Let's talk Hydra EMS for the IX
 

It was brought to my attention that the Hydra EMS is available for the Evolution IX with MIVEC. It appears to be a user-programmable ECU. I know this EMS is a popular choice among the Subaru guys. It looks to be a decent system. Does anyone have any experience or comments about this EMS? It might be a good alternative until AEM or Autronic becomes available.

Their website is http://www.hydraems.com

http://www.hydraems.com/Nemesis.htm has a list of features. It appears to have launch control, flat shifting, knock control, etc. Not bad.

Now the big question is, does this EMS retain OBD-II functionality. If so, this would be an excellent street ECU. I wish the Hydra guys would post here :)

P.S. If you can't post anything other than "HURRR THE SUBARU GUYS USE IT SO IT SUCKS" then please refrain from ****ting up the thread.

no ob2.

I like my hydra a lot, what's not to like. the new 2.5 version will have instant start. on my old version it takes three revs to start, that is my one dislike, and maybe the ob2

not much different than aem ems but the price.

motec is the ultimate, but so expensive.

good luck with support from Hydra. I had the first version and I thought I had a good tuner but that all went down hill and cost me alot of money at the same time. Who ever is having luck with the Hydra more power to them. I know the Hydra does well with Subarus but they have many issues with evos. My cold start ups were terrible. I have since switched to AEM and have had zero problems and tuning cost me a fraction of what I spent with Hydra. If anyone goes with Hydra stay away from Element Tuning.

wow, evo8act from Phils backyard. How long ago did this all happen? What mods were you dealing with?
I have had mine about a year now with what I consider minor issues that Andrew has sorted out quickly.
I bought the unit second hand and at the time I don't think there was much support, the guys down in Oregon that set it up for the P.O. complained it took a long time. By the time I got the unit all I had to do was fiddle with it, which I consider fun. Through a slow parade of mods, WR, WI, 264 cams, 280 cams, injectors I have managed to keep it running.

Biggest issue I see is there are so few evos running the hydra, there is no mass of data or experience of users themselves to learn

well basically my car has the ams3071 turbo kit on it with 280 cams, 880 injectors and all supporting mods. The tune at first seemed good until the weather changed. Phyl wanted my car for days again and let me tell you, tuning ran me around $1200 total with an alchy map and maybe a little more. You would think your car would run like a champ after all that. I have since then switched to AEM and I must say my tune is perfect and cost me $450 with alchy map. The difference is huge. No cold start up issues, my 93 octane map pulls harder than 28 psi did with the hydra on alchy and I only run 21 psi on 93. Bottom line is Hydra is suppose to be coming out with a better version for the evo and I thought Phyl would exchange my piece of crap product with one that performs as it should. I hate bashing products and customer service but I pay what people ask for a job well done and this experience was horrible especially with Element Tuning. They need to stick with Subies. Good luck with your Hydra and if you want a second one I still have mine that I will let go for a steal. On another note the difference on the dyno was about 100 whp. That Im sure was tuner related:)

Woah there. I've tuned all three of those systems. There is no comparison between the quality of the software for the AEM EMS and the Hydra. I tune both, but I'd rather tune an AEM any day. Getting the car tuned faster means lower tuning costs for the customer.

Motec wouldn't offer any advantages to all but a handfull of customers on here and has the huge disadvantage of being a wire in standalone vs. a plug and play. Of course it's also $$$$.

Love the Hydras but I would not say it takes that much longer to tune than your average standalone. The Power FC is stlil the fastest standalone ECU to tune. AEM still takes a little while and cold start is normally quite troublesome for the AEM particularly with bigger injectors. The Hydra does have many features just like AEM and has by far the best datalogging system of any standalone. Makes the AEM cumbersome by comparison. You can export to excel files and works fantastic. Much better system for real time tracing as well.

hydra rules i've had it on my old STI and my Evo6 TME and I'm lovin' it!! {thumbup}

erggy can you share any of your other experiences? I will be installing on an Evo6 (just GSR) hahaah thanks

motec offers a pnp unit for the evo

I just had one installed on my 9 and it started right up the first time no problems at all. It still needs some fine tuning and then it will be perfect.

I got the hydra running on my EVO6. like anyone cares. But just wondering if any one would share thier knock threshold settings. Mine seem really conservative and I'm wondering if the EVO engine is a "loud" engine...

Hok,

I've played with my knock threshold. Best bet would be to find some no lead race gas and see where the graph goes. This would be the engine noise. Once you are back to 93, 91,? you set to the noise you see that you didn't see on the race fuel.

I've changes valve hardware twice, some of the noise comes from there. I did find some upper room with the method above. Just make sure you understand what you are trying to do with the method.

HOK, mine goes from

3200 = 1.22
4000 = 1.34
4800 = 1.46
5600 = 1.6
6400 = 1.7
7200 = 1.76
8000 = 1.8


This has been moved up from my previous threshold. Pls share yours also.

BTW, where do you live?