Greddy Emanage Ultimate Chronicles
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,715
Likes: 1
From: Mill Creek, WA
Greddy Emanage Ultimate Chronicles
Introduction
This thread is intended to be informational, with lots of commentary regarding my trial-and-error process to get an OBDII-compliant S2000 utilizing the Comptech Supercharger.
Conventional wisdom on S2KI and the interwebs in general is that the Emanage Ultimate (henceforth EMU) sucks. This thread will document just the opposite, and hopefully will help those embarking on a similar quest to mine. Special thanks to Mark (mugenrios2k) who provided the impetus and spark that left me questioning the conventional wisdom, and gave me hope that the EMU wasn't as limited as some describe it.
Stage 0 - Purchasing the EMU
While I was still naturally aspirated, I felt there was some benefit to be had by acquiring the Greddy EMU. Namely, lowering VTEC and correcting the AFR on the dyno, which had leaned out after finishing all of the bolt-ons.
The EMU was purchased on this forum's classifieds, including the Greddy S2000 harness. To properly change VTEC engagement without getting random CELs, I needed to fix the jumpers inside the unit and rewire the harness so the VTM Output signal was sent from the EMU to the engine.
Also purchased an ODBII scan tool/datalogger at this point (Dashdyno, to those who are curious). This was used to monitor fuel trims on my tune as well as clear the occasional CEL/reset trims during my tune debugging process.
The initial tune was done in Vancouver BC at Racing Greed by Mase. Without getting into too much detail, the tune left much to be desired, including absolutely no timing adjustment other than 1 degree at WOT, and seemingly random injector enrichment maps. I got the impression my tune had been pieced together from various others, and the wobbly AFR on the dyno sheet seemed to confirm this.
I learned the lesson that tuners who say they can tune the EMU rarely can. Only Ballistic Motorsports on the east coast seems to have a knack for it on the S2000 that I can find.
With a (relatively) rational mind and an engineer's penchant for detail, I figured I could do no worse than some schmuck with the EMU software, a laptop, and a dyno. So I decided I would make my own tune on the road using a PLX wideband O2 gauge. This proved time consuming but ultimately successful. Eventually I was very pleased with my tune, and was happy staying NA until an opportunity to purchase a CTSC at a crackhead price came to fruition.
Stage 1 - Acquiring the CTSC
Purchased an aftercooled CTSC locally for a ridiculous price, and immediately spent a weekend installing the entire system. After much cursing, bloody knuckles, runs to O’Reilly Auto Parts for various miscellaneous pieces, I finished the install.
Initially, I had the AP1 pulley, which actually netted less than typical gains then even the regular kit, due to the lower redline of the AP2. Still, the 4 psi of boost was enough to get me to smile wide, and got me thinking towards bigger and better things (namely, smaller and faster pulleys).
For engine management, I used the much-maligned hack of the Comptech RRFPR (rising rate fuel pressure regulator) provided in the kit, along with the Greddy EMU, which was doing absolutely nothing more than lowering VTEC down to 4k and performing the MAP voltage clamp to 2.85 V so the OEM ECU saw no boost, a task typically relegated to the Comptech FMU or a Synapse Missing Link. No extra wires or a stupid mechanical hack in the form of a Missing Link – Bonus!
The car was still stupid-fun at this point, even though I may have only been seeing gains of about 50 WHP. I needed a new pulley, pronto.
Stage 2 – New Pulley (4.4” to 3.8”) and Heat Exchanger
Thanks to a local owner who had moved onto smaller and better pulleys (thanks s2000junky), I was able to acquire a discontinued SOS 3.8” pulley good for 7 lbs of boost on my AP2. Threw it on with a little difficulty (and learned the virtues of a well placed belt wrench on a stubborn pulley needing to be removed) and tentatively began road tuning.
Obviously, the system had leaned out too much, and required correction. Through a combination of increasing the static pressure on the RRFPR to 70 psi (from 60 psi) and increasing injector duty cycles through the EMU to their limit, I was able to run this setup safely.
As mentioned earlier, use of the RRFPR qualified as an ignorant cheapskate “hack” in my book to get out of buying proper larger injectors. I could tell the OEM injectors were straining under the increased fuel pressure, as I would get occasional misses at idle and part throttle that weren’t there at 60 psi. Using the EMU meant I didn’t have to increase the pressure quite as much, otherwise I’m sure I would have needed to go past 80 psi on the fuel pressure, which no doubt would not be wise for the stock injectors. Still, I had yet to acquire the $500 necessary for the proper injectors, so I lived for a while with this sub-optimal solution. In the meantime, I spent $150 for a much larger heat exchange through Frozen Boost, which helped to decrease intake temperatures and would be better suited to the larger boost pressures I was envisioning.
Stage 3 (Current) – Hello ID1000’s, goodbye RRFPR
After receiving a much-appreciated bonus from my employer, I feasted my eyes on the beautiful ID1000 injectors from Injector Dynamics. These beauties really are the bees knees, and Tony at T1 Racing hooked me up with them and hassle-free plug-and-play adapters.
The install was extremely frustrating, in that I thought it would be a very simple affair of removing the fuel rail and replacing the existing injectors with the new ones. After finally getting the new injectors in place and everything buttoned back up, I found injector 1 to be leaking uncontrollably. Thinking the rail needed to be tightened down more (NO!) I did just that and managed to break a fuel rail standoff stud. I was now out of a car until the part came from California, so I rode my motorcycle in dismal weather for a few days while I thought about my dumb mistakes.
Second time around and after I got the stud I reattempted installing the injectors. One of the injector seals had been broken in my previous hamfisted attempt to install, so I borrowed one from a stock injector and carefully reseated and installed the injectors and fuel rail again. Bingo! Fired her up, no leaks. Then I decided to remove the accursed RRFPR.
Having filled in the proper injector lag time and scaling factor into the EMU, the car ran with no further tweaks needed. I could say no more than this as I would get terrible stumbling when I went much over 20% throttle. Oddly, the WOT tune was just fine (though I did need to richen things up another 10% or so with the new injectors). This hurdle gave me pause for a few days. I couldn’t seem to figure out why part throttle wasn’t sorting itself out, as it was still closed loop, after all. The ECU should be able to correct such problems using the fuel trims.
I gradually discovered that for reasons unknown to me, the new injectors still needed to be tuned at part throttle. Since the tune was so off in those areas, the fuel trims were through the roof but oscillated back and forth terribly as the injector scaling tended to multiply the effect of the stock corrections (adding 10% to the trim of a 360cc injector hasn’t nearly the effect of adding 10% to a 1000cc injector). Basically, the stock ECU was freaking out because I was a bad tuner and hadn’t given even a good ballpark tune for part throttle.
This would be my next hurdle – fixing the part throttle tune using the injector maps of the EMU. My problem was that I couldn’t even get a stable AFR reading at any point in the map as the stock ECU would apply its trims in an unpredictable fashion in attempt to fix my abysmal part throttle tune. The solution was to turn off closed loop in the ECU, which required a bit of a Eureka moment from me. I realized the stock ECU knew it needed to go into open loop based on the TPS (throttle position sensor) being over 60%. I also discovered that my harness routed the TPS signal through the Analog Out pin of the EMU. This meant I could use the Analog Out map of the EMU to create a 1D map that basically told the TPS to always send more than 60% throttle voltage to the factory ECU. Instant open loop! It worked better than I could have imagined.
Now I was finally able to see just how poorly partial throttle had been performing. AFRs were well into the 18’s in areas, and far too rich in others. It turned out that injectors scaling had only given me a decent starting point for very high vacuum situations (cruising and idle). Everything above that required quite a bit of additional fuel to bring the AFR to 14.7, which would be where the ECU would target after I let it see the true throttle position again.
After fiddling around in “always open loop” mode for a few days, I got the tune close enough to where I thought I could reintroduce closed loop again. And, miraculously, the car ran perfectly! Idle and part throttle drivability are literally indistinguishable from stock, no small feat for 1000cc injectors. The only hint that they aren’t stock is the louder clicking from the beefier solenoids of the new injectors.
This is where I’m at right now, but it won’t end here…
Stage 4 (Future) – Clutch, Flywheel, and MORE BOOST
I will spend the next few months saving for the next upgrade, namely a Science of Speed sport clutch kit and 8 lb flywheel. You may be surprised to know that my OEM clutch has been able to handle the additional strain from the supercharger thus far.
Probably sometime in the spring the new clutch/fw will be installed by a trusted mechanic (i.e. not me). Once this is done, the plan is to upgrade to a 3.2” pulley, bringing me into the 12 psi range of the blower and at the bleeding edge of its efficiency window.
Stage 5 (Future) –Beyond the Point of Sanity
More thoughts. Adding meth injection will require the minor investment of a PWM high speed solenoid, a few tubes, a Sureflo pump, and a meth reservoir. The EMU can drive subinjectors so I will not need to buy a separate controller. After adding this I should have the ability to run a bit leaner, add some timing, and basically get this kit as close to the edge as possible without blowing up in my face. Who knows, perhaps an even smaller pulley would be in the books…
TO BE CONTINUED...
This thread is intended to be informational, with lots of commentary regarding my trial-and-error process to get an OBDII-compliant S2000 utilizing the Comptech Supercharger.
Conventional wisdom on S2KI and the interwebs in general is that the Emanage Ultimate (henceforth EMU) sucks. This thread will document just the opposite, and hopefully will help those embarking on a similar quest to mine. Special thanks to Mark (mugenrios2k) who provided the impetus and spark that left me questioning the conventional wisdom, and gave me hope that the EMU wasn't as limited as some describe it.
Stage 0 - Purchasing the EMU
While I was still naturally aspirated, I felt there was some benefit to be had by acquiring the Greddy EMU. Namely, lowering VTEC and correcting the AFR on the dyno, which had leaned out after finishing all of the bolt-ons.
The EMU was purchased on this forum's classifieds, including the Greddy S2000 harness. To properly change VTEC engagement without getting random CELs, I needed to fix the jumpers inside the unit and rewire the harness so the VTM Output signal was sent from the EMU to the engine.
Also purchased an ODBII scan tool/datalogger at this point (Dashdyno, to those who are curious). This was used to monitor fuel trims on my tune as well as clear the occasional CEL/reset trims during my tune debugging process.
The initial tune was done in Vancouver BC at Racing Greed by Mase. Without getting into too much detail, the tune left much to be desired, including absolutely no timing adjustment other than 1 degree at WOT, and seemingly random injector enrichment maps. I got the impression my tune had been pieced together from various others, and the wobbly AFR on the dyno sheet seemed to confirm this.
I learned the lesson that tuners who say they can tune the EMU rarely can. Only Ballistic Motorsports on the east coast seems to have a knack for it on the S2000 that I can find.
With a (relatively) rational mind and an engineer's penchant for detail, I figured I could do no worse than some schmuck with the EMU software, a laptop, and a dyno. So I decided I would make my own tune on the road using a PLX wideband O2 gauge. This proved time consuming but ultimately successful. Eventually I was very pleased with my tune, and was happy staying NA until an opportunity to purchase a CTSC at a crackhead price came to fruition.
Stage 1 - Acquiring the CTSC
Purchased an aftercooled CTSC locally for a ridiculous price, and immediately spent a weekend installing the entire system. After much cursing, bloody knuckles, runs to O’Reilly Auto Parts for various miscellaneous pieces, I finished the install.
Initially, I had the AP1 pulley, which actually netted less than typical gains then even the regular kit, due to the lower redline of the AP2. Still, the 4 psi of boost was enough to get me to smile wide, and got me thinking towards bigger and better things (namely, smaller and faster pulleys).
For engine management, I used the much-maligned hack of the Comptech RRFPR (rising rate fuel pressure regulator) provided in the kit, along with the Greddy EMU, which was doing absolutely nothing more than lowering VTEC down to 4k and performing the MAP voltage clamp to 2.85 V so the OEM ECU saw no boost, a task typically relegated to the Comptech FMU or a Synapse Missing Link. No extra wires or a stupid mechanical hack in the form of a Missing Link – Bonus!
The car was still stupid-fun at this point, even though I may have only been seeing gains of about 50 WHP. I needed a new pulley, pronto.
Stage 2 – New Pulley (4.4” to 3.8”) and Heat Exchanger
Thanks to a local owner who had moved onto smaller and better pulleys (thanks s2000junky), I was able to acquire a discontinued SOS 3.8” pulley good for 7 lbs of boost on my AP2. Threw it on with a little difficulty (and learned the virtues of a well placed belt wrench on a stubborn pulley needing to be removed) and tentatively began road tuning.
Obviously, the system had leaned out too much, and required correction. Through a combination of increasing the static pressure on the RRFPR to 70 psi (from 60 psi) and increasing injector duty cycles through the EMU to their limit, I was able to run this setup safely.
As mentioned earlier, use of the RRFPR qualified as an ignorant cheapskate “hack” in my book to get out of buying proper larger injectors. I could tell the OEM injectors were straining under the increased fuel pressure, as I would get occasional misses at idle and part throttle that weren’t there at 60 psi. Using the EMU meant I didn’t have to increase the pressure quite as much, otherwise I’m sure I would have needed to go past 80 psi on the fuel pressure, which no doubt would not be wise for the stock injectors. Still, I had yet to acquire the $500 necessary for the proper injectors, so I lived for a while with this sub-optimal solution. In the meantime, I spent $150 for a much larger heat exchange through Frozen Boost, which helped to decrease intake temperatures and would be better suited to the larger boost pressures I was envisioning.
Stage 3 (Current) – Hello ID1000’s, goodbye RRFPR
After receiving a much-appreciated bonus from my employer, I feasted my eyes on the beautiful ID1000 injectors from Injector Dynamics. These beauties really are the bees knees, and Tony at T1 Racing hooked me up with them and hassle-free plug-and-play adapters.
The install was extremely frustrating, in that I thought it would be a very simple affair of removing the fuel rail and replacing the existing injectors with the new ones. After finally getting the new injectors in place and everything buttoned back up, I found injector 1 to be leaking uncontrollably. Thinking the rail needed to be tightened down more (NO!) I did just that and managed to break a fuel rail standoff stud. I was now out of a car until the part came from California, so I rode my motorcycle in dismal weather for a few days while I thought about my dumb mistakes.
Second time around and after I got the stud I reattempted installing the injectors. One of the injector seals had been broken in my previous hamfisted attempt to install, so I borrowed one from a stock injector and carefully reseated and installed the injectors and fuel rail again. Bingo! Fired her up, no leaks. Then I decided to remove the accursed RRFPR.
Having filled in the proper injector lag time and scaling factor into the EMU, the car ran with no further tweaks needed. I could say no more than this as I would get terrible stumbling when I went much over 20% throttle. Oddly, the WOT tune was just fine (though I did need to richen things up another 10% or so with the new injectors). This hurdle gave me pause for a few days. I couldn’t seem to figure out why part throttle wasn’t sorting itself out, as it was still closed loop, after all. The ECU should be able to correct such problems using the fuel trims.
I gradually discovered that for reasons unknown to me, the new injectors still needed to be tuned at part throttle. Since the tune was so off in those areas, the fuel trims were through the roof but oscillated back and forth terribly as the injector scaling tended to multiply the effect of the stock corrections (adding 10% to the trim of a 360cc injector hasn’t nearly the effect of adding 10% to a 1000cc injector). Basically, the stock ECU was freaking out because I was a bad tuner and hadn’t given even a good ballpark tune for part throttle.
This would be my next hurdle – fixing the part throttle tune using the injector maps of the EMU. My problem was that I couldn’t even get a stable AFR reading at any point in the map as the stock ECU would apply its trims in an unpredictable fashion in attempt to fix my abysmal part throttle tune. The solution was to turn off closed loop in the ECU, which required a bit of a Eureka moment from me. I realized the stock ECU knew it needed to go into open loop based on the TPS (throttle position sensor) being over 60%. I also discovered that my harness routed the TPS signal through the Analog Out pin of the EMU. This meant I could use the Analog Out map of the EMU to create a 1D map that basically told the TPS to always send more than 60% throttle voltage to the factory ECU. Instant open loop! It worked better than I could have imagined.
Now I was finally able to see just how poorly partial throttle had been performing. AFRs were well into the 18’s in areas, and far too rich in others. It turned out that injectors scaling had only given me a decent starting point for very high vacuum situations (cruising and idle). Everything above that required quite a bit of additional fuel to bring the AFR to 14.7, which would be where the ECU would target after I let it see the true throttle position again.
After fiddling around in “always open loop” mode for a few days, I got the tune close enough to where I thought I could reintroduce closed loop again. And, miraculously, the car ran perfectly! Idle and part throttle drivability are literally indistinguishable from stock, no small feat for 1000cc injectors. The only hint that they aren’t stock is the louder clicking from the beefier solenoids of the new injectors.
This is where I’m at right now, but it won’t end here…
Stage 4 (Future) – Clutch, Flywheel, and MORE BOOST
I will spend the next few months saving for the next upgrade, namely a Science of Speed sport clutch kit and 8 lb flywheel. You may be surprised to know that my OEM clutch has been able to handle the additional strain from the supercharger thus far.
Probably sometime in the spring the new clutch/fw will be installed by a trusted mechanic (i.e. not me). Once this is done, the plan is to upgrade to a 3.2” pulley, bringing me into the 12 psi range of the blower and at the bleeding edge of its efficiency window.
Stage 5 (Future) –Beyond the Point of Sanity
More thoughts. Adding meth injection will require the minor investment of a PWM high speed solenoid, a few tubes, a Sureflo pump, and a meth reservoir. The EMU can drive subinjectors so I will not need to buy a separate controller. After adding this I should have the ability to run a bit leaner, add some timing, and basically get this kit as close to the edge as possible without blowing up in my face. Who knows, perhaps an even smaller pulley would be in the books…
TO BE CONTINUED...
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 566
Likes: 0
From: Federal way WA
Goood read! This is why I'm afriad to get my emu tuned around here. No one seems confident enough to properly tune. Your hard work will pay off .
all the shops I call tell me to ditch my emu.. And I bring up the fact that some east coast guys got it figured out.. They don't care to look into it. Everyone pretty much hates emu around here.
You should study it hard and possibly be the west coast go to guy to tune emu lol
subscribed!
all the shops I call tell me to ditch my emu.. And I bring up the fact that some east coast guys got it figured out.. They don't care to look into it. Everyone pretty much hates emu around here.
You should study it hard and possibly be the west coast go to guy to tune emu lol
subscribed!
Former Sponsor
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 944
Likes: 3
People love to hate on the Emanage ultimate, but I think it is vastly underated. At its pirce point, it does alot of the stuff that the +$1000 units do and still keeps OBD2 compliance. Ive had mine for quite awhile now, and im close to 500 hp with my car. I love the automatic afr feedback loop tuning.
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,715
Likes: 1
From: Mill Creek, WA
Thanks for the responses. I'm hoping to eventually add or link some how-tos for some of the things I mention in the first post, as I'm sure not everyone knows what the heck I'm talking about.
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Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,715
Likes: 1
From: Mill Creek, WA
Originally Posted by Alloy Craft,Dec 14 2010, 05:14 PM
People love to hate on the Emanage ultimate, but I think it is vastly underated. At its pirce point, it does alot of the stuff that the +$1000 units do and still keeps OBD2 compliance. Ive had mine for quite awhile now, and im close to 500 hp with my car. I love the automatic afr feedback loop tuning.
Very impressive to hear of an almost 500hp car using this setup. Is it an s2k?
What people don't understand about it is that even though it is considered a piggyback, it is directly controlling ignition and fuel like a standalone, just keeping the OEM ECU around in order to perform the auxiliary functions such as cold start, etc.
Feedback loop tuning is a fun feature. I'm not sure how much I trust it, but I'll probably be experimenting with it more in the future.
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 31,070
Likes: 566
Originally Posted by urBan_dK,Dec 15 2010, 09:29 AM
I definitely think my FPR wasn't performing as it should.
