Boost Solutions, what's up with this?
 

Hi,
I've been driving my car for a while since my last visit to Boost Solutions where they tried to correct the issues of black soot, poor fuel consumption and idle/stalling. Unfortunately they tried changing the injectors which only resulted in my wallet getting considerably lighter :rolleyes:

Anyway, I'm looking at my A/Fs while cruising at part throttle under vacuum and see that they are in the 11:1 to 13:1 range which seems very rich. Now, the black soot when I start and idle for a few seconds is so bad, that it's killing the grass in my office parking lot :lol: Oh well, that's the price you pay for trying to get your carr modded as per the tuning shops' suggestions :rolleyes:
So boys and girls, I now have a car that will not idle with any consistency and stalls about 80% of the time when I come to a stop (embarrasing that is :mad: ). Of course, the 17 mpg is also considerably less than the 20 mpg I was getting prior to spending many $K in improvements.

Anyhow, I do have a couple of questions that are a little puzzling. When I had the RC 620cc injectors (which are clearly labeled "Denso"), the AEM setup was checked in the injectors battery offset table to the "denso 620" injectors. Now, after Boost Solutions installed the new HKS 680cc injectors, I see that the table of injectors is checked next to the "Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 550cc (52lb) 2-3 ohm" column..... Shouldn't some other injector be chosen? Of course, I don't see anywhere in those tables the HKS 680cc injector listed.....

Another funny thing here, the RC 620cc injectors were blamed first for the driveability problems and there was some doubt as to their impedance. I personally checked the impedance of those RC 620 injectors and the impedance was 2.4 ohms.... Now I see that the symptoms are still present with these new HKS 680cc injectors... BTW, I have not been able to find out anywhere what the impedance is for these HKS injectors. I hope they are also low impedance to match the requirements of the AEM EMS.

It seems that all these issues that I'm experiencing are not caused by the injectors but something else. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with their AEM EMS? If so, what if any are the3 things to look for? Oh yeah, after the last round of work when the Greddy IC was installed, I've noticed a progressively worsening oil leak under the general region of the oil filter/oil cooler. I have not been able to get under there to check it out yet, any ideas as to where it could be?

Thanks

The injectors will only have a minor impact on driveability, so I am skeptical that the injectors were ever an issue. Generally you don't mess with the injectors unless the Injector Duty Cycle is getting really high (maxing out).

HKS injectors are Denso, so you just select the Denso 680cc or whatever the closest Denso size is that is listed.

The root problem though is that the fuel map is just plain too rich. The solution is to tune the fuel map properly...

People dont realize how major switching to a stand alone is.....yes the AEM is evo specific however I am unsure on how good the base maps are and how Boost Solutions tuned your car. It seems as if the maps still need some fine uning. I know that cold start with my Microtech ecu powered mazda was a *****. Thats actually why I got rid of it...hehee. I was sick of all the fideling and adjusting on almost a daily basis. We already have a good platform basis on the evo ecu, thats why I am custom reflashing down the road. Stand alones are a big headache. Especially if you cannot tune them yourself. Heck I could only imagine how broke I would be if I could not tune and had to take it to the shop everytime.

With that being said I feel pretty confident that boost solutions can straighten your problem out. But when you mod your car dont expect it to have 100% stock driveability and fuel consumption charecteristics....it just aint gonna happen.

If all else fails horsepower freaks in Wa is a superb AEM tuner and they fly out to you to tune your car...I also think Al tunes that unit as well.

Also what was your injector duty cycle on your stock injectors?
Do you have an upgraded turbo or internals? or any major work?
If not stock injectors should do fine. I dont think that the injectors are a prob. The AEM prolly has a injector correction function that can idle the car fine. They may just need to go over your cold start/crank maps. How is the car at WOT? If its running consistent and good A/F most likely its not your Base or WOt fuel maps. Again I dont know how the AEM works or what and how many maps it uses but these could be problems

This is true. The EMS is not for everyone. If you don't feel comfortable tuning the car yourself I would strongly recommend against going to a standalone. The EMS can be tuned to exceed the performance of the stock ECU with piggybacks and flashes and stuff, but only after a lot of tuning.

The base maps that come with the EMS are only designed as a starting point for tuning. The car will not be driveable really. Just starts the engine and gets it setup enough to start actually tuning the thing.

So yes, the stock ECU is the way to go for the vast majority of people. This is not to say the EMS is problematic, as it isn't, but if the user doesn't have the experience to set it up right, definitely will be problematic. That and the stock ECU is really good at what it does...

My xede works great. Why did you but the AEM anyway? I had a Motec in the past and will only do it on a FULL race car. The ecu is only as good as it's tooner. :)

Well, here is how it works. I wanted to upgrade the EVO to get more power. It's something that a lot of people like to do. I tried first adding SAFC, exhaust and panel filter. Well, the SAFC did not appear to do what I wanted.... I then considered and went with the Dynoflash. The custom dynoflash ended up resulting in my car getting somewhat de-tuned from the factory maps due to the car not liking timing.... So, I still was not satisfied that I had done what I needed to achieve my goals.

After all this, I started talking with George at Boost Solutions about an upgrade path and he sold me on this particular path which included the intake, exhaust, cams, cam gears, IC, upgraded fuel system and the AEM EMS. Basically, I asked all the pertinent questions about potential problems icluding driveability, tuning, etc. I was assured that all my concerns were unfounded particularly the tuning and the driveability. I was assured that the driveability and fuel consumtion as well as the power would be better than stock.....

Unfortunately, I was obviously not cognizant of the real consequences of this up-grade path. Basically I put my trust and my money in the hands of people who assured me that my fears would not come to pass. I believed George based on his presentation and what others said or wrote. I'm still surprised that the AEM has turned out to be such a bear to deal with, certainly the hype and promotion would have one believe that the AEM EMS was very easily installed and tuned specially by a trained and experienced tuner.

I actually had expected some difficulties and small issues because these things are never as easy as expected. There is an old saying that all projects end up costing more than expected, take longer to finish than expected and produce fewer results than expected....... I guess I let myself believe the experts and put my faith in their ability, unfortunately I'm doubtful that any expert can actuall achieve a "stock like " driveability from this AEM EMS. I hope that these issues can be resolved so I can actually use my car as a daily driver..... I guess it remains to be seen if I can actually find a "guru" who'll get this car sorted out :)

www.horsepowerhouse.com :thumbup:

Yes, I did contact the ppl at www.horsepowerhouse.com. The man I spoke with assured me that he could definitely sort out my car "I can tune the AEM or I'll put an Autronic in it and it'll be fine". Sounds good, but I would need to drive to Kentucky and if he can't get the AEM tuned (which sounds like a strong possibilty) I'd be spending $1800 for the Autronic plus another pile of cash for the tuning, installation, tuning...... It's tempting, but before I drop that much more cash, I want to explore more posibilities & options.
Actually, I've spoken with at least 4 other tuners who've told me that they can definitely tune the AEM in my car so all my issues are solved....
Hmmm... Whom to trust, ohhh so many choices :helpme: :lol: :lol:

I considered going with the XEDE, but I don't want to remove all the mods from my car and try to do a parting out sale.... When XEDE can handle speed density, HKS RS intake, upgraded injectors, FMIC, boost control, etc. I'll take another look at it. For now it does not seem like the right option for me.

....

Read my posts above..... They explain why I went with AEM EMS and why I'm not going with XEDE at this time.. :)

Sounds like you wasted a lot of money, I gained 80WHP for 2700 and have a car that drives like stock, one I get it tuned on C16 without a cat it will be about 370 on a Dynapack or 314 on a DynoDynamics not too bad for a car running stock intake and stock boost levels.

I don't know what the injector duty cycle was with the stock injectors since they were upgraded at the same time as the HKS RS, Turbo-back, Walbro and AEM EMS. The cams, cam gears and IC came later...

The injectors were upgraded on George's specific and strong recomendations based on the projected horsepower output of the engine. BTW, it is a strong car. Even running rich and with 20-21 psi and pump gas, I got a 106.75 mph trap speed even missing shifts. Without missing shifts but with a rolling launch I managed 13.0 @ 105.5
Those numbers would suggest 380-390 fwhp, so the injector up-grade might well be indicated. Still, I don't know for sure.....

Yes to all of the above. Who said otherwise? However, regarding speed density, it's not recommended since the MAF reads accurately up to 550hp.

shiv