I took my car to my installer today grinning ear to ear with a T3/T4 60 trim turbo in one hand and AEM EMS in the other. I left shopping for more things.

My installer told me AEM tuning takes a long time. He could spend well over 10 hours on the dyno getting it right and it never will be great as a daily driver. It will always require retuning depending on the weather and what not. I have two friends with AEM in their 240 and 10 sec Eagle Talon respectively. They are never are able to tune it right. My installer advised me to go with e-manage ultimate since it would reach my goals and only take a few hours to tune on the dyno. I only want a max of 400hp out of this car. And a 50 trim T3 turbo should be able to get me that far in the future. He says e-manage should be able to do it.

I also was planning on a cometic head gasket. My installer said why not go for head studs while it's apart since I don't want to pay to have the head come off again. After talking to kanes2k online here he convinced me that the engine would be fine up to 400hp. And that head studs wouldn't be necessary. I like the idea of insurance but do you guys think I should go for it?

I don't want to give the impression that my installer was trying to sell me or get commission off of parts. He reccomened shopping online for a few things and was just thinking about reliability as my main goal.

I'm at a road block and still want to get my car into the shop before I head back to work for 6 days. (out of town) I'm excited to get this done but want some advice on the matters from those of you who have previously built cars. What would you have done differently?

Thanks in advance guys

 

Honestly
You need to find a new tuner.

 

My options are rather limited up here. He's more than capable I think. He's built some great cars. Nobody in Idaho knows anything about AEM tuning I think. I know some california tuners could get it done easy. But if it meets my goals then I done care if he tunes it with a fork.

 

We have not been that successful with the e-manage for a "daily driver" with high horsepower #'s. I would recomend staying with the E-manage if you could. You might be able to talk to a tuner, and fly them in to tune your car, which might be more beneficial.

A good friend of mine, also a member on s2ki has tuned some e-manages up to 450+rwhp and they have been fine, so the possibility there.

Headstuds are not required with that power. If you plan on using studs, its mainly for the purpose of NOT ruining the threads in the block.

I honestly will advise you to be careful with the headgaskets out there on the market. We have created our own design to have it work without leaking coolant, so becareful with other headgasket designs, and always check your coolant.

good lcuk man!

 

What are high horsepower numbers? And stay with e-manage if I can? dd you mean AEM? I think I'll run e-manage and when I want to go bigger run AEM. I should be able to get to 400 hp on emanage right?

my buddy that has an 8second drag supra flys a guy in to tune his aem. but he does it often

 

I didn't have much luck with the blue E-manage but from the specs the Ultimate sounds much better. That said, Greddy gave bugger all support.

And I've had great success with the AEM and would highly recommend it. I would say with base maps available here as a starting point and a competent tuning it should be a doddle. And if you use a UEGO and turn on feedback and knock sensor feedback you won't have any trouble making a MAP that works for all seasons.

 

<PUTS MOD HAT ON>

BTW, a more descriptive title would be nice. Something like 'Advice on Engine Management'.