MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGF Technical - Mems upgrade

what is the best upgrade for the mems that can be done on a bang per buck basis to my early 96 1.8 MPi?

is it possible to directly fit the one from the TF 135? or even the TF160? ok I know there's no VVC

Speak to me darkside!

N
Neil

There probably isn't really a great deal to be had form ECU up-grade on it's own but if you were to fit a set of verniers then you could see some benefit, at least then you would be able to get a more aggressive timing or preferably with a new set of cams.

Your best bang per buck (before porting) might be a set of cams and verniers and keep it on MEMS. My MEMS (just about coped) with 160bhp with a ported head, so could easily hand 145bhp from a set of 633 cams.

Tim
Tim

I agree with Tim - swapping MEMS for a later version is going to be disappointing and expensive: the early and later versions of MEMS use differring wiring looms, and on the 1.8i, MEMS3 is distributorless - and relies on a reluctor ring on the cam shaft for ignition timing. So you'd need a new car wiring harness, engine bay harness and a new set of camshafts.

The ONLY advantage for using MEMS3 is that it is more amenable to reprogramming.

It would be pretty pointless.

Tim is right - cams are definitely the way forward. Piper 270H or 633s are pretty cheap, easy to fit (you don't even have to lift the head) and give decent power with the standard MEMS1.9

Of course, what you really want is a ported head, decent cams and a brace of direct to head throttle bodies, complete with the usual exhaust system modifications... ;o)
Rob Bell

"and relies on a reluctor ring on the cam shaft for ignition timing"

Injector timing. The ignition is still done with the crank sensor
Will Munns

Well spotted Will :o)
Rob Bell

I have a 98 1.8i running on the original mems. It was tested February 2005 at Emerald produced 153.0bhp @ 6736 rpm with 135.3 ft lb torque @ 4960 rpm at the fly wheel.

If anything it was running rich - so the mems original can cope, but teh question remains could it do better?
Steve Ratledge

The standard MEMS on my '98 VVC is perfectly happy with 172bhp and 136lb/ft from my DVA Power port - Emerald's rollers on 19/2/05. Incidentally, the previous RR run on 10/5/03 shows 172 bhp and 139ft/lbs which just goes to show how consistent Dave Walker's RR is. Just waiting now to see what the Powerspeed 4-2-1, 100 cell cat and straight-through exhaust has added to that with the car still running as sweet as a nut with standard MEMS.
Dave Livingstone

This thread was discussed between 18/07/2005 and 19/07/2005

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGF Technical BBS now