Stickers.............lots and lots of stickers...........preferably brands of parts you don't have

 

A good header, intake and exhaust plus a fuel manage system, you can see around 20whp at peak and TONS of mid-range.

 

^ I'd like to see the Dyno on that. What's "TONS" of mid-range power? Till now, the best way to boost mid-range was a turbo. Also, you shouldn't need stand alone EMS for bolt-on mods. Granted you can squeeze some additional power out with EMS vs VAFC, but does it justify the additional cost?

 

Actually yes it does. The S2000 ECU is not programmable, so any type of stand alone aftermarket ECU would benefit the car as it has a lot of potential power to unlock. Auto wizzards such as Ultimate Lurker and others have proven this.

A stock S2000 can see substantial gains across the board from just an aftermarket ECU.

 

My impression (from reading other threads here, not from first-hand experience) was that this was true for MY00 and 01, but less true of 02 and 03 (not sure about 04+).

Didn't Honda improve the settings for the stock ECU starting with MY02?

 

I think you misunderstood my point. Any EMS, whether it's a VAFC or stand-alone, will get you gains. The question is this: will the addition of AEM EMS to a basically stock engine i.e. other than some bolt on mods, yeild enough power to justify the expense (over that of a VAFC 2) and I say no. If you know of a dyno with just bolt ons, then share. Other than that, I don't think anyone has use a stand alone system for your basic I/H/E.

 

Also, a side fact, the MY02 and up don't see that great of a gain with VAFC because they are already tuned more aggressively. The bigger gains, by those with the MY00 and 01 were lost on the 02 and up. We're talking about a person getting AT MOST 8-14rwhp with a well tuned VAFC on MY01 those with MY02 are getting more like 6rwhp.... doesn't sound like "TONS" of gains to me.

 

Here's a dynoplot with I/H/E with Amuse ECU and these basics are possible to make good power.

 

ok...again, that is not an stand alone EMS, which was the point of my post. AEM EMS is going to run you 1400+ and there is dyno and tune time. For far less money you can get a Mugen ECU/Amuse and they're plug and play.