Disable Torque Limiter for 1st Gear Power

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EvilDonut

New member
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
70
Location
Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire
One of the main annoyances for me about the puma is that first gear doesn't give you as much acceleration as second - you don't feel pushed back in your seat as much. And when you press the pedal in first, you get an initial burst of good acceleration, then it seems to drop a bit until you put it in second.

I recently found out that this is likely due to the torque limiter deliberately stopping your engine reaching full potential to prevent damage to the drive shaft/gearbox. This effect is only noticable in first gear, but it apparently also exists in second gear. I read that the limiter cuts in at 160Nm for first gear, and 180Nm for second (and I don't think the puma even reaches 180Nm - my bluefin remap boasts 170Nm max).

I found a great post about how to disable the limiter without having to remap: http://www.zetecs.com/forum-viewtopic.asp?f=21&g=3&t=7722

Has anyone disabled their torque limiter by this or any other method? And, if so, have you noticed any improvement in first gear? And do you have any tips for doing the mod (like where to run the wires)?

I don't want to kill my drive shafts, but I'm pretty sure they can handle an extra 10Nm or so, and would love to give this a try :)

One of the drawbacks of the method in that forum post is that you lose your speedo/tachometer whenever you're in first gear and have the feature enabled (the guy built in a switch to enable/disable the limiter so you dont *have* to have the torque limiter disabled when normal-driving). Does anyone know of a way around this limitation, without having to remap the ECU?
 
Yep I acknowledge the risk, but I think Ford will probably have set the limit very conservatively so as to make breaking the transmission almost impossible.

A lot of the standard remaps you can get will either raise or remove this torque limiter, but unfortunately my bluefin does not - so if the transmission broke easily by removal of the limiter, we would certainly know about it as a lot of people with these remaps would report it to us!

No risk, no reward :)
 
Torque limiter
Pumas built before Aug 98, had the Torque Limiter set at 1500 rpm. After that it was changed to 2500 rpm, then 2800rpm from March 2000. (This is one reason the earlier cars have a faster 0-60mph time)

http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=67" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 

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