I purchased my 04 evo VIII a couple weeks ago. It had TBE with a high flow cat that I've since replaced with a test pipe. It also can with an Injen intake/uicp. I believe the previous owner traded the car in with an AEM EMS as it was sitting on the passenger floorboard. The dealership told me they put a factory ecu, maf and map sensor back into the car.

The mods I plan on putting on the car are cams, fp red and injectors. Will I see significant gains with an aem over a stock ecu?

 

You should find a tuner you trust, and then do what they say.

 

+1

 

Stock ECU can handle quite a bit. I would stick with it until you have the need for a stand alone.

 

I wouldn't let any tuner dictate what I should do to my car.I don't care who it is.Do your own research on the mods you are interested in and decide if you want aem ems or not. There is a upside and a downside to everything but at the end of the day your car is always going to make more horse power on aem ems.

 

That is not always true. Assuming you have fuel control of the stock ECU. What does the ECM control? timing, fuel and perhaps boost. If tuned well ,l don;t see how the result going to be any different? It should be easier to achieve the results with an AEM.

 

maybe you misunderstood the advice.. If you have 1 tuner you trust with your car and he has 0 experience with a certain ecu it wouldnt be very wise to insist you run that ecu.. you will NOT make more Hp on AEM EMS if that tuner doesnt know what they are doing.. what you will end up with is a bunch of parts on the dyno floor.. the ecu is only as good as the person behind the keyboard.. there are several tuners that couldnt get a car to start up and idle on AEM that tune on here let alone make any HP over stock ecu..

 

I should have clarified myself and said with all things being equal, aem ems is the better all around option but obviously if the tuner doesn't know a damn thing about it then it would make sense in using it. Same can go for the ecu flash. If the tuner doesn't know what he is doing then you will still end up with a rod going threw the block.

 

Stock ECU for anything under 525WHP.

 

Exactly what i said.. Find a tuner you trust and discuss the options.. AEM is not always an all around better option.. It all depends on the setup.. the glitches, and reliabilty issues with AEM DO NOT always make it an all around better option.. It all depends on your setup and your tuner..

 

I'd stick with the stock ecu at that power level its good to a little over 500whp and sell the aem ems. Or if you plan on modding beyond that level hold on to the aem ems for future and def find some1 who is experienced it tuning with AEM EMS. Good Luck