Aem Ems Issues
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From: Savannah
st00pid-
You're right about the heater control being active for the stock sensors, but if you plan to run a wideband setup, then you have to run a heater controller. That's coming straight from Lawson and JP from AEM...
The Unabageler-
I'm sorry for the rude reply above, but I think maybe you misunderstand my point here. I also don't appreciate that you insinuate that I am ignorant. I am most patient and willing to take the time to tune the system properly. My main issue is that AEM is not upfront with all the extra things that you need to make the system work in the way they advertise and intend. If I HAD known that I was going to need an extra $1000 over the purchase cost just to get this system running properly, I would have seriously considered diverting the money into other items. Hopefully you see where I am coming from here.
You're right about the heater control being active for the stock sensors, but if you plan to run a wideband setup, then you have to run a heater controller. That's coming straight from Lawson and JP from AEM...
The Unabageler-
I'm sorry for the rude reply above, but I think maybe you misunderstand my point here. I also don't appreciate that you insinuate that I am ignorant. I am most patient and willing to take the time to tune the system properly. My main issue is that AEM is not upfront with all the extra things that you need to make the system work in the way they advertise and intend. If I HAD known that I was going to need an extra $1000 over the purchase cost just to get this system running properly, I would have seriously considered diverting the money into other items. Hopefully you see where I am coming from here.
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From: Savannah
Just capping up this thread here. I wanted to say that eventhough this EMS has been quite a venture, I think it will be worth it in the end. Also, AEM has been EXTREMELY helpful in this whole learning process. JP at AEM has worked with me since day one. The last tuning session we had, he literally spent 4 hours on the phone with me, so my hat is off to AEM.
A quick update on things. The car is still running rich at idle, but the midrange is super nice now. the dyno will be the truth on Saturday. The system overall is complicated in its own vastness, but easy to use once you set it up. The one thing I really do like is that you can adjust ANYTHING on this car. You can control the temperature that the fans kick on, negating the need for the Spoon fan switch. You can also adjust your AFR for each cylinder, the ignition advance, retard, duration, and even the injector advance, retard, and pulse width for EACH cylinder. You can make this thing do anything you want to car.
Once setup it will be an awesome investment because it's going to be platform for anything you do later, be the cams, FI, or nitrous.
Also, AEM tipped me off that the O2 sensor in a 96-97 Civc HX model is in fact a UEGO wideband O2 sensor. It's about 300 new from Honda and we are attempting to locate one at the salvage yards here.
Again, the whole process has been quite the adventure but given a little patience, you will have quite the nice system....
Chris
A quick update on things. The car is still running rich at idle, but the midrange is super nice now. the dyno will be the truth on Saturday. The system overall is complicated in its own vastness, but easy to use once you set it up. The one thing I really do like is that you can adjust ANYTHING on this car. You can control the temperature that the fans kick on, negating the need for the Spoon fan switch. You can also adjust your AFR for each cylinder, the ignition advance, retard, duration, and even the injector advance, retard, and pulse width for EACH cylinder. You can make this thing do anything you want to car.
Once setup it will be an awesome investment because it's going to be platform for anything you do later, be the cams, FI, or nitrous.
Also, AEM tipped me off that the O2 sensor in a 96-97 Civc HX model is in fact a UEGO wideband O2 sensor. It's about 300 new from Honda and we are attempting to locate one at the salvage yards here.
Again, the whole process has been quite the adventure but given a little patience, you will have quite the nice system....
Chris
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From: Savannah
absolutely it does. The big advantage of this system over something like a Vafc is that you can change the ignition map along with the fuel map.... But yes, you can adjust vtec on and off.
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From: Savannah
Phi- In Charleston with R&D motorsports. The owner of the company is great. He's very honest and will not sell you something you dont need. Very knowledgeable and would go through them before anyone else.
As for the automap---- If you have a wideband O2 setup, such as one off of a 96-00 Civic HX manual before the cat, you can enable automapping for the AEM system. Basically it's closed loop or open loop. Normally the system operates in open loop where the O2 sensor is only giving you diagnostic feedback. From there you can adjust the fuel map, ignition map, whatever you want. In CLOSED loop mode, you tell the computer to run say, 13.7 AFR at any given load. Instead of YOU setting the fuel ratio, the EMS will do it for you to hold the engine at 13.7. At first I thought this was across the entire map, which would suck, because you ideally want different AFR's at different loads, and even when accelerating/decelerating. What I discovered is that you can setup the EMS to make different AFR's for different load points and have it hold that point. Doing this is very nice since you let the EMS do the work for you. The only bad part is that you must run a 6 or 7 wire wideband O2 sensor which is very costly.
Tommorow will tell us more of how this thing is actually performing. I have it set as well as logging and street runs will get it. It's not perfect but the car runs really strong according to the butt-dyno. Going from the Vafc to this, I would say the low to midrange is a lot stronger and the top-end is hard to tell. I'm hoping for positive results. We shall see!
Chris
As for the automap---- If you have a wideband O2 setup, such as one off of a 96-00 Civic HX manual before the cat, you can enable automapping for the AEM system. Basically it's closed loop or open loop. Normally the system operates in open loop where the O2 sensor is only giving you diagnostic feedback. From there you can adjust the fuel map, ignition map, whatever you want. In CLOSED loop mode, you tell the computer to run say, 13.7 AFR at any given load. Instead of YOU setting the fuel ratio, the EMS will do it for you to hold the engine at 13.7. At first I thought this was across the entire map, which would suck, because you ideally want different AFR's at different loads, and even when accelerating/decelerating. What I discovered is that you can setup the EMS to make different AFR's for different load points and have it hold that point. Doing this is very nice since you let the EMS do the work for you. The only bad part is that you must run a 6 or 7 wire wideband O2 sensor which is very costly.
Tommorow will tell us more of how this thing is actually performing. I have it set as well as logging and street runs will get it. It's not perfect but the car runs really strong according to the butt-dyno. Going from the Vafc to this, I would say the low to midrange is a lot stronger and the top-end is hard to tell. I'm hoping for positive results. We shall see!
Chris