Hi Guys,
One of the things I love doing on my C70 is modifying the ECU. I have learnt a lot about my car this way, and had heaps of fun doing it.
There is a really good thread (albeit large) here
http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/159506-tuners-rejoice-free-tuning-for-m44/ and a great Wiki (relate to the site) here
http://m44.wikia.com/wiki/M44_Wiki
These both have all the information that you need to flash your own ECU, and I do not take any credit for any of the work. Also, I suggest that these be your primary source of information. I just wanted to create a thread to give some local help on the forum, and to spread the word! Especially when many seem overwhelmed by the hundreds of pages on VolvoSpeed.
Modifying the ECU
First you need to mod your ECU. This is not as hard as it seems, all you need to do is be able to temporarily join two pins (to activate flash mode).
Pry the little tabs back,
and fold the lever arm around over the heat sink formations. (little force required).
Identify the pins that you are going to join, namely A12 and B8.
You will have to bend the pins around A12 to get to them.
I just soldered a switch between the two and installed it in the top of the ECU, but if you are just going to flash once, just solder a wire directly between the pins and remove it later.
Building a Tune
Download the 607 or 608 binary from the wikia, and open it in tunerpro (together with associated filed).
There are heaps of parameters that you can change. You will probably need to change the injector constant to match your injectors. I would suggest getting a basic tune running on your car before you change timing or up the boost.
When you want to play a little more, you might want to adjust the fuelling (particularly if you have a wideband), timing, and boost.
You will notice most tables have a load axis. Load is related to fuel and air going through the engine. More boost at a particular RPM generally correlates to more load at that RPM (in very simply terms).
Logging
Logging is one of the best parts of a DIY flash in my opinion. You can see so many apsects of your car.
Note that the engine is started, so the values are way off. But you can record a trip on your car and play it back later.
If you get hooked (like I did) and want to do more substantial changes to your car, I suggest buying a wideband 02 sensor (so you can adjust your fuelling properly) and a pressure sensor.
Note: This is just a brief introduction, and isn’t standalone. I just want to spread the word and get a local discussion going. You will have to do your own reading and download some software from the wiki and elsewhere, buy a $20 cable and set it all up. You will also need a good battery charger (or be able to add further electronics to your ECU) to be able to flash in car.
