General questions for a general thread

[MarkIII4Me]

I just dropped my 90 Supra off last week for an AEM V1 install and tune. It's as plug and play as you're going to find in a standalone. The map and temp sensors are cake to wire in. Map is 3 wires and the temp is 2. You can even save a few bucks by getting GM sensors instead of the AEM ones. I spoke with Peter over at ISP Racing and he highly recommended the V1 for my setup. And he carries higher end ECU's like the Haltec, Motec and the AEM V2 and Ultimate. The V1 is available plug n play for our cars, as long as you get the correct model. It's when people mix and match AEM ECU's made for other cars and wire them into their own is when problems arise. For instance, if you use a ECU setup for high impedence injectors and run it on our cars with low impedence injectors without using the proper resistor in between, it'll eventually damage the AEM's bored and can lead to catastrophic failure. I therefore dug deep and dished over $1800 for the ECU directly from the tuner. That way, if it fails out of the box, it'll b supported. That's better than initially saving a few bucks buying a used one with no warranty and possibly damaged. I read in another thread that you can send a used AEM EMS back to them and they'll test it's components for like $45. If you decide to go the used route then this option is a must.

Peter has been using AEM's for years on damn near everything from Supras to Vipers and has experienced no issues with pnp units that were purchased new. I'll get my ride back next week, so I'll have to see for myself how well it performs. As long as it makes 500+rwhp, I'll be happy.

 

[Supra_dan]

Whoa, wow. Thank you for that post! So after reading everything, and having the map and iat temp wired in, most problems then come from I assume just a bad tune then?

Also on a side note, do the spark plug/wire/coil-pack need to be like converted or something. I mean, I'm really considering doing the is300 coil on plug conversion (were you extend the harness and that's it) Will that affect, or improve it?

 

[Supra_dan]

Oh jeeze, edit: I'm stupid.

ignore

 

[GrimJack]

AEM has had some nasty failures - I should know, my car was one of them. Faulty components on the board from the factory popped two engines in my car.

I'm running a Vipec now, no problems yet, and it's been three years.

 

[Supra_dan]

Hm, just ran a *quick* google search, didn't really come up with that much info. Where would I even buy one if i went that route?

Also, is it a 'PnP'?

Lastly, I feel it's going to be hard trying to find someone to tune it. I don't know if Vipec is popular around here.

 

[Supra_dan]

also want to add, I was snooping around some archives and I seem to notice the Vipec44 has a waste fire spark set-up?

If so, isn't that like really awesome haha. I don't feel like doing crazy conversions or anything, the only thing i would want to do is is300 C.O.P. conversion with extended harness, which still retains the waste fire set-up.

 

[GrimJack]

Vipec is really quite new on the market, finding tuners for them is difficult. It is very definitely *not* PnP, it has to be wired in.

To be honest, I'm not trying to turn you away from AEM. The risk of getting a faulty unit is, IMO, outweighed by the fact that you have a knowledgeable local tuner that is comfortable with their products. Hell, I still use AEMs water / methanol injection system myself. I'm lucky in that there are tuners close enough to me for literally everything I've looked into - AEM, Vipec, Haltech, Motech, Megasquirt, Electromotive, ProEFI, whatever.

 

[Supra_dan]

Hm. Okay, well I definitely have to keep doing my research.

One of the biggest things I think I'm going to have to do is just contact my somewhat 'local' tuners and see what they've used in the past and see what they had best results with etc.

Thank you for time and input!

 

[MarkIII4Me]

You shouldn't just see what local tuners are using. You should research the best tuner in your area and use whatever they recommend. I was really trying to go the ProEFI route, but nobody around me uses them, and ISP Racing, who is one of the best tuners in my state does not like ProEFI. So I went the pnp route with the AEM. If you go Haltec, Motec, ProEFI, Vipec, V2 or Ultimate, be prepared to dish out $650+ for a custom harness plus god knows what for the tune.

 

[Crypton2006]

You shouldn't just see what local tuners are using. You should research the best tuner in your area and use whatever they recommend. I was really trying to go the ProEFI route, but nobody around me uses them, and ISP Racing, who is one of the best tuners in my state does not like ProEFI. So I went the pnp route with the AEM. If you go Haltec, Motec, ProEFI, Vipec, V2 or Ultimate, be prepared to dish out $650+ for a custom harness plus god knows what for the tune.

A lot of the hate tuners are giving proefi is purely political. The owner of proefi designed the aem v1. He made a lot of people mad when he started his own company.

Sent from my SCH-M828C using Tapatalk

 

[Supra_dan]

You shouldn't just see what local tuners are using. You should research the best tuner in your area and use whatever they recommend. I was really trying to go the ProEFI route, but nobody around me uses them, and ISP Racing, who is one of the best tuners in my state does not like ProEFI. So I went the pnp route with the AEM. If you go Haltec, Motec, ProEFI, Vipec, V2 or Ultimate, be prepared to dish out $650+ for a custom harness plus god knows what for the tune.

Bold letters: That's actually what I meant.

I emailed AEM the other night and they actually recommended 2 different shops that are used to their EMS set-ups and what not. So when I'm ready to do this whole thing, I'm going to give them a call and see their past experiences and how comfortable they are with the V1

 

[MarkIII4Me]

A lot of the hate tuners are giving proefi is purely political. The owner of proefi designed the aem v1. He made a lot of people mad when he started his own company.

I was told that the ProEFI is very difficult to get the initial tune setup and the end user would need to bring the car back to the tuners everytime he wants to adjust anything. Not looking for that.

 

[Crypton2006]

Any standalone will need touched up when Modding. Aem will need touched up everytime the weather changes, and forget altitude changes. Proefi uses the same fuel tableing that OEM computers use so weather and altitude changes are no problem. It takes spittle longer to setup I'm the begging. Good luck starting ur car with aem if the weather is weird. Its like a old computer running old software, good in its time but there is better stuff now.

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[MarkIII4Me]

Maybe so, but all I need is a laptop to adjust the AEM. I was told that the ProEFI needs to b attached to the OEM ECU to get the initial maps as well as to makr any changes. Makes no sense to me. The ProEFI sounded awesome when I first read about it, but without local support, I'm not taking any chances. And I have heard about cold starting issues with the AEM unde certain weather conditions. Hopefully I'll get that ironed out quickly.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

I have many friends with Justin Nenni tuned cars on AEM V1 and V2 and they start in single digits degree temperatures everytime.

ProEFI is good, really good BUT a standalone will only be as good as the tuner tuning it.

 

[Supra_dan]

I have many friends with Justin Nenni tuned cars on AEM V1 and V2 and they start in single digits degree temperatures everytime.

ProEFI is good, really good BUT a standalone will only be as good as the tuner tuning it.

This Justin Nenni guy, where is he located??



Also, is it just more to it than starting up? Or depending on the weather, it will affect how the car performs both under normal and spirited conditions?

 

[Enraged]

I've got an AEM on my car, no problems with it. I'm running a GM 3 bar MAP and GM air temp sensor. It helps A LOT if you have a good tuner to work with. I'm working with Bill at Independent Speed Shop in BC, he is top notch.

I don't get the comment about weather and altitude? The AEM based fuel and spark on air intake temperature and pressure, just like every other standalone. Higher altitude is simply lower atmospheric pressure, so the ECU simply looks at a different part of the fuel/spark table. And wiring in the extra sensors is very simple, you can do it yourself. All you need is to drill/tap a hole for the temperature sensor, and run a vacuum line for the MAP sensor. If you go with the AEM, look up the sticky in the tech section for the DH61 ignitor swap, apparantly fixes all of the ignition issues that AEM has.

 

[Enraged]

Regarding cold start, there are different fuel tables for that. My car still has more work needed for cold start, but that's why datalogging is great. Log the cold start, go back and see what the motor is doing, adjust, and repeat.

Half my problem is that I don't have a cold start injector or idle speed controller.

 

[Supra_dan]

Hmmm, giving me a lot to think about.

I understand the gm MAP and (intake?) air temp sensor.

But as far as the ignition area, what did you do? Still have the stock setup, or changed it around?

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Justin Nenni Of Tuning Concepts.