I'm not saying that the Emanage doesn't work but I've never had much good luck with them. I've installed probably about a half dozen of them in various cars and its always been tricky. Lack of documentation and/or poor documentation did not help. The tunes we got out of them worked but drivability was always hit or miss. Software was never that great. We usually ended up switching to a full standalone not long after. Keep in mind this was about 10 years ago when I worked at shop with a Dyno. I'm not how much the software has changed but the hardware looks to be the same.

 

I would agree with your assessment. If you feel like you are not quite sure if you are doing the right thing as you use something you have that feeling of uncertainty. I had that feeling the whole time from installation to setup and setup verification prior to handing it to the tuner to tune. I'm sure glad he has the confidence to go in and do what he needed.

If it was an AEM product it would be a different experience.

It reminded me of buying a cheap product off ebay and having to throw out the manual and figure it out for myself. I try not to do that.

With all that is shared on this forum maybe it won't be so hard for everyone.

 

Genius!!! that will get him to take the plunge!

Seriously, if I didn't have to fix my other S2000, I might have taken the risk and see if we could get it to work. I would love for the 00-05 S2K's to be able to get the same level of tuning as our 06+ friends can. :-) Plus, it would have helped a local tuner with a bunch of STR business coming his way.... and doing some crazy stuff like remote tunes at the event.

Thanks for fixing that image. It shows different results than what I was getting with my VAFCII. I got gains at more than lowering of the VTEC. I will see if I can get those dyno runs and post 'em up. Unfortunately, the early pulls will not be to 9K as we were focusing on mid-range gains, but we'll get the idea. Oh, it was fun reminding the tuner that I am a weirdo that I could care less about max gains... just give me fat mid-range gains. After a couple of times, and he saw what I was going for, it really clicked. Being able to say ~20TQ gain down low is more exciting than saying 8HP Max gain.

 

My VAFC plot has some up top as well. Yes post up your results so others can see.

 

I've been wanting to take the plunge but after talking to a tuner I'm going to give it one shot at tuning this POS emanage. If it doesn't work out I'll think about trying the haltech. It would suck to buy the haltech and not be able to make it work though.

Weight savings.... Hahaha

 

What does this mean, 'bias the ECU'? Was anything done to avoid the stock ECU fighting the part throttle tune, and making changes in open loop with short term and long term trims?

Were there any gains in power/response/drivability to be had with part throttle tuning?

 

Tuning part throttle with any real piggyback is pointless, as the stock ECU will use a combination of short and long term fuel trims to obtain a stoichiometric A/F ratio. Random1 is referring to a global fuel bias, which affects the open loop AND closed loop portion of the fuel maps.

A global bias just means that you look at what the long term fuel trims are (via an OBD2 scanner) and bias the entire table by the long term fuel correction percentage. So, if my engine is running at a +7% long term fuel trim, I would enter "+7" in every cell of the fuel adjustment map. The actual fuel tuning is still only done in the open-loop area of the map.

If you don't want to do your closed loop tuning from the global bias offset of "+7", you can use the second fuel adjustment map to handle the actual fuel tuning. All of the fueling maps are additive, i.e., your total fuel adjustment = "I/J Map1" + "I/J Map2" + "Ind. Cyl. I/J Map".

Here's an example I just made to better illustrate my point. THESE ARE NOT REAL MAPS, DO NOT USE...I made up the numbers.

Fueling Map 1 - WOT fuel tuning


Fueling Map 2 - Global fuel bias

 

Yes, you could cut the IAT sensor signal in the PnP harness. You would want to use an adjustable voltage power supply to simulate an IAT value that would keep the stock ECU happy - a voltage that corresponds to something like 60*F? With the EMU you could create your own IAT correction table and adjust fueling/timing to your liking based on the actual IAT sensor values. Basically, you'd be relieving the stock ECU of this responsibility, but putting that responsibility on you or your tuner. Which do you trust more - Honda or a tuner?

I'm not sure if the stock ECU would remain happy if you clipped the knock sensor signal in the PnP harness. If the stock ECU is OK with seeing 0 VDC at the knock sensor input channel, you could eliminate the knock sensor feedback. **If you were to do this, you would need to be VERY confident in your timing tune** I view this as a risky move. If you encounter a bad batch of gas or some other condition that would increase the likelihood of detonation, the stock ECU will not retard timing and save your engine.

Thinking about the above brings up a question... If you use multiple devices to alter the signals through a PnP harness, does this comply with the STR ECU rule set? The rules state "Supplementary (“Piggyback”) ECU may be used". Does this mean only one device can be used? Or would multiple devices collectively be a singular "piggyback". I'm probably over thinking this, as usual, but it's something that could be argued.

 

i wouldn't doubt that the intake is holding you back on some power. the first intake i made for my s2k was a short ram intake similar to the k&n intake. just keeping the same 3 inch diameter and adding some length to the existing pipe yielded top end gains. mid range stayed relatively the same.

there is a HUGE difference once difference once tuning is involved. the majority of the mid range gains will come by just lowering the vtec crossover point but to do that you need to free up things on the exhaust side.

with regards to haltech, you can use it and make it str legal but you would need the sport 1000 or 2000 box and a lot of re-wiring. i have the sport 1000 box with the haltech pnp harness but that replaces the stock ecu altogether. you would need to come up with your own harness that can keep the oem ecu in place to keep obd2 complaince while using the haltech ecu to control fuel and ignition timing. it's a lot of work and you may even trigger some cel's if the oem ecu sees something out of the ordinary.

 

Then did this guy have it all wrong? One of the most notable former EMU tuners (Gilbert Giles). You are very knowledgable on this topic and been breaking good ground for everyone's benefit so please do not take offense by my posting this, I just want to understand your points better regarding the approach you are taking with the EMU. I just recently finished reading that entire monster thread and it is still fresh in my mind and figured i could post the relevant points.

He was a big fan of part throttle tuning:
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/405...0#entry8119030
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/405...1#entry8335941

Regarding stock knock control
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/405...5#entry8395235

Thank You, Tony