jzz30

our guy takes kinda long but most people are happy with what he does. he goes for drivability unless you really want max HP

suckafree

this is really something you need to take a step back and look at what youre interested in and where your going to spend your money and time on the dyno or street or whatever. Myself and another tune hondata locally, sinful brought this post to my attention. You have a few options. Any sort of PBU will not have the processing power of your Honda ECU or of any type of standalone. Assuming this turbo kit is going to be top dollar (love fab usually is) you have to ask yourself where it is you want to put your money. Buy an AEM EMS and pay for the dyno and street time that your "not too sure" how long it will take? the system may be a bit cheaper, but may cost you in the long run. AEM takes an experienced tuner most often, we wont touh it either. its full of glitches and proprietary database that it shares with no other standalone. i speak firsthand and AEM employees i know themselves will quickly tell me about the lack of quality sometimes (none of these statements are blanketed theres always exceptions) i highly reccomend Izumi and Autronic. The power that autronic posseses is only limited by your budget. With boost dependent traction control and a TON of other features and a highly reputable tuner locally, it may be a bigger lump sum. But he will personally build your harness and everything will work as stock, hes really good. im baffled just talking to the guy sometimes.. haha braniac.

so, where do you wanna put your money..into a bling bling turbo kit that makes decent numbers... with a decent standlone that will pegleg you thru the powerband... orrrr.. the alternative

jzz30

oh yea just to add, justin gives us the jobs he doesnt want to touch like rotarys...

Hyper-X

Those are some good points. PBU's are only acceptable imho to be used on low-boost supercharger units (since they're often included with the package) however to maximize tune, a fully programmable ECU will be needed, esp for turbo applications.

The concern regarding the AEM's proprietary database is a non-issue. The reality is, you don't want to use a shared database anyhow, there's no significant advantage to using a shared database that's more standardized amongst other products from differing manufacturers. Even if you could acquire a template off another turbo S2000 using a more commonly used database, I see it as cutting corners in order to speed up the tuning process. The only correct way is to start with a fresh baseline and go from there, and as such, being proprietary doesn't necessarily indicate a bad thing. The obvious change would be the increased time needed to complete the tune, why would anyone want to rush an ECU tune on a turbocharged car anyway? You can cheat on some products by using less expensive alternatives, you can cut your budget in some cases eliminating the unnecessary wants versus the needs, however what you can't cheat on is the proper time needed to complete a delicate tune.

I'm only aware of less than a handful of race-proven products regarding any programmable EMS for the S2000. AEM's strong point is that they have numerous S2000's (both turbo and supercharged) that not only did well in tests, but have won a lot of races which is direct proof that the product does indeed work. Above all else, well-tuned cars using the AEM EMS managed to produce repeatable and consistent results (when tuned by a certified technician) under controlled conditions. If you ask any tuner of super-aspirated cars, trying to repeat test results consistently doesn't come easy sometimes.

The Autronic unit appears to be an interesting product, while I have no experience or knowledge about it, it seems from their product page that it includes,

"The Autronic SMC includes harness, air and water temp sensor, internal map sensor, fuel pump relay, PC data cable, calibration and data logging software, 100 page manual." - source: www.Autronic.com

This indicates that it doesn't use much of the factory sensors and such, based off the items that comes with it. It seems that the harness needs to be hardwired/spliced into your factory wiring in order for it to be installed along with the above mentioned items... seems like a lot of extra time imho. There's nothing really wrong with this as a lot of full-race units are like this, such as those found on the Motec M4/M400 systems. If so, the AEM EMS differs in this area by,

"... uses a factory wiring harness, and utilizes all of the factory sensors. This means that installation is reduced to simply uncovering your stock computer, unplugging and removing it from the car, and plugging in the AEM computer. Obviously, it's important not to yank or cut any wires out of the stock harness, but the physical installation shouldn't take more than just a few minutes. Compare that with the tedium of building a harness from scratch, or as is sometimes the case, tapping and drilling the engine for new non-stock sensors. And don't worry; if you have modified your car and have additional inputs, the Plug & Play system can accept them without a problem." - source: www.AEMPOWER.com

If the tuner's experienced and comfortable with using an Autronic unit over the AEM, then that's a lot better than the alternative which is, you wouldn't want to force upon a tuner that's neither comfortable nor confident with tuning S2000's with the AEM product. (I'd never have someone touch my car with a product they don't believe in, I'd rather have them use the product they believe is the one they're most familar with, or I'll simply take my business to another shop.)

Case in point, the choice of product is naturally an imporant starting point but hardly the last. The quality of the tuning process makes up for the majority of the results and accounts for more than anything you can benefit from a tangible product.

A tuner with a lot of quality experience with your specific car model (and mods) > any product on the market.

Hyper-X

The driver actually participates in open track, circuit-style driving. His car isn't setup for drifting and such (he's an older guy in his 30's). The reasons for switching out for the SR20DET motor was due to the fact that the life of his original KA was at its end. He immediately recognized that the KA-series motor woudn't be an optimal choice for tuning with a turbo plus the SR20 uses a full distributorless electronic ignition system which would ultimately prove more useful with improved tuning. The car produces a ballpark figure of about 350hp from what I'm told.

hahnn002

I agree with what your saying Hyper-X, which is why I've already changed how I'm going to go about the install. I asked LoveFab to remove the AEM equipment from my order and to requote the price. I've also been talking to Justin Izumi about doing an Autronic install on my car. It looks like a great system and all of its users seem to love it, don't know why I didn't know about it before. It's more than I would go with normaly but I think it's the best option for me out here at this time. I'll let you guys know how it's going when parts begin to go on the car.

kent-k

so did you do that GB in the S2KI vendor Center? that was a pricey kit. and they didn't throw in the oil relocation kit even though it's a requirement for the GT1 kit.

anyway, i saw that the AEM unit was part of the kit so i understand the questions about it. i assume they have some base maps to get you started. good luck on the project!

BTW, i see that RevHard also uses the AEM with their kit.