on the suspension. There is plenty to be improved there. Next would be engine management and exhaust (warranty?) to get mid range torque. Brakes, if the car is on cast iron brakes.

It really depends on the intended use. Performance for the streets, I would not change anything, these cars work pretty well at 55 mph.

 

Upgrade your ECU ! The car become a monster and some companies like Rennsport-one have a 30 day money back guarantee .

 

Has anyone here tried the DMS upgrade for their F430s?
http://www.dmsautomotive.com/models.asp?upid=3

I am considering this upgrade but am concerned if it is worth the price for the little gain in power or efficiency in tranmission shifts. Please share your thoughts.
Thanks in advance,

 

In Toyota's engineering words, Prius software is designed to "defend the battery". For reference to my point below, this comment lets you know there was a trade-off considered between battery life and increasing the MPG, with the key word to me being "life".

Personally, I have no desire to wring every drop of performance from my 430 with after-market performance products that alter the factory trade-offs, if in so doing I might significantly reduce the life of major parts. I believe Ferrari knew/knows how to squeeze more performance out of the car, across the board, before it left the factory. But in my mind factory settings reflect the right choice (for me) between balancing performance with component life and reliability.


Mike

 

Ive done it on a couple F-cars and I know it makes a difference. Ive also done it on a bunch of BMW, Porsche, and MB and it makes a difference, especially pair with an exhaust.

The factory electronics arent really set so much to prevent wear on major parts, but mostly for emissions.

 

Get out your grain of salt because, while I have many years of experience tuning engines for power and driveability, none of it involved Ferraris. OTOH, rules of thumb can generally be applied to any 4-stroke gasoline engine, whether it be Yugo or Ferrari. It's not a bad simplification to say that there are only two areas of ECU influence over power at wide open throttle, air/fuel ratio (AFR) and ignition timing. (I am assuming that variable cam timing, variable induction pathways, and exhaust bypass valves are set to their max power configurations by the factory. My observation over the years has been that the variability is introduced for fuel economy, emissions, or low end torque, and that the default state of these systems is max power.)

Every engine has a optimum AFR for maximum power through the rev band, but it's generally true that erring on the lean side of that optimum can result in incredibly destructive detonation. Manufacturers and conservative tuners will calibrate the ECU to be a bit richer than the max power setting because slightly-too-rich mixtures burn cooler, providing a measure of anti-detonation protection. An aggressive tuner looking for impressive power numbers will shoot for that max power AFR and hope that the customer sells the car before the engine blows due to essentially zero tolerance for a load of bad gas or an extra hot day.

The ignition advance scenario is quite similar. One can typically increase max power for a particular (factory tuned) engine on the dyno by nudging ignition timing towards more advance. Doing so, however, also increases the likelihood of detonation. One tank of marginal gas with an aggressive timing curve and you could be looking at an oil pan full of broken piston fragments. Detonation does not take prisoners!

In the mundane world of Chevy V8s, it's generally conceded that there is little *safe* power to be gained by recalibrating the Z06 ECU, and this is an engine making just 73 hp/liter. The 430 V8 is making 113 hp/liter! I would be very surprised to learn that Ferrari left any *safe* power on the table.

Despite the foregoing, there are always people posting that their tune made a noticeable performance improvement. If there are back to back dyno tests conducted by an independent third party, I will accept the evidence that an ECU recalibration made a difference in their case. However, all such tests I'm aware of done with high performance cars have demonstrated no significant power gains. (Significant meaning one that can be discerned in back to back driving tests, not 10 hp at the power peak. Your power changes by more than that with the weather.)

That leaves me with the placebo effect. One can forgive a guy who has just forked over many hundreds, and maybe thousands, of dollars for enjoying the feeling that his car is now faster than before. "Wow! Everything has a blue tint when I floor the throttle!"

Final thought. If you make real improvements in your engine's ability to breathe, then an ECU recalibration is called for.

5 cents, please.

Jeff

 

Jeff, very well written, and you do know your stuff. I do have experience with the more exotic cars, so I can tell you that there is safe power left on the table. With Porsche Ive seen 50-75hp increases(dyno verified) while still maintaining reliability(10k+ miles). F-cars dont have as much being naturally aspirated, but its there. If you run **** gas through the engine(been there) or are out on a very hot day the ECU can compensate and pull the ignition timing back to safe levels, and with variable cam timing can be adjusted too. I will say that the ECU reflash works best when paired with intake filters and a better flowing exhaust.

 

Jeff is right, I have been doing mods to cars for 35 plus years, and yes on a turbo charged or supercharged car like a Porsche or an AMG, ECU tuning can bring great results, but on NA engine, you are not likely to see very large gains. I have found that there are only two ways you can really add significant power, one is to either supercharge or TT the engine, the other is to drop weight, in combination, like I've done with my 997S, the car can become a monster. I looked into every ECU tuner for my Gallardo, and found none of them worth the effort. In many case they add throttle response that make you think the car is faster, when it reality it is not. I have also in my years done many upgrades to cars, that not only did not add power, they made less power. Good luck, but be wary.

 

I have a Capristo race exhaust and it is unbelievable how good the car sounds. I have upgraded my brakes with Carbotech pads, stainless steel lines and castrol SRF fluids, and had the car lowered to Euro spec and corner balanced. It is awesome on the track. Wouldn't mess with the ECU, most people don't need more horsepower, they need more skill.

 

Novitec exhaust for the 430 sounds amazing.

 

A few of our customers have had DMS tune their cars and were very happy with the results. I've driven a 360 (that had a Tubi 2 and capristo cats) both before and after it was done and there was definately a very noticeable difference. Just quite how much extra is made would be a random guess, obviously, but i met the guys from DMS when they were last over, and they seem like a very knowledgable bunch. It won't make any difference to the speed of your gearchanges though.

 

Has anyone tried replacing the two F430 ECU’s for the engine management tasks with a MoTec M1 or m6-8000 series ECU? I would think a good tuner/installer could pull it off, It seems strange to use two ECU’s on a V8. Does anyone a know why two ECUs are utilized anyway?

MoTecs have served me well used in my street and track cars, tuned by an OCD tuner and race engineer for a a few series

Just wondering (when we piggy backed my RS America track and street Car, the MoTec made a significant difference

Soon I will call him and ask him I the same question because theMoTec in my opinion is a seriously good and modern update to do engine management functions and/ or performance analysis and other benefits associated with a MoTec install (quite a few exist)
Thank you -R

 

I agree 100%....especially if only a street car, I wouldnt mess with suspension, tune, etc. I live in FL, so did a cat delete and added a small mullfer to the end of pipes...the sound is unreal and "feels" faster, so a double win!

 

$6k - $7k to just sound better is a little crazy to me

 

I agree. ... I spent just slightly half that amount. I have a great local Indy shop that only works European, with emphasis on Ferrari.

Priceless...[emoji16]


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So, the F430 ECU's are setup a bit weird. Instead of the industry standard master and slave ECU setups, both F430 ECU's are technically "master" ECU's that control each bank.

 

Perf upgrade = skud or 458?

I would not spend money on a na tune.

All imho

 

I agree, the dollar to added hp ratio is absurdly small. Turbo yes, NA, no


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Just from my experience trying to make an early Amg car faster.., I threw $30k at it and I could have just bought a faster factory model. Plus after the mods the car can be worth less $.

all from an old guy..., Hindsight 20 20

 

With no dyno graphs at my fingertips but searchable on this site, an F430 with aftermarket headers and a tune by Mase for instance, seems to gain a considerable amount of HP over stock. That investment is relatively small especially if you consider headers a necessity on your F430 to combat factory manifold issues anyway. At some point the law of diminishing returns rules but the header and tune combo is arguably a good bang for the buck especially if you want the engine to respond properly to the addition of headers.

 

I will say 12 to 14k in upgrade can gain you ~40hp to the wheels (excluding the installation costs). If you looking for much more, you would have to go 458 or force induction.
I don't like turbos as I'm happy with the upgrades to my 430 NA motor... but my setup is not for everyone.