For what its worth, I( had the pleasure of driving in Sean I.'s personal Evo 8 last night and I personally was amazed - I could NOT tell if the car was stock or aem tuned. He had tuned the idle and driveability to exact stock like function. I could not tell any difference between his aem tune with 3 bar map sesnor to a stock ecu with maf sensor. Sean is a very talented AEM tuner - for those interested check him out at www.iveytune.com

 

 

Sounds like my car after Doug from Topspeed tuned it. My friend drove it and was amazed at how smooth it drives when you accelerate,decelerate, come to a stop, etc. I am VERY happy with my tune.

Topspeed .

 

Better hang around top speed a lot. If you like that great tune you'll have to take it to Doug on a regular basis to keep it

 

Why is it that you go around parading that the AEM sucks. You had a bad experience and now to you it sucks. Let's put it this way, its leagues beyond the Utec i had before. Also if you take the time to learn it you should have NO problems. It all depends on your expert level, and i have been around DSM's and the 4G63 for like 10 years.


P.S. You can't base your opinion on your 1 bad experience .

 

The AEM is a very good tool, but like any other system that gives full control, it is 90% the tuner. It can be made to run very acceptably, seems all the bugs are worked out or 99% of them. I have one in my evo and it drives like stock, cold start etc no Problem even on a 20 deg day, after sitting all night.
The ecu doesn't matter as much as the guy tuning it.

Sean

 

Back off, ..... Just kidding . I never said "the AEM sucks" though..... I challenge you to find that statement made by me. If you do, I'll pay you $50......

I'm not saying the AEM sucks or that Doug is not a great tuner, or anything like that. Please do not put words in my mouth. I stand by my statement that if you like the way your AEM tuned car runs right now, and you want to keep that stae of tune permanently, you'd do well to stay near Topspeed so Doug can keep it tuned as conditions change.

Doug tuned my AEM equipped car (after George tried to do it with disastrous results). The car made 250 whp at 20 psi with Dougs tune, and the cold start and low speed driveabilty were still problematic. I got to where I could not start the car uphill without stalling with the Exedy twin plate clutch. I'm not saying Doug is the problem, I'm just telling what happened.

On the other hand, I can tell you that my car ran 100% better and made 50 whp more, after Dustin & Noize removed the AEM and all the associated equipment and installed the XEDE which was tuned by Andrew at Dyno4mance. The car made nearly 300 whp at 18 psi with the XEDE.... This was with the stock ECU and the Xflash to scale the 680 cc injectors. The car became completely driveable and ran almost like stock (considering it had cams, gears, full exhaust, FMIC, big injectors and fuel pump). My experience with the AEM was not good. I don't know if it was the AEM or the tuners, but there is no doubt of the outcome.

BTW, another tuner who wishes to remain anonymous was able to get over 300 whp with the AEM in my car. However, the driveability issues were never resolved. VTECH8TR, please don't get defensive and try to attack me. This is uncalled for. My integrity and credibilty are quite good, I do not lie and I do not put **** on people. If anything, I've been extremely diplomatic in all my communications. If you are happy with your AEM and it's tune, more power to you, congratulations! OTOH, I was not one of the lucky guys with the AEM and some tuners. There are several (too many I think) guys who've lost their engines due to their AEMs running too lean or otherwise causing detonation and engine failure. Your attack on me sounds a lot like whistling in the dark

Oh yeah, I definitely can base my opinon on my 1 experience. Who are you to tell me what I can base my opinion on?

 

Very True Words. my tune is very precise, and it shows while performing. AEM is a great performance upgrade only as good as the on the keyboard without a doubt. AEM without proper tuning is like a Pizza without sause

 

WTF

I wasn't attacking you, but damn you went a little overboard on your response. But remember it was you that had bad luck and was crying all over the board. Trust me you wont see me doing that as I CAN FIX MY OWN CAR. I will leave it at that. Let's put it this way, i have built my car from stage 1 to stage 4 by myself. I have been reading on the AEM forum and playing with the EMS for a month now. I know i will figure it out. its just a matter of time.

 

You could say crying all over the board. I would call it asking for help and exposing fraud and incompetence. It's fine for you to keep quiet and suck it up if you get in trouble with your AEM. For me it was a very different story. I was sold on the premise that the tuner/installer would do everything right and would take care of any and all problems. I was assured and promised that everything would be fine, great and trouble free. I never pretended to be a tuner myself and told George specifically that I would not do any of the tuning in my car since I was neither a tuner or a mechanic. I never lied or misrepresented anything. I was lied to, my car was completely screwed up and I was left to dry..... The good guys in my case turned out to be Andrew and Barry from Dyno4mance, Noize and the Vishnu guys. I just call it as I see it. No BS, no lies, no exageration, no ax to grind. I only tell then truth and I've been more than fair. All I can say is CAVEAT EMPTOR (look it up, it might save you a lot of grief)

Peace,

Manuel

 

 

I’ll throw my $.02 in. If you don’t have a clue about electronic engine management and IC engine function DO NOT buy a stand alone ECU! You will invariably regret it. Even the best tuner IMO will not have the car 100% driveable after the “tune”. If you understand how the ECU controls engine function and how those controls affect performance, you can fairly easily tune the car yourself.

My AEM equipped car with 280 degree duration cams runs and drives just as good if not better than a stock car. I drive it every day in varying weather conditions and if it is set up properly, you don’t have to constantly change parameters. I’ll never buy a “piggy back” again, the AEM computer is far superior in all aspects of control and equally important, data logging.

 

I agree with you. There are lots of people out there extremele happy with their stand alone EMS of choice. I'm not going to say that nobody can have success with the AEM or other EMS. I will disagree with you on one small point. You say "If you don’t have a clue about electronic engine management and IC engine function...." I'd say "if you are nor very competent and knowledgeable of electronic engine management and IC engine function,do not buy a stand alone EMS.
In reality, I do "have a clue" about these things. Unfortunately, "a clue" or even a smathering of knowledge about these things wont help much if you are not pretty profficient, hands-on type of person with a good, solid understanding of the subject.
BTW, it really does not help too much to just be a cocky, fearless, ignorant, self deluded tuner wannabee. Specially to be out there passing yourtself off as a "tuner" and screwing around with other ppls cars...

 

Whats AMS is website address??

 

I agree that some of the best "tuners" will not have the car 100% driveable. I disagree that the user has to know anything about it, if the tuner does his job correctly there is no user interaction needed.
There is no reason why the user should have to do anything if the car is properly tuned and setup. Once it's all setup that's it.
Problem is it takes so much time to set them up to where someone doesn't need anymore asssistance that most people who do this for a living cannot charge you the correct amount to map it. Therefore the customers in most cases get a job that is not 100% complete, normally it takes time for the cold start to be worked out, the process of cooling the car to simulate that is even more time spent.
There are alot of people that tune these cars, but there aren't that many people who can afford to spend the time and get it 100% completed. Alot of them have a business to run, and the bottom line is 8 Hrs on your car for your $400 tune isn't what you get.

Sean