Hi everybody,

lets start from ground zero on the "silverEvo8" case.

Manuel called me to get some feedback what mods are good for his car. That was back in Jan-February . I went over all the options of cheaper vs more expensive parts, so we decided to go with the following:

- Greddy R-SPL intercooler for Evo8 - special order
- HKS Racing Suction kit
- BB downpipe
- Walbro pump
- RC 720cc injectors ( supplied by Manuel, in opened packs, not sure if they were used or not)
- Perrin fuel rail
- HKS 264/264 cams and HKS cam gears
- AEM EMS standalone management system with 3.5bar MAP sensor, and IAT sensor

Manuel also brought in 2 Greddy 52mm gauges to be installed by us.

The car has been to our shop 3 times, just because all these parts did not come in at the same time. So every time we had to retune the car.

The last time the car was fully finished, and picked up by Manuel (silverEVo8) on April 20th.
The funny part here is that we did some pictures just before the car left.

The only thing that we forgot to put back on the car was the timing belt cover. It was sitting on the side, and we forgot it just because Manuel was in a hurry to leave. He called me next day on the phone about it, and I told him that he is welcome to come in, and we will put it on in 2 minutes. I never heard back from Manuel until after the dyno day on May 15th.

Now , Manuel claims that his car was not running right, but he never called us for almost 30 days straight.

After I saw what the other people have been saying from the dyno day, I really started to believe that something must have changed. But that was until recently.

Here are my 2 points:
1. Manuel tuned his car BY HIMSELF OVER EMAIL without letting us know, and he HAS BEEN CLAIMING ONLINE and OVER EMAIL THAT HE HAS NEVER TOUCHED HIS CAR AND AEM MAP. Proof for all that will come in later.

2. Somebody else than us took his MAP sensor wiring, took off the elecrical tape, and PLUGGED BACK HIS MDP SENSOR ALONG with the AEM 3.5bar MAP sensor. Picture for that can be found at the end of the post. In one of the emails, Manuel tried to blame Andrew or Noize at Dyno4mance, but I already talked to them , and they have witnesses that they have not touched the car.


OK, and to add more bitterness to the whole matter, Manuel most likely tuned his car with the WRONG AFR settings .

Now, back to the AEM. The AEM EMS when wired in a speed density mode, relies on volatge coming from the MAP sensor ( stands for Manifold Absolute Pressure) to determine the engine load. On the EVo8, the MAP sensor is being installed on the same wire as the MDP sensor. The MDP plug is usually removed, but Manuel did not want to remove the plug, so he can go back to stock ECU pretty easy. So we spliced the 3 MAP sensor wires ( black, red, and green) into the MDP sensor wires (black, silver, yellow), and LEFT THE MDP PLUG OFF , THE MDP SENSOR FULLY DISCONNECTED.
Well, when we went to the body shop to see what is the deal with the car not starting, the first thing that struck me, was that the MDP sensor was plugged backed in. Even Matt ( mdzuricky77), who gave me a ride, saw that. And I can tell you, Manuel, Matt is a good guy, but definitely does not know the EVo8 engine bay by heart. Anybody with Evo8 would have seen the difference. Also, if you are wondering what MAtt was doing there, I needed a ride, because my brand new 2004 Toyota 4Runner was going to the shop to have the front windshield replaced. I was too nice to give it to a customer to drive it, and now I have to pay for the new windshield because the customer is keeping quiet.

Either way, that is number one thing that makes me not believe Silvrevo8 that he has not touched his car. He kept on saying that he drives like a old lady, that he does not understand anything. But somehow, either himself, or somebody else, hooked up the MDP sensor along with the MAP sensor, so the car was getting wrong voltage at the engine load value. I even called AEM to verify that, and they admitted that the MDP HAS TO BE OFF ( THE WAY THE CAR LEFT HERE).

The next thing that I found about even before the wrong rewiring done by ????,
was that Manuel has run a different AEM calibration map, that he never mentioned about. He was swearing online that he has NEVER TOUCHED the AEM except just look at values, and the only thing he changed was his redline, with the help of Andy ( from Boost Solutions) on the phone. Well, that is not true.
Manuel contacted Scott Gray, who works with AEM EMS systems, and is a Road Race customer, and had him redo his map over email. Manuel told me that he did that way after the dyno day on MAy 15th, but from the AEM maps, it looks like MAnuel was running NEGATIVE timing and rich fuel on topend, so the 260whp that he dynoed, are actually really good for that "conservative" map.

Ok, now here is the proof.

1. The car leaves from here with the MDP sensor disconnected ( that is the sensor on top of the manifold)



2. here are the pictures of the car at the body shop, pictures were taken last Fri, 06-04-2004. Pictures were taken with a cheap camera, but that is what we had in the car. I never assumed I will need a camera for proving our reputation. Check out how the MDP sensor is connected, and even the splices are exposed ( pink color)




So, the car actually died on that same file that Manuel did himself with help from Scott Gray over the email.

The other thing is that MAnuel has an AEM Wideband O2 gauge controller, which was never calibrated. The gauge works fine, but the output to the laptop is not correct. We tried calibrating it, but it would not just work right. Actually, Manuel was here once when I showed him how acurate the AEM gauge is, it was DEAD on with the FJO gauge. But the output to the laptop is not correct. We tried the last calibration from AEM, the same as Scott was using, and the FJO readings were different from the AEM gauge readings. We tuned his car with the FJO.
But, Manuel did not even know that stuff, because he said he will never mess with the software.
Continued in the next post....

 

Coninued from the prevoius post...

So, the datalogs that Manuel did for Scott were completely off. And when I talked to Scott, he said he never checked the calibration just because he does not have the car in front of him.

Ok, here are some emails and replies to posts:

Email stating that Andy changed the redline and that Manuel will not touch or has touched the AEM. Well, I guess he could not stand the temptation, and played with it, without knowing that the gauge needs calibration, and that he cannot fine tune on the phone/email..

------------------------------------------
Andy,

The only change I've done to the car was yesterday when I reduced the rev
limits to 3500 for fuel & ignition cut. I did this so the body shop ppl would
not abuse the engine.

I've not done "any" other changes to the AEM program. I'm telling you what I
see from the maps that downloaded to my laptop when I was at the shop to pick
upo the car. I'm not even reading the maps off the car.

As you know, I did not even know to press "enter" to save those rpm values. I
definitely have not changed anything else in the car. The car is set up
exactly as George left it. I have not even saved any changes to the maps that
were saved to the laptops because I'm afraid to cause damage. I'll email you
the file this evening after I get home because I have no way to get the file
off my laptop to send it. When you get the file you can compare it with the
file you have saved of my configuration. You'll see then that I've done no
changes at all.

I don't want to start messing with the AEM on my own. I only did the rpm
change to protect the engine from abuse by others. No other settings were
changed in the car.

Manuel
-------------------------------------------------


An email from May 11th, 2004stating that the original file was changed and replaced with a "different" file
---------------------------------------------------
OK, I don't quite understand but anyway, here are the configuration files
that I have. One of them is the one that was downloaded today, its
called "tuesdaymay11" the other one "manuelsevo1" is the original downloaded
when Georgetuned the car the last time.

Manuel
-----------------------------------------------

So, I can only assume that the file downloaded in the AEM EMS on May 11th, is the Scott Gray's file. The file has VERY LOW timing on the topend. It is extremely rich, and since the guys at the dyno told me that Manuels car was running 24psi, I assume that is the reworked file. I ALWAYS advice customers agains running more than 20psi on pump gas. It is OK to spike to 21-22psi in the winter, but in the summer, the hot air will actually make detonation occur. I do not know if Manuel wanted to impress everybody at the dyno, so he was running 24psi. He says that is OUR file, but after the other " omitted facts of using other maps, and rewiring the MAP sensor" I am not willing to believe any of that anymore. The MAP/MDP sensor double wiring helped him run untuned as well, by running completely wrong values from the map. If the voltage was off, the engine load is off too, so the car is running completely untuned.
Manuel , please tell me who plugged that sensor back? On the phone you told me that somebdo might have sabotaged your car on the parking lot? PLEASEEEEEEEE...




And here is the email that made me look at every a lot closer, and understand that it is not only us and Manuel involved in the whole deal. That is the opposite what Manuel has been claiming. He was always saying it is only me and his oil change place touching the car. Obvoiusly, he was not telling the truth...
----------------------------------------------
Hi George,

That's great! I really look forward to the car running right again. As far as
this map goes, it was written for my car. It's obviously a conservative map
but it does work very well for idle and part-throttle A/Fs and driveability.
I can also send you some data logs done with that map so you can see how it
works.

Manuel
----------------------------------------------

Ok, that email was sent me us AFTER I talked with Manuel, and promised him we will take care of the car. I was really thinking that a wire came loose, and something was not working right. I had to fix his evo, so we can save our reputation. Well, it seems like everything on our side was correct. Like you see in the email, Manuel says that " the map was written for his car" . He thinks it was written ,but Scott even admitted that the calibration of the O2 was never checked, so he does not know for sure if the datalogs are correct... Also, Scott was not aware that MDP sensor was connected along with the MAP sensor. So, the tuning was officially off...


And here is the next INNOCENT email saying that Manuel has not touched the wiring, and that Dyno4mance might have
---------------------------------------------------

Hi George,

Thanks for coming over. I figured something happened with the cell phone. It
does not matter as long as you found the place. I'm very confused about the
mdp sensor.... I don't even know which one it is. As far as I know, nobody has
ever touched the car under the hood except me and you. I did disconnect and
reconnect the battery but that's all.....

Oh yeah, when the car was on the dyno they might have done something that I
don't know...... I hate to think that Andrew or Noize did something bad to my
car. Even if they had to mess with something, they should have put it back
like it was.

I really need to get together with you and the car so I understand everything
that was done. I hate to say it, but I dom't know crap about what was done to
the car when it comes down to the details.... That's the reason I have not
tried to do anything myself, I don't know what to look for or what to do. The
only things I've done is install the MBC I had in it and the boost gauge that
I had (and that is all gone now). Otherwise I've done nothing to the car. Even
the oil changes were done by others. When you go to the body shop again,
please tell me and maybe I can break away from work and come to watch and
learn something.

Thanks,

Manuel
----------------------------------------------

That is the email after we got after we looked at the car. It was a mechanical problem, the car had 11.5 volts when ignition was on, and it would drop to 5-6-7-8 volts while cranking. A car with standlone cannot start with a dead battery.
But that email states explicitly that the car was not touched by Manuel. Well, we showed pictures showing that the car left here with the MDP sensor properly DISCONNECTED. We showed the new pictures from the body shop with the sensor CONNECTED. You can also see the dust on top of everything, showing that nothing has been touched since the car entered the body shop. The car has been only in its owner's possesion since it left here. You guys do the math/guessing who connected the MDP back up.

And now comes the interesting part: I called Manuel on the phone after that last email, and pretty much told him the facts straight up. He really was not aware that they were tuning with the wrong AFR settings, but he never admitted on the wiring issue. I told him I will stick to my word and fix the car, even after he has messed with the AEM map, and with the wiring. But I also told him that I NEED A PUBLIC EXCUSE BECAUSE HIS POSTS ARE WRONFULLY HURTING OUR LOCAL BUSINESS.
Manuel calls me back in 2 minutes, and tells me pretty much to forget about an excuse, and also to keep all that stuff OFFLINE.

I had the intention to keep it offline, but Manuel started attacking mdzuricky77( "ignorant fool"). So now was the time for the truth to come out...

Final words:
We will work on Manuels car only after he finds out who played with the wiring on the MDP sensor,and after admitting publicly, that we are not the only ones that tuned his AEM.

I will leave the rest for the reader to decide who is right and who is wrong.



George

 

If you want to see the different calibrations, I will be more than happy to send them to you.

George

 

I completely agree with you! But they do not want to put a password protection.

 

Will this ever end. Well I hope one way or the other his car gets fixed. Best of luck to everyone involved. And hope to see the Rally Red Boost Solutions Evo and SilverEvo8's Evo in a few weeks at the Import Shootout June 19th.

 

Good work George I had no doubt about you and your team ad you will prove it with my car!!!
I will bring it monday morning to your shop and after you will be done I know that I will make some Porsche owner cry!! lol

 

U took a ride in Doug's car U should see it now with the HKS FMIC!

I will call you with the quote tomorrow U see, I have been busy with stuff like that

George

 

We will be there ! The red Evo is running even better, full boost at 4500rpms on the street.

Our race car driver drove it. At first, when he saw the turbo, he was like: what a piece of c**p, this will not spool until 10K rpms. Then, during the testdrive, he was all smiling, and kept on saying how well the car pulls.

George

 

Let's get back to business and have fun with our cars!!!
I will wait for your call.

 

I will get u a ride in the red car soon. We scared a black Porsche TT on the highway just with the exhaust note on the red Evo. And we were only 16psi... Untuned...

Does Pablo want a TT kit for the beast?

George

 

So the car is running now?

 

Is this Pablo from ImportAtlanta? That your talking about?

 

Yes!

I think I promised you a ride


Had to get all that finished, because June 19th is getting closer...

George

 

I doubt it!
A modded Porsche 911 TT


George

 

Totaly disagree with your comment.

Don't you think there is a reason why there is a lot of Evo owner choose AEM over other engine management? My reason is that AEM EMS is user tuneable.

If there is a security feature or only can be tuned by "propriety software", AEM might not be my first choice.

I do understand your situation if end user start messing around the setting without any knowledges. All AEM user should start reading the PDF files that enclosed with the software. Without a good solid understanding of EFI, probably it's not a good idea to mess around with the setting.