Get another tuner asap!

3500-4000rpm range is where you will always end up if you want to max out the stock engines potential NA or Supercharged. More times its 3500-3600rpm with factory cams, header and engine displacement.

 

The AEM isn't that popular this side of the world unfortunately - i'll talk to him though to see why he did that. 3500RPM would be sweet, I imagine the kick wouldn't be bad at all down there. I don't want it to engage during cruising though. The speed limit here is 100kph on the motorway so about 60mph!

 

There is no "VTEC Yo!" effect with my 3600rpm engagement -- nor will there be one on your car. There's no kick at all. I didn't notice it at first as I was holding on very tight after I was tuned.

Note the transition from the Blue to Red lines keeps the torque climbing rather than flattening out. Note the large distance between the red and blue lines in the professional graph posted earlier: at 6,000rpm where standard VTEC engagement happens there's a WOW! -- or should I say VTEC Yo! -- effect immediately due to the instant torque increase. Doesn't happen where there's no distance between the lines as torque is the same on either cam at that point. What does happen, though, is you go faster quicker.

At 3600rpm torque is the same on either cam so there's no VTEC Yo!. But you'll feel the power build much faster. Exhaust and intake noises get even more pleasing. This makes me think Honda deliberately put the VTEC engagement high for that Big Smile Effect.

By lowering VTEC engagement acceleration is much improves 'cuz the car never falls off the cam when you rev her hard. Note this is not as simple as plugging in 3600 in a box on the screen and flashing the ECU. Doesn't sound like your guy knows what to do.

-- Chuck

 

There will not/should not be any kick from engagement, if there is, you left power on the table.

So what this tells me is not only does your tuner not understand how to tune a s2000 engine, but doesn't have experience with the devices he is using to perform the operation. I lost a motor to this very equation years ago before I knew better then to trust anyone willing to take my money for the job. Ive since educated myself over the years and only tune my own equipment these days. You have a hell of a big resource here on s2ki if your willing to take the time to educate yourself.

 

All I can do is speak to him, the choices are extremely limited here though in New Zealand.

The tune its self has been great, I've not had that many problems with it (just niggles) and that has been a years worth of driving so something must be going ok. I'll keep you posted on what goes down, that's the best I can do, it's just a shame I don't have the AEM experts over here!!

 

What Junky said. Mine is at 4000rpm and low end TQ is improved. I might re-tune and get it even lower.

 

Also, since you brought this up as a concern, in AEM, you can (and should) make Vtec load dependent as well. So it won't always be on over 3600, but above 3600 and 45% throttle, yes. So you can still cruise at high speeds at low load, out of Vtec.

 

I prefer to tune vtec with throttle opening percentage dependent because its simple to map out and one of the benefits of running an sc, where boost is directly tied to throttle opening amount and rpm, rather then with a turbo set up where you can have different spool rates and boost amount differences at various throttle positions and rpms, way more variables where load tuning is much more crucial. But regardless, either way, your not going to be running into issues of cruising with vtec on. There are several provisions to set and separate engagement when you want it.

 

VTEC is, or should be, load dependent as well as rpm.

My NA car's VTEC engagement is 3600 rpm at WOT. At lower engine loads the car runs on the low power/economy cam. Cruising at 80 mph (about 4200 rpm) the car is on the low cam. Press the right pedal and she's back on the high power cam. No 2-gear downshifts needed most times to get around the lane hogs in the left lane.

-- Chuck