Motec M800 VS AEM Plug and Play
 

Has anyone had experience with Motec vs AEM plug and play engine management system. I was reading about the Motec M800 that is for the Evo and I have not found a Price for it yet, However they say it will be comptitively priced (what ever that means). This Motec system is the same one featured in the FQ400 and I know this has to be a good system I just dont know how much better than the AEM system. Please give me a little feed back on you experienced racers

The FQ400 is using the MoTeC M800 OEM replacement which means that it has the same casing as the original ECU. Don't mix it up with the M800 gold box which looks like the one in my avatar.

There are pros and cons to the plug and play. If you're handy with wiring connectors, the gold box would offer much greater flexibility should you wish to expand its capabilities in future, without having to mess with the stock wiring loom. On the other hand, the plug and play might be able to suit your needs quite nicely and is a hassle-free installation.

I don't have much experience with the AEM, so I wouldn't be able to draw a comparison between the two.

Thanks for getting back to me I have an AEM system and have always loved motec and their history in racing, I wanted to know a comparison as to wich one is better, I know you cant help me with this. Thanks for the info it is helpful.

i have an m800 on my other car, and it is head and shoulders better than aem. its realistically not even in the same league. the aem isn't used in professional motorsports, and the motec is.

Don't tell that to Matt Hartford or Steph Papadakis..............I'm thinking that since they both run ~mid 6's and set records all over the country they might "THINK" they are professionals. :lol:

JDB

:rolleyes:

stephans car is owned by aem, so it's only natural that they run it. afterall its free. although my back ground is from drag racing, i'll be the first to tell you that the running environment is not as harsh as rally or road race situations, and has different requirements for hardware.

look at all the higher forms of motorsports, like daytona prototype, world challenge, formula atlantic, imsa, ect... they are all either running motec, pectel, or efi technologies. motec doesn't give this stuff away to anyone, and these guys pretty much can afford anything they want as long as it's within the rules.

i have tuned aem, and for the money it does a decent job. but it is not better or even equal to a motec m800. no way. as far as i'm concerned after working with them both, the aem is a cheap taiwan knock off of motec. their datalogging software is a direct knock of the motec interpreter, but minus an insurmountable amount of key features. the aem software is limited to engine tuning, but the motec is engine tuning and chassis tuning.

the aem software is the microsoft of efi. the program is huge, and runs slow and buggy because the code is inefficient. maybe they are a little better now, but that's only because they've been beta testing on their paying customers. how nice of them.

then there's the hardware... i had aem widebands that didn't work... i had aem boxes that needed to be sent back to the factory 3 times... i known people who had their drivers blow out...

i've never had a motec problem either hardware or software. i'm not a dealer for either ecu. i'll tune anything, and have little to gain by promoting either. this is just my experience from tuning many different ecus. motec is the best so far.

yeh, I think only few of us on this board actually have the money to make a serious race car that competes for the purpose of furthering their company and for advertising.

I think this way. Whatever you have (EMS) long as you know how to use it, you could get enough result out of what we have (not serious race cars/competition cars).

It's like Turbo Timers. You could have a HKS type 0 or you could have something like type 1 or Apexi TT.

They both do the essentially the same main duty, which is to cool your engine/turbo before you shut down. But type 1 and Apexi TT have few other functions that's beneficial to people who needs it.

Honestly, you could have S-AFC and tune the air/fuel or you could have AEM to tune the air/fuel and then tune Boost and few other thing (knock sensors, RPM REV limiter (2 step)) or you could get motec that has more function then AEM.

I think if you're pushing 800+ WHP then MOTEC, under that AEM, under 400WHP- get a piggyback, AEM or even s-AFC/Greddy EMS.

Long as you know how to use it, you could get a lot of any of these equipment.

That's what I think.

Don't forget about the nemesis.

Really what it comes down to is how good your tuner is, because your average joe's not going to tune it themselves. Tuner's got preferences and this is what we're talking about now.

:beer:

JDB

if you want aftermarket ecu can handle everything for your car please chose motec but if your budget not enough and what you need only can tune fuel and ignition please choose AEM . make it simple :) all aftermarket ecu is best but depend what do you need cos if compare about the output motec is more than aem and the motec can control everthing.

Can you expand on shortcomings of the AEM EMS for rally or road race situations? What sort of controls/features/logging would I be looking for that the AEM product might not provide?

In my mind, one of the shortcomings of the EMS is the limited datalogging capacity. You've got to crank back the sample rate of logging in order to capture an entire 20 or 30 minute session.

the motec can monitor brake pressure, g force, steering wheel angle, lap becon, damper acceleration, wheel speed, and with these inputs and standard engine sensors... it can basically draw your line on a racetrack.

it will tell you if you have oversteer/understeer, if your shocks are tuned properly, if you misshifted, if you braked in the right area, how hard you pressed on the brake, what percent you were full throttle, your cornering speed ect.

this stuff is extremely useful in motorsports, and is essentially what seperates the amateurs from the professionals. for example in world challenge, the front runners use this data to sand bag in specific corners, so that they don't inccur too many weight penalities for winning, which would put them at significant disadvantage the next race.

the m800 also has many different compensations like gear, altitude, egt, exhaust pressure, fuel pressure, fuel temp, ect. you can set the ecu to throw alarms on any sensor... a good idea would be to throw some temp sensors in your transmission, transfer case, or rear differential. it really flexible and up to your imagination/pocket book on what you want to do.

all motec ecu's have great injector drivers, for example of my drag car i run 1600cc bosch injectors. the idle is 1000-1100 rpm. and the a/f is 14.7. the car fires up on the first try 95% of time regardless of weather.

the m800 has 1 meg of on board memory, and would log your 30 minute session without sacrificing much sampling resolution. the m800 communicates via CAN cable which is significantly faster than serial, and the CAN cable allows it to communicate to other devices which follow the CAN protocol. you can essentially network a bunch of devices together provided they are programmed to do so.

the m800 software is also extremely stable and efficient. it will run flawlessly on old laptops... i tune with a pentium 233 mmx laptop... no need to bring my newer laptops to the racetrack where they would likely get damaged.

the construction of the motec hardware is also top notch. the hardware is extremely reliable and problems are most likely due to install error, physical damage, ect. for most people running this stuff... it cost them 5 to 10 thousand dollars just to show up at a race... and for the ecu to fail on them due to hardware issues is simply unacceptable. burned out drivers is unacceptable.

if we were to talk purely about engine tuning capabilities... here's some kool stuff motec does...

sequential ignition w/ individual cylinder correction, but not just some generic retard or advance... we are talking about full 3d maps for every cylinder. the same thing can be done with the fuel.

the main fuel and ign maps are 20 x 40.

the launch control the system and rev limiters are just sick... they need to be heard to be appreciated. last time i heard an aem system doing the same thing... it sounded like the engine was going to explode.

various outputs can be triggered on 2d tables with constum configured axis.

the motec will also run a lab grade NTK wideband, which is known for lead gas resistance.

that's not to say aem sucks. but it is just not in the same class as motec. some people complain that there isn't a community of support for the motec like there is for the aem... but to that... i say it isn't needed. if you buy a motec from motec usa... you can call their technicians and they will walk you thru whatever problem you have. you don't have to rely on joe blow on the internet... who could be essentially talking out of his ass... you can talk with a trained engineer. they don't have the massive volume of customers aem has... and they will give you individualized attention.

Thanks. Very informative post. Like you said, there seems to be little basis for comparison aside from the common features of any engine management system. I'm surprised we're comparing a $1500 unit to a $9000 unit.

Now that's what I call a good standalone.

Very good imput guy however what is the actual cost comparison of the M800 for the Evo compired to the AEM my AEM cost 1600 I dont think they would sell a the M800 for evos for the 9k price it has to be some what competitive