Pros
How do you judge a company's reputation and the products they sell? The shady fly-by-night manufacturers will be there one day to sell you their electronics, and then quickly vanish into the night, often leaving you with a finger stuck up your ass. Firmware updates and tech support? You can forget about that. AEM is one of the few companies that stands by their product and continuously offers firmware updates, even offering a dedicated forum for the EMS engine management system. The newest EMS unit sold on the market today is equipped with a built in UEGO wideband controller for precision tuning. Pre-programmed with various base maps and onboard data logging, the EMS is a true plug and play unit that requires no additional wiring and can be installed within minutes.
Cons
Designed with user friendly instructions and an intuitive program sequence, even the most novice tuners can get their car up and running in no time. How easy you ask? We simply booted up the laptop, double checked for proper sensor compatibility using the auto detect program found within the EMS program and loaded up the 1052 basemap found in the EMS. Along with some basic A/F tuning and minor tweaking for adjustment purposes, we found the already pre- programmed map to be close to dead-on nuts in the realms of safe A/F tuning and maximum horsepower potential. For those who are electronically challenged, we recommend you take your vehicle to an authorized tuner or dyno facility with enough know-how to properly tune your vehicle.
Parts
EMS Unit, wideband O2 Sensor, wire leads, instructions, stickers
Tools
Laptop, knowledgeable tuning experience, screwdriver, pliers, crescent wrench, zip ties
Installation Time
120 minutes
Notes
A quick glance at the dyno sheets can be deceiving when you look at the final EMS dyno numbers vs. our previous run. What looks like minimal horsepower gains should be more carefully examined as you notice a smoother, more linear graph from start to finish. The first of many improvements in comparison to running a factory ECU was shown at 2750rpm. The S2K was quick to respond to the new EMS unit as an improvement of 8hp and 16 lb-ft of torque were recorded from our initial stab at the throttle. With the ability to alter the VTEC crossover point set at the factory issued 6500rpm, we managed to lower the low cam to high cam transition to 5500rpm,enabling us to eliminate the dip, often seen with VTEC controlled vehicles, and managed to pick up 8hp and 10 lb-ft at 6300 rpm. With the F20c engine known to rev to 9000rpm, maintaining a stable spark and proper ignition timing is all the more important. Dyno graphs show the EMS did help to clean up some of the stumbling and erratic behavior found when running on the factory ECU at higher rpm's. While most of us won't be winding our vehicles out till 9000rpm, we found it rather interesting that the S2K equipped with the EMS continued to pull on both horsepower and torque with no signs of slowing down while our previous run is shown to quickly taper off at 8500rpm.
Dyno 4: Aem (Ems) Engine Management System
Peakhp 207.9 / Peaktq 129.4
HORSEPOWER GAIN
1500 to 3500 HP range: 2 to 8
3500 to 5500 HP range: 1 to 2
5500 to redline HP range: 3 to 6
TORQUE GAIN
1500 to 3500 TQ range: 4 to 16
3500 to 5500 TQ range: 2 to 3
5500 to redline TQ range: 4 to 10